Zeke Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 My supervisors and I have been batting correspondence with the local children's hospitals with methods that 3D printers can be utilized in the field beyond making hobby gadgets and DIY dildos are prosthetics. For the most part, there are a few of the doctors talking about going abroad and making these for kids who lost their limbs due to being a casualty of war, disease, and other inhumane acts. Since we have 2 active printers available to the public, my coworkers and I have been tasked to creating a prototype using the Standard PLA until we can perhaps try again with ABS for a more solid version. The brilliance is that it is also available to the public who cannot afford a prosthetic. Since we charge about a dollar per meter of filament, the actual cost to print it here (as long as the files are resized accordingly) is about 15-30 dollars. The patron can also select different colors. Want a hot pink hand? What about glow-in-the-dark? Or a rainbow mess of colors? We can do it! What makes me very happy is that we get a lot of questions about this from the general public as well with children who need one, and I am excited to show them the end product. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallium Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 The use of 3D printing in the medical field is probably one of its most interesting uses. Thats really cool that youre actually right at the frontlines of bringing that technology to life. Soon enough we'll have people cutting off working limbs just to have real live special snowflake arms :v Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrGravitas Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Neat! I've thought about toying around with 3D printing from time to time, especially after learning that ZBrush can export to compatible formats for it. I'd love to see how this goes! Do you have a blog or something that you detail your work in printing on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willow Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 I'm actually interested in how the 3D printed hands work. either way that's pretty neat. I'd lowkey want a glow in the dark hand though, maybe I should--- 44 minutes ago, WolfNightV4X1 said: Soon enough we'll have people cutting off working limbs just to have real live special snowflake arms :v nevermind... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeke Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 47 minutes ago, willow said: I'm actually interested in how the 3D printed hands work. either way that's pretty neat. I'd lowkey want a glow in the dark hand though, maybe I should--- nevermind... 1 hour ago, DrGravitas said: Neat! I've thought about toying around with 3D printing from time to time, especially after learning that ZBrush can export to compatible formats for it. I'd love to see how this goes! Do you have a blog or something that you detail your work in printing on? Not yet since the majority of the prints I do are for patrons only. I also forgot to take pictures of the fingers for the hand. I'll do that tomorrow when I get the pins printed and inserted. I am also thinking of investing in one myself for cosplay projects. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clove Darkwave Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 This is really, really interesting and exciting to hear about. Well it's one thing to hear about and another to see it happening at public levels. Onward human progress! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Revates Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Wow! This is awesome. It'd be interesting to see some of the final products. Technology always amazes me, very very cool stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeke Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 here are the fingers printed in black PLA: At first, I thought I would do it in flex PLA instead, but it takes too long since flex PLA has to run at a slower speed and higher temperature. Plus, I rather not run anything that has to be set to 220-250 celsius overnight. The holes in the tips are for the pins and elastic thread for tension, which I will take care of tomorrow in silver PLA filament. There are ten parts for the fingers; the knuckles and the fingertip itself which gets attached to the palm. I will take care of the palm Monday and the Bracer Wednesday and I'll take pictures of that as well. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallium Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 I know its a totally different kind of off-topic 3D printing but Im really interested in the printing and replicating of cells to create skin, and possibly organs. That would be pretty chill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onnes Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 This thread is giving me the wrong kind of ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeke Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 2 minutes ago, WolfNightV4X1 said: I know its a totally different kind of off-topic 3D printing but Im really interested in the printing and replicating of cells to create skin, and possibly organs. That would be pretty chill. They made a kidney, a bladder, and a liver. They are also working on skin grafting for those who have suffered severe burns. Dentists are also using it to replace teeth, help with filings, and dentures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallium Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 (edited) 14 minutes ago, Zeke said: They made a kidney, a bladder, and a liver. They are also working on skin grafting for those who have suffered severe burns. Dentists are also using it to replace teeth, help with filings, and dentures. Oh man, thats pretty cool. This will put an end to unwinding! (in-joke-:v) Edited January 8, 2016 by WolfNightV4X1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Lee Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 I've seen plenty of 3-D hands printed, but wondered about 3-D printed legs/feet. I considered this while riding a bus through one of the poorer neighborhoods and a guy in a electric wheelchair came on. He mentioned diabetes which is probably how he lost his feet, and I found it interesting that since he was likely on public assistance, medicare or whoever his insurance was gave him a wheelchair instead of a prosthetic foot or two. Perhaps prosthetic legs/feet are more expensive than a large wheelchair? They would have to be over-engineered to support the weight of a human and not break, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeke Posted January 12, 2016 Author Share Posted January 12, 2016 7 minutes ago, Crazy Lee said: I've seen plenty of 3-D hands printed, but wondered about 3-D printed legs/feet. I considered this while riding a bus through one of the poorer neighborhoods and a guy in a electric wheelchair came on. He mentioned diabetes which is probably how he lost his feet, and I found it interesting that since he was likely on public assistance, medicare or whoever his insurance was gave him a wheelchair instead of a prosthetic foot or two. Perhaps prosthetic legs/feet are more expensive than a large wheelchair? They would have to be over-engineered to support the weight of a human and not break, though. I've seen legs/feet prosthetics for pets. However, for an adult human you'd have to use ABS plastic instead of PLA for starters. It can be done. Like you said, the drawback would have to be built to support a full grown adult's weight. A child wouldn't be out of the picture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muugu Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 (edited) 5 hours ago, Crazy Lee said: I've seen plenty of 3-D hands printed, but wondered about 3-D printed legs/feet. I considered this while riding a bus through one of the poorer neighborhoods and a guy in a electric wheelchair came on. He mentioned diabetes which is probably how he lost his feet, and I found it interesting that since he was likely on public assistance, medicare or whoever his insurance was gave him a wheelchair instead of a prosthetic foot or two. Perhaps prosthetic legs/feet are more expensive than a large wheelchair? They would have to be over-engineered to support the weight of a human and not break, though. Wheelchairs are dirt cheap compared to proper prosthetics and 3d printed prosthetics are out of the question with insurance companies. With legs especially it usually needs to be custom fit to the stump so it won't chafe as bad. Even with 3d printing the cost would be much, much higher than that of an arm, not to mention the durability of almost pure plastic leg would be questionable... A young child though, it wouldn't be unimaginable to make a prosthetis for them yourself. Edited January 12, 2016 by Muugu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Lee Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 17 hours ago, Muugu said: Wheelchairs are dirt cheap compared to... Dirt cheap? As compared to say, a fully functional electrical wheelchair with an adjustable seat? That probably costs several thousand dollars?? 17 hours ago, Muugu said: With legs especially it usually needs to be custom fit to the stump so it won't chafe as bad. I've always wondered what the highest cost of a prosthetic leg is, and figured it's the fact they have to be custom built. I figure though that quite a bit of it is off the shelf parts. What I think is a good idea is making a leg that has easy to mass produce parts for most of the leg, that can be easily adjusted to the height and need of the person. Then the actual stump part would be custom made with 3D printing. You would scan the stump, or even get a mold of it, then use a 3D program to figure out a good adapter that the stump would sit on comfortably, and then print it out in 3D, and that would sit on top of the rest of the leg to provide proper support. I could see 3D printing even being used to just make a better fit for prosthetic in general, where the rest of the prosthetic is mass produced and only the part that fits to the person would be custom printed for that person's needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muugu Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 (edited) 2 hours ago, Crazy Lee said: Dirt cheap? As compared to say, a fully functional electrical wheelchair with an adjustable seat? That probably costs several thousand dollars?? Yes. Dirt cheap. Proper prosthetic hand/leg can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Usually from 15K all the way to 90K according to Wiki and other sources. So yeah, a couple of thousand dollars is dirt cheap in comparison. Unless of course you talk about purely cosmetic slabs of plastic, which even then starts from 3K onwards. Want a hook on the end? 10K. Prosthesis business is disgusting. E: And to add to the custom bit of the leg, it's usually the socket in which the stump goes. It gets shaped to conform better to the user to prevent additional pain and chafing. Again, costly as hell. Edited January 13, 2016 by Muugu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.