This story was updated November 16 to clarify information on the acquisition of the 3D printers.

The chbMakers will offer their next Open House on Saturday, November 14, from 8 am to 5 pm, throughout the C.H. Booth Library on Main Street. The event will allow the public to learn about and experiment with the various activities that make the library more than just a place from which to borrow books.

The showpieces of the Makers are the two 3D printers that the library has added to its collection through the generosity of an anonymous donor, and the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library, who funded an initial trainer.

Young people, in particular, have been drawn to this new technology, quickly picking up on how to find software and create various small objects. Several of the teenagers currently serve as volunteers to teach the ins and outs and ups and downs of the 3D printers to other members of the public.

One resident who needed not much more than a couple of YouTube videos and a brief meeting with a teen trainer to realize the value of the 3D printers is Scott Larsen.

Mr Larsen is an engineering consultant who designs products for industrial and consumer use through his firm, Larsen Design Engineering. He was excited when he heard that the local library had 3D printers available for public use. While creating knickknacks and toys is fun for young people, he hoped that professionals could put the printers to practical use.

“In my work,” he said, “I make prototypes. Since the advent of 3D printing technology, it has been wise to prove your CAD [computer aided design] data against that,” he said.  The CAD programs provide the means for creating, and then optimizing and modifying designs.

“Before 3D technology, we had CNC [computer numerical control] and I could in CAD software create a tool path to send to the milling machine, and the cutters would create a model,” he said. A skilled CNC technician must operate a CNC machine, which does the cutting and shaping.

The 3D printer, Mr Larsen realized, would allow him to make accurate models at a great savings to his clients. “I work with a lot of inventors who are on a shoestring budget,” he said. The 3D printer is especially useful for a project that needs refining from the beginning stages, he said, due to its cost effectiveness.

“With a 3D printer, anybody can learn to create the models. I could give the information on a flash drive to a client, and he could come [to the library] and do the printing. All it costs is a little time for scheduling the machine and loading software, and printing,” said Mr Larsen. “For someone who wants to experiment with a design concept, this is a good way to do that,” he said.

The usefulness of the 3D printers is limited only by the size of the machines’ printing platforms, but larger models can be made by printing sections and then piecing them together, Mr Larsen said.

Recently, the design engineer worked with an inventor for a product that required him to take a rough wax model made by the client and create CAD software for its design. A first model, printed on the library’s 3D printer, gave the engineer and client a hands-on prototype, at virtually no cost. That prototype led to further modifications and two more 3D models, as the idea truly began to shape up into a product that the client will then be able to market for production. Using the conventional CNC technology to make up to three modifications on that design — not a unusual number of changes to go through — could have cost up to $1,200, Mr Larsen said.

He is also pleased to see the interest young people have in the 3D printers.

“It’s fun for kids to choose software and it introduces them to the technology of taking a concept of an item and building it,” he said. What he finds even more exciting is that there will be young people who take the next step, and learn to use software to create their own designs.

“That’s the part of my career that I really like,” Mr Larsen said, and technology like the 3D printer can be the ember that lights a fire for learning in some young people. “Kids absorb technology,” he said, “and I think that’s really cool.”

Having had success with this first client prototype, Mr Larsen sees the library’s 3D printer as a tool that will be useful to him and other professionals, going forward.

“When I want to do something with a few minor changes for the client to look at,” Mr Larsen said, “the 3D printer is ideal.”