Mad About Science: Cool new 3-D prints

By Brenden Bobby
Reader Staff

Thought 3-D printing was a fad? While COVID-19 may have slowed down research in technology and manufacturing industries worldwide, it also helped illuminate the importance of 3-D printing in our lives. Why wait days for a package to arrive with a part when you could have it printed in a few hours?

We aren’t quite to the level of reliably 3-D printing food; once we can, the world will be changed forever. In the meantime, what are some cool new 3-D printing projects that have been made recently?

The Hero Arm

The 3-D printed hero arm, styled after Metal Gear Solid. Courtesy photo.

Prosthetics have always been a tricky business. A well-fitting prosthetic can cost thousands of dollars, and even so will not completely replicate the appearance of a missing or undeveloped appendage. Hands in particular are difficult to make — they’re how we interact with everything in our world, and no one wants to play an arcade claw game every time they want a sip of soda.

This is why the hero arm was developed. It’s a mechanized arm with a number of motors attached to each finger, as well as electrode sensors that read electrical signals traveling through the wearer’s nerves and muscles and translate them into commands for the motors. These signals trigger the prosthetic hand to move as though it were your actual hand. The coolest part about it is that the chassis can be fully 3-D printed in a number of styles from major media sources, such as Iron Man, Metal Gear Solid and Halo.

The Hero Arm is an awesome advancement in prosthetic technology, and while it still remains pretty expensive for the time being — between $10,000 and $100,000 — the ability to 3-D print components for it will dramatically reduce the price as time goes on and technology improves.

Housing

This isn’t a particularly new technology when it comes to 3-D printing, but it’s very relevant to our area. As if trying to buy a house around here wasn’t difficult and expensive enough, the production backlogs spurred by COVID-19 caused astronomical inflation in the lumber market. Plywood prices more than quintupled over the past two years while contractors filled their schedules for over two years into the future.

A 3-D printing company in Texas recently built a house fully up to code for around $4,000 in a single day. While it might not be a palatial fortress with river views, marble countertops and vicuna rugs, it can comfortably house a working-class family of two with minimal waste involved in the construction. This technology may not be showing up in our neighborhoods tomorrow, but it’s certainly on its way, and it could revolutionize how we think about housing forever.

How We See The World

Do you wear glasses? Maybe you’re using some to read this paper right now. If they’re a prescription pair, did they cost you a pretty penny at the optometrist? Maybe you had to wait weeks, or even months to get some glasses that frame your face just right, and now they’re starting to fall apart.

3-D printers are being used to create alternate and replacement frames for some glasses, allowing faster prototyping and reduced costs for consumers. Additionally, some enterprising wearers have begun printing out their own frames with home and library 3-D printers, skipping the wait altogether when all that’s needed is a quick fix to the frame.

The Future of Agriculture

Planet-wrecking plastic is a double-edged sword. It ruins the environment by sticking around forever — which is exactly what we desire from plastic until it breaks and becomes useless waste. The range of things we can and have done with 3-D printing in relation to agriculture is astounding. Translucent plastic panes for greenhouses have been designed and printed, complete with specialized insulation gaps between the panes that help regulate temperature inside of your greenhouse more effectively than a simple plastic sheet.

Even more exciting than a 3-D printed greenhouse is the ability to print your own seed starter kits. Why blow $30 on a kit that will break down after a single use when you can spend less on a long-term seed starting kit with its own regulated plumbing? Multiple seed pods already exist as free files online that include water reservoirs and channels that direct water in a controlled manner to your seedlings’ roots. Some of these projects can even be scaled up with certain printers that allow for the construction of large parts that you can snap together, allowing you to create flower boxes or even full raised beds with built-in water regulation.

You might now be asking yourself, “Why wait for several hours, or even days, to print out the parts to a single bed when you could just build a wooden one by hand?” That’s a good question, and I respect anyone who’s willing to get a little dirty and build something with their own two hands. Consider this for a moment: Your 3-D printed bed may take days to print out, depending on its size, but you only need to spend 15 minutes to snap it together. In that time, you could be building a set of three wooden boxes and have a fourth bonus box for next to nothing.

Are you interested in exploring the world of 3-D prints? Stop by and visit the tech desk upstairs at the Sandpoint library. The tech desk staff are trained to use the library’s 3-D printers, as well as answer questions you may have about getting started designing your own prints, or even printing out something you found online!

There are already a number of basic programs that can be used on mobile phones, tablets and computers, including some that make sculpting as easy as playing with a lump of virtual clay. You don’t need to be an engineer with multiple degrees to bring your vision to life, and the library staff is happy to help get you started on turning your concept into a reality you can hold in your hands.

Never be afraid to ask for help. Stay curious, 7B.