A teen (middle school aged) came into The Urbana Free Library’s Teen Open Lab one day looking to 3D print something. Usually, teens go to Thingiverse to find an object that has been designed by someone else. But this boy knew exactly what he wanted to make and wanted to design it himself. Kim, the Community Ambassador at The Urbana Free Library, got him on a laptop and directed him to a site called Tinkercad. This is a site that lets users design 3D models for free. The teen got started on the site’s tutorials and didn’t need Kim’s help anymore. After about an hour, he had designed a keychain for his sister.
He called Kim back over and they saved the file in the correct format (.STL). Then, they hooked the laptop up to the 3D printer and opened the file in the UP! Software. This teen wanted to change the color of the filament from blue to red before printing. Kim had only watched a librarian how to this, so she and the teen figured out the difference between “Withdraw” and “Extrude” and which one is done first to get the current filament out. With a little help from the librarian, they figured it out. The librarian showed the teen how to adjust the size of the keychain and then he was ready to print! It took about an hour, with the teen carefully watching the majority of the time. This teen’s story exemplifies the goal of the Teen Open Lab, which is to provide a space where teens can both teach themselves and collaborate with others by working on projects that matter to them. We hope that this teen will come back and teach others (both teens and staff) how to use Tinkercad.
Teen waits for his 3D project to finish printing.
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