In part due to a grant offered by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, 10 libraries across Delaware offer some form of free 3D printing services to their patrons! Colin Consavage was born with a condition affecting his left hand. When his local library received 3D printers last year he and his mother found patterns for prosthetic hands online and printed a hand for Colin! via Delawareonline

Last spring, after the 3D printers arrived at the library, he and his mother, Clare Consavage, found the website for a group called e-NABLE, which has what amounts to digital patterns for prosthetic hands on the internet.

So, they measured him up and asked the Wilmington library if they could print it there.

Although the library’s cut-off length for a printing project is 5 hours, O’Donnell split the project into a few sessions. It took about 12 hours to print, each finger done separately and jointed together by Clare and Colin.

The printer itself – a Maker-bot Replicator 2 – is a black box that’s a little bit bigger than a toaster oven and is open on three of its four sides with a platform covered in blue painters’ tape on the bottom. The painters’ tape makes it easier to lift the projects off when they’re done.

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