Eh. Stephenson never said it had to be practical.

In universe, the guy has this compiled (like 3D printing, but sci-fi and badass) at a public post office. This is a setting where nanotechnology is a consumer product. They have molecular gaskets and self-healing paper computers you can fold and crease without damage, and no doubt autorepairable machines. At one point in the book it’s explicitly shown that compiled objects can be easily decomplied in mere moments as well, so even if it’s got a service lifetime measured in single digit hours you could just chuck the thing into the deke hopper and rebuild it fresh and new.

Anyway, apparently the people in that setting have mastered durable synthetic molecular wonder materials, because Hackworth’s chevaline winds up patiently waiting for him essentially parked in a bush for an indeterminate number of years and still works just fine even with moss growing on it when he gets back to it.

(Also, ATM Machine.)