Eagle Project - 3D Printed Hands
OVERVIEW
My name is Evan and I’m working on my Eagle Project for Boy Scouts. My project is building and assembling 3D Printed Prosthetic hands for children without hands.
----
THE PROBLEM
• Many children are born without fingers, and families want to buy them a prosthetic hand.
• Traditional prosthetics range from $10,000 for a “hook” style hand to up to $50,000 for a hand that looks and functions like a real hand.
• Most insurance companies won’t cover these costs. And if they do, they will only give you ONE hand in your entire life!
• Kids are always growing, so they need to keep getting larger hands. Because of the cost, most children don’t get prosthetic hands.
----
THE SOLUTION
• There is an organization out there called e-Nable that has files that people can download and print on their 3D Printer. Volunteers print the hands, assemble them, and give them for FREE to children who need a hand.
• These hands only cost $50 to make, so children can get a new hand when they grow out of the old one. They don’t look like “real” hands, but they look really cool, and function very well, and kids usually love their 3D Printed hands the way that they are.
• E-Nable has a long list of families who want a hand for their child, but there aren’t enough volunteers to fabricate them. It also takes a long time to assemble each hand.
----
MY PROJECT
• My Eagle Scout Project is to have members of my Boy Scout Troop – and also my Robotics Team – get together and assemble hands from kits I will put together.
• I will be printing parts for the kits over the Summer, then hold an event (in Fall 2016) where teens from Carlsbad and Encinitas (San Diego) will put the hands together.
• The hands will then be shipped to e-Nable (approx. 1 month before Christmas 2016).
----
HOW YOU CAN HELP
• I currently have enough money to make 10 hands, but if I get more donations I can make more hands. My current goal is to get enough money to make 25 hands, but any amount would be great! The more money that is donated, the more hands I can make.
• Any money donated will go toward buying supplies for the hand kits… colored “filament” for the 3D Printer, screws, velcro, etc. In December 2016, I will update this GoFundMe page with photos of the final hands (so you can see how they turned out)!
----
MORE HANDS = MORE “MAKERS”
• I’ve shown my demo hand to a few boys in my Troop, and they’re really excited to help! I haven’t shown the hands to my Robotics Team yet, but I’m sure they’ll want to help as well. Getting volunteers doesn’t seem to be a problem.
• The problem is that with only 10 hand kits, the volunteers would need to share. If I get more donations, there will be fewer volunteers per kit. The ideal would be if every volunteer could assemble his own “hand kit” – but I would need donations in order for that to happen.
A $50 donation means…
- A child will get a prosthetic hand AND
- A teen volunteer will get to assemble a hand
* If your child wants to help build a hand at the assembly event, I will make sure he gets his OWN kit (to assemble and DONATE) if you give $50 or more. Otherwise I’ll put your donation towards buying more hand kits for all the volunteers to share. All hands will be donated to e-Nable when completed.
----
My sister testing out one of my demo hands. She can make the fingers move by bending her wrist, and can pick up small objects.
I’m printing the parts on my family’s 3D Printer (it was our big Christmas Gift). I was originally going to print at the San Diego library, but some of the parts take 8hrs+ to print.
Assembling the hands takes a while (which is why I need help). But it’s educational and a lot of fun!
----
** HELP LITTLE KIDS ** TEACH STEM TO TEENS ** HELP A BOY SCOUT **
$50 is enough for one hand kit – but any amount helps a lot!
Thank you so much!
- Evan Wright
