Printing in Three Dimensions

Before the invention of 3D printing, the idea of sitting in a chair and creating a bust of a face would have been unheard of. However, BGSU student Stefan Kuehn used the 3D scanner and 3D printer in the Collab Lab to make a bust of his own head.

“We had him in a chair, and we just turned him every so many degrees and did another scan,” Kim Fleshman, coordinator of the Collab Lab, said. “We had to fix some parts of his hair, but it really did his face,”

Heads aren’t the only pieces students are able to print. They are currently working on creating shoes for a Mr. Potato Head toy, Fleshman said. Many students use the 3D printer to understand a concept they can actually see and touch.

One student, for example, printed a 3D model of an aspirin molecule. Senior marketing major Kari Tobak recently used the 3D printers for one of her classes. Tobak said the project was to create a prototype for a new product they were developing, which in her case, was a yellow dinosaur cookie cutter.

While 3D printing sounds fun, the process is not as simple as pressing a button. Fleshman said students are encouraged to make appointments for one-on-one tutoring or to sign up as a group of three to six for tutoring.

“It’s a hands-on learning experience,” she said.

The Collab Lab supports a few specific programs for 3D printing. Fleshman recommends using SketchUp — a free program — because it creates the necessary file type. She said students who are interested in animation should try a program called Blender.

“We are really trying to push the whole ‘learning how to make your own file.’ It’s just the whole point in a university is education.”

Both programs are available for download on software company websites, and the Collab Lab webpage includes links to basic tutorials for both programs. “We are really trying to push the whole ‘learning how to make your own file.’

It’s just the whole point in a university is education,” Fleshman said. Tobak said this process was fairly easy once she figured out the software. Students, who have the proper file on a flash drive and are ready to print, can visit the Collab Lab on the first floor of the library and ask to print, but some planning is involved.

“Be patient and understand that 3D printing can take hours,” Fleshman said.

“There are things that can take 16 to 32 hours to print, so don’t expect to come in here and have it that night.”