WHEN Glen Pedersen is in need of a bracket or a household item, he doesn't head to a hardware store, he makes his own from home.

The Maryborough local became an avid 3D printing fan two years ago when he spotted a printer at a supermarket.

Now, he uses it as his escape from the daily grind of work where he is the Operations and Technical Officer at Wide Bay Water and Waste in Maryborough.

"I do a lot of government reports with regards to dam levels and things like that and I support staff here for things of a technical nature," Mr Pedersen said.

"There's a lot of data entry and working with facts and figures."

Mr Pedersen has worked for Fraser Coast Regional Council for 30 years.

Before his current role, which he has been in for about four years, he was involved in the graphical information service. He also worked in the water department and ended up as a plumber where he worked on water mains and services.

With his extensive experience, Mr Pedersen now maps the Fraser Coast's water mains and brings documents up to date with "what things are and where they are".

Having been in council for three decades, Mr Pedersen said he'd seen the town develop and watched it grow, especially in his department.

"It's a lot more fragmented now," he said. "When I did my trade, you virtually did everything.

"Now you have people doing specific jobs and specialising in certain areas rather than knowing everything across the board.

For downtime, Mr Pedersen always heads to his 3D printer, despite it taking hours of his day and insists it's the "labour of love".

"After 12 months of using the original 3D printer I had, I went out and I progressed to a better printer, a Prusa," he said.

"You can go out and buy plans and then make them."

In the two years since he's had a 3D printer, Mr Pedersen has printed countless items - miniature ships, dinosaur skulls, vehicles and his personal favourite, planes.

"I've made four planes now," he said. "They fly well and crash spectacularly and explode into a million pieces," he said.

"This one (pictured) took about 80-100 hours to print all the individual pieces and then another 20 hours to put it all together."

Mr Pedersen said not only was 3D printing fulfilling, it was useful and practical as well. "If you need something that can't be purchased any more, you can draw it on the computer, design it and then print it," he said.

"If you realise you need something one morning, you can make it and have it in your hand by the afternoon."