You3dit is Working to Help Crowdsource 3D Design and Printing (Video)

The example you3dit (You 3D It) person Chris McCoy uses in this video is a prosthetic hand they wanted to make because one of their people lost fingers in a construction accident. Instead of drawing up plans for a new hand, they searched online -- and found enablingthefuture.org, which is all about making 3-D printed prosthetic hands. Using a predesigned hand was obviously much simpler than starting from scratch, and was totally in line with the Open Source "Why reinvent the wheel?" philosophy.

So you3dit helps make 3-D printed items of one sort or another, and can either print them for you at their place or help you find someone local to help with the printing, assuming you can't do it yourself. As you might expect, they did a Kickstarter project. It was for a product called Raver Rings. Unlike many Kickstarter projects we mention on Slashdot, this one didn't fly. In fact, it only got $2,275 in pledges against a $10,000 goal. No matter. There are many other useful things the you3dit community can make -- or help you make -- without Kickstarter.

Comments

Croudsourcing

[frovingslosh]

Croudsouecing! What a great deal. Quick, give me a link where I can send all my money without even watching the video. I want to make this guy rich.

Re:Croudsourcing

[Anonymous Coward]

Hahaha! Thanks for being willing to help us become rich at You3Dit. Not our goal but if it's a side effect, great. However if you're feeling generous, consider donating your money to http://www.enablingthefuture.org

When we say "crowdsourcing design", our customers invest in their projects and designers looking to bring ideas to life and make money doing it, submit their concepts in hopes of winning the bid. Once the customer chooses a design that meets their project's functional requirements, it moves onto digital fabrication. Design is tough, and there is a combination of form and function that make great designs work, but are different for everyone. Some people love the VW Bug, other people don't. As a car, it functions fine probably for 90% of consumers, but regarding form, much fewer. By having several options of various designs, the customer improves the chances of getting a design they love and You3Dit helps govern the quality of those designs so that they'll be ready for digital fabrication. And the designers who do not get their design chosen, they instead build their portfolio of designs, experience and expertise.

If you have a chance, do check out what http:/www.enablingthefuture.org is doing - it's pretty amazing stuff. Like we mention in the video, Google invested about $800K into making their project a reality. I doubt their mission is to get rich either but I can guarantee that they ARE improving the quality of life for people who have disabilities.

Chris

Extendzive library

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Does that site have, ummmmm, plans for, ummmmm, other 3D-printable body parts?

Re:I AM AMAZED!

[TWX]

Folks, we get it: 3D is "the wave of the future", and people are printing out custom made 3D dildoes for a custom fit. We get it.

Thanks for the story.

Additive technologies have some rather important limitations, they can't produce anything that needs incredible strength achieved through pressure. Admittedly a lot of products are produced at STP, but if you need forged metal parts for their strength you're not going to get that inexpensively through an additive technology like a 3d printer. Subtractive technolgies, where that pre-hardened lump of material is machined down to the part that one wants is the only way currently to practically achieve that kind of result.

Re:I AM AMAZED!

[Roblimo]

Re additive technology: You're right. This is why I don't care much about the people who "make guns" with their 3-D printers. Some of them make lower receiver units because that's the legal definition of a "gun" even though in my eye's it's kind of like making the driver's door frame on a car and claiming you made a car because that's where the VIN goes.

To make a gun or anything else that needs to contain strong forces, I'll join TWX and put my faith in old-fashioned, non-groovy tools like milling machines, lathes, and drill presses. Yay, subtractive technology!

(Not knocking the 3-D print people - Fun stuff, no question.)

Re:I AM AMAZED!

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for the commentary here on subtractive manufacturing. You3Dit also crowdsources designs for laser cutting, desktop CNC and other digital fabrication tools.

I agree that steels, aluminum and other metals are much stronger than most 3D printed plastics. But what's most important in this application is the strength-to-weight ratio and cost. The labor costs alone to fabricate the 15 or so parts contained in this design would be well over $500. In fact, maybe a Slashdot reader who's also a machinist would be willing to quote this for us so we could have an accurate cost? This would require likely bulk, 6061 Aluminum with CNC machine work for about 15 parts. Feel free to download a copy of files at http://www.enablingthefuture.org

And while consumer-based 3D printers are not yet ready to do metal 3D printing, their designs--if designed for 3D Printing and Manufacturing--can then be quickly optimized via wisdom of the crowd and once the final design is made, can be then machined. However, it's doubtful that machining work would be affordable if each set of parts were customized for each individual hand needing the prosthetic. Again, extreme customization is important here and an enabler by 3D printing technologies.

I too am not going to 3D print an axle for my car - but I would 3D print a to-scale model of that axle so I could confirm the design, fit, assembly and /or as a tool in communication to a client if I was an automotive engineer working on the drive train. Or if I was an inventor and didn't have access to the design and manufacturing tools, I'd also consider using a platform like You3Dit as they help you turn your sketch into a solid object.

Chris