An Early Christmas

Mika Yeap

The advent of 3D printing has taken the world by a storm, opening up possibilities by putting the power of production in your hands. Dalat high school students are opening their large hobby 3D printer to the Dalat community for use in order to raise awareness on 3D printing technology. The brand new machine will be open for orders at the start of the spring semester.

3D printing is truly a technological marvel of the 21st century. FDM, currently the most accessible 3D printing process, has long been a patented additive manufacturing process that became open to the public just seven or eight years ago. Since then, there has been a boom of hobbyists endeavoring to make their own home versions of these industrial machines, shrinking them down and making them more suitable for the end user.

A group of Dalat students, Simon Jeong (12), Albert Jeong (11), and Mika Yeap (12), were part of the later waves of such hobbyists. In July 2016, the group of three designed and built their own 3D printer from scratch to gain their background knowledge in 3D printing and general electronics. Flash forward a year later, and the printing continues. In August this year, the students owned and operated one hobby-grade 3D printer from an innocent, inconspicuous corner of a high school science lab. And now the gang is poised to add another, larger machine to their arsenal. With it comes an equally large opportunity.

Aidan Frusher (12) summarizes this, as he proudly brandishes a newly printed and spray-painted toy, “3D printing usually takes time. With two machines, one with a large build volume, there’s a lot more space to crank out other orders.”

 The opening of the machine to the community will present many opportunities. Science teachers could submit orders for custom lab equipment, students could order JSB gifts, and partnerships with the Junior Class store are all possible.

Whatever happens, the pattern is sure to continue. When people get ahold of 3D printers, they make things happen.