Happy Valentine’s Day

I never got around to giving Frankie the manual binder for his Stratasys FDM 2000 because I’m an information packrat and wanted to scan it in for reference.  He had a talk scheduled this week at UWM, and I figured I’d drop by for the presentation and finally give him the manual.  As long as […]

I never got around to giving Frankie the manual binder for his Stratasys FDM 2000 because I’m an information packrat and wanted to scan it in for reference.  He had a talk scheduled this week at UWM, and I figured I’d drop by for the presentation and finally give him the manual.  As long as I was scanning, I finally scanned the entirety of my own FDM 1600 manual.  The fruits of my labors are here for anyone with an old FDM 1600 or 2000 that they need a manual for (though much of the information probably applies to other models as well):

FDM 1600 Manual

FDM 2000 Manual

Quickslice Training Manual v6.3

Insight Training Manual

Speaking of Frankie, he’s been up to some amazing work lately.  In December, Pete forwarded an inquiry to the Milwaukee Makerspace from a local mother whose 8 (almost 9) year old daughter was born with only partial digits on her right hand.  She had seen the Robohand video and asked Santa if she could have a new hand for Christmas.  (sorry, that gets me a little teary-eyed right there.)  A bunch of us immediately offered to help in any way possible (I have a small supply of medically approved, gamma-sterilizable P500 filament that would be perfect for this application), but Frankie absolutely tore into the project with unbridled enthusiasm.  He’s been working with others at UWM to develop a truly custom prosthetic for Shea, and has actually introduced it into a course curriculum this semester (they’ll be creating hands for other area kids in need and developing a ‘how-to’ guide for these DIY prosthetics).  Frankie is still developing the hand for Shea, but I can’t wait to assist in my own tiny way (we have some ideas in mind for customization that should go over well with the end user).  If anybody out there has any surplus P500 ABSi that they would like to get rid of, please leave a comment – we can definitely put it to good use.

This past weekend, Shea visited Frankie’s lab and got to try on a prototype hand for the first time (in her own color choice, no less), and after a few tries, was able to pick up objects with it.  She also discovered to her delight that she was able to make a ‘big heart’ with her fingers:

Excuse me for just a moment, I seem to have something in my eye…  *sniff*  For more information, check out the E-Nable page.  It’s inspiring, humbling, and just kind of amazing to see what 3D printing is making possible.

2 thoughts on “Happy Valentine’s Day”

Comments are closed.