Gorgeous 3D-printed Prosthetic Born of Boredom, from MAKE:
Evan Kuester, like many students, found his course work to be less than inspiring. However, he did have access to some really cool tools, such as a large 3D printer that started his mind wandering. Evan had noticed a fellow student on campus a few times. The thing that he noticed was that she had no left hand. Knowing that he had a 3d printer at his disposal, Evan found the inspiration he needed to embark on something wonderful.
One day he worked up the nerve to simply walk up and introduce himself and propose an idea: Why not 3D print an aesthetically pleasing prosthetic? From that point forward, Evan and Ivania Castillo have been friends.
Evan designed this arm using Rhino with a plugin called Grasshopper. He took pictures of Ivania’s arm and measured it in many places. He then began modeling something that would be both functional and pleasing to the eye. The final prosthetic was printed in ABS as a single piece and did require a support structure for that intricate frame work. Once the support structure was dissolved, it was ready to be worn….
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! We also offer the LulzBot TAZ – Open source 3D Printer and the Printrbot Simple Metal 3D Printer in our store. If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!