The sound of whirring machines filled the air as I stepped into the Digital Making studio. I was mesmerized by the hot lines of plastic filament stacking on one another. This wasn’t the first time I’ve seen magic like this. 2 years ago, I attended a 3D printing workshop in this very studio. I created a cute little Illinois keychain to cherish. Since then, the buzz about 3D printing grew with the Maker Movement. One of my friends even joined an organization called MakerGirl, which helped young girls develop an interest in STEM fields. I thought to myself, if young girls can create amazing things, then so can I. Hoping to create something remarkable, I sent in my application to class
On the first day of class, we were introduced to all the applications of 3D printing and we learned that we will be able to create innovative items for our final project. In class, we reviewed a handful of the wonderful past projects and even met an amazing individual, Arielle Rausin, who took her project and turned it into a business. Later, we met the author of a book called 3D Printing Will Rock The World, John Hornick. Hornick spoke about the industry disruptive power of 3D printing. 3D Printing has endless possibilities and how it can create innovative solutions at a cheaper cost. My head was bursting with ideas. My mind was preparing itself for the “maker mindset”. I further prepared it through the weekly readings for week 2.
In week 2, our guest speaker was Jeff Ginger, the director of the CUC Fablab. Jeff Ginger spoke to us about all the resources available to us on campus. It was a whole new world. How could all these glorious resources be kept a secret? Who knew that there were gems in the middle of the cornfields? My heart was racing as I was so excited to get my hands on these tools. In my mind I paired these resources to possible applications for our final project. However, we had to learn the basics of 3D printing before we can get our hands on the more complex machines. These basics will be foundation of my learning and project, with the complex machines used as bells and whistles. We learned all the possible making websites we can use to get ideas to base our project on such as Thingiverse and Instructables. Later on, I relearned how to use Cura to prepare objects for printing. Then, I found myself falling in love again, mesmerized at the plastic filaments intricately creating a mere keychain. Although it starts with a keychain, who knows what my imagination can come up with in the next few weeks.
All these speaker from the last few weeks have been so inspirational to me. The content they presented seemed like puzzle pieces which I can put together over time to put an idea to fruition. It’s just a matter of which pieces will fit.
Here are a few things that have shown me the versatility of 3D Printing and helped inspire some project ideas:
3D Printed Concrete Castle:
3D Printing To Help Burn Victims:
http://mashable.com/2017/01/18/3d-skin-printer-for-severe-burns/#Ww2Cm3KUPPq7
Hi Ana, I do have the strong feeling as you do. There are so many wonderful and amazing things we could create with 3D printers. For sure, we need to learn the fundamental knowledge about the 3D printing (or more specifically how to use Cura) before we could create more complicated things. I find this website talks a lot that our lab assistant mentioned during our lecture. https://all3dp.com/cura-tutorial-3d-printing/. Check it out if you are confused about Cura’s basic setting.
Hi Ana,
I really enjoyed your blog post, the feeling of the plastic filaments stacking on each other was such a mesmerizing experience. I remember when I was watching my own Illinois keychain being created, I was so in awe with the possibility of creating innovative products. However, as you said, before being able to create products for our class project, we definitely do need a better understanding of the basics of printing so we can use all the available resources and application to create a useful and unique product.