February 2020 Hacker of the Month, Garrett Durland, went from mechanical engineer to Inventive Technologist by way of the usage of 3D printing.
Posted on January 29, 2020
by
Chris Morgan
Our February Hacker of the Month, Garrett Durland, initially hails from Denver, Colorado and at the moment resides in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Garrett’s background is in Mechanical Engineering for quite a lot of firms. “I spent 2006 to 2015 working as a Steam and Fuel Turbine Engineer within the energy technology business. I labored for GE, Toshiba, and Xcel Power. As an on-site touring engineer, my duties included planning and supervising and routine and emergency upkeep of enormous rotating equipment. Then I moved to Oak Ridge to just accept a job at Oak Ridge Nationwide Lab (ORNL) on the Spallation Neutron Supply (SNS). I labored within the Central Cooling Methods group from 2015 to 2018. There I used to be a management room operator and the subject material knowledgeable for a number of the subsystems of the accelerator.”
He was first motivated to get into 3D printing by a good friend after he discovered that Garrett had been wanting into quite a few articles on Hackaday and Reddit in regards to the topic. He then went out and bought his first 3D printer, a Monoprice Maker Choose, and was shortly bitten by the 3D printing bug again in November of 2015.
One of many many enjoyable prints accessible in Garrett’s Etsy store.
Garrett began modeling his personal creations in TinkerCad, which he nonetheless makes use of to make a number of designs for his Etsy store. He’s at the moment bettering his expertise in Fusion 360 and OpenSCAD, and he makes use of Meshmixer to assist him sculpt, hole his prints, and cut back the triangle counts on his fashions. He makes use of Cura and Simplify3D to slice his prints.
Quickly after buying his first 3D printer, he was given a non-working Prusa Mendel IT2 clone, which he repaired himself, after which went on to construct three extra 3D printers! He primarily makes use of these printers to provide objects for his Etsy store, Sassy Centaur. His store primarily consists of gender-neutral toilet indicators which can be infused with mythological and imaginary creatures. Garrett explains that “Gender-neutral toilet indicators make all people much less nervous about utilizing a public toilet. Hopefully, the humor within the indicators may also ship the message that it does probably not matter which toilet folks select to make use of.”
Garrett primarily makes use of PLA for his gender-neutral toilet indicators, PETG for elements that require a bit of extra power, and carbon-fiber PETG for extra demanding functions and prototypes.
Considered one of Garret’s extraordinarily standard gender-neutral toilet indicators: Man, Lady, Unicorn
Garrett’s indicators turned extraordinarily standard, and after 18 months of constant development, he was capable of transfer on from his full-time mechanical engineering job into producing objects for his Etsy store as a occupation. After this transfer, Garrett was capable of create much more signal designs, in addition to provide extra choices for personalisation that will not have been attainable whereas working.
However Garrett hasn’t stopped there together with his curiosity in making and creating. Along with his new label as a Inventive Technologist, he has accomplished work for a biomedical imaging firm designing and fabricating a non-magnetic holder for certainly one of their scanning devices from carbon-fiber PETG. “The half that I designed, printed, and delivered will assist the corporate calibrate and full reference scans with MRI-type machines.”
A picture displaying the stress testing of the non-magnetic holder Garrett designed.
Creating 3D printed objects then led him to increase his materials choice and he quickly began to manufacture 3D printed molds for concrete planters. “In 2019 previous to the clay printer buy, I made 25+ concrete planter pots of various styles and sizes. With a three-part concrete planter mildew, I used to be restricted by the construct quantity of my printer, so I went large and made a 3D printed, 13-part mildew, with the thirteenth half being a versatile ice cream tub that I rescued from the trash.”
A set of Cerambot pot prototypes Garrett might promote in his store.
“I used to be capable of make eight massive concrete planters, however each took a variety of prep work, and a number of the mildew sections that have been printed with PLA are beginning to crack. If I did it once more, I might print the mildew in PETG, and alter the design to beef up the areas that I discovered to be cracking most frequently. To promote massive concrete merchandise like planters, will probably be more cost effective for me to print them on a concrete printer, moderately than utilizing 3D printed molds.”
Quickly after he backed a Kickstarter marketing campaign for a ceramic 3D printer, the Cerambot. The Cerambot permits customers to create objects from a viscous clay combination that comes out of the extruder in a lot the identical manner melted plastics are extruded from a 3D printer. “Thus far, I’ve used low hearth clay for printing ceramic fashions, however I wish to experiment with porcelain.”
An outline of the molds and the pouring course of for the concrete planters Garrett designed.
The key distinction in 3D printing with clay is the post-processing; these objects should be fired in a kiln to turn out to be sturdy pottery or ceramic items. With the mortgage of a kiln from a good friend, Garrett has been experimenting with numerous clay mixtures for his Cerambot and might be including these creations to his Etsy store quickly.
His curiosity within the Cerambot and his concrete pots finally led him to a fair larger undertaking; 3D printed properties. “Watching the clay because it printed on the Cerambot with a 2mm nozzle had me imagining larger creations and asking, ‘What might I create if I had a concrete printer with a 25mm nozzle?’”
Extra pots created on the Cerambot
To this finish, Garrett has partnered with Jessie Hawkins, proprietor of Strong Engineering in Knoxville, Tennessee to design and fabricate a full-scale, concrete 3D printer to be used in creating properties.
“I am hoping that enormous scale concrete printers for architectural functions catch on. I am wanting ahead to the 3D printing group sharing greatest practices and how-to directions for inexpensive printer builds of this scale. I am additionally hoping new constructing codes and laws might be tailored to make the allowing course of smoother. Finally, I’d like to be on the staff that designs and prints a group of concrete homes.” Understanding the fundamentals together with his residence ceramic 3D printer has result in many insights that might be helpful in large-scale functions like 3D printed properties.
A 360 diploma view of certainly one of Garrett’s 3D printed concrete pot molds
As well as, Garrett likes to share what he has discovered with others. “I’m at the moment creating some lessons and workshops to be held in Oak Ridge. In 2018, I taught a circuit prototyping class, the Atari Punk Console class, at Knox Makers in Knoxville. I might be educating this class once more, and likewise a number of 3D printing lessons the place contributors can have their mannequin printed proper in entrance of them. I will provide lessons in CAD modeling and slicing 3D printer operation, constructing a 3D printer, printing with clay, and maybe some lessons that develop soldering expertise.”
He additionally hopes that sooner or later, 3D printing is extra accessible to most people, not simply these going to varsities or establishments. “I believe each metropolis’s library ought to have some 3D printers to allow them to provide fundamental print providers to members, maintain educational workshops and provides demonstrations.”
We’re excited to see much more from Garrett sooner or later, in all of his many endeavors – particularly within the 3D printed properties business. When you’re curious about buying any of Garrett’s gender-neutral toilet indicators, or quickly to be accessible 3D printed ceramics, you’ll find them in his Etsy store right here:
Sassy Centaur: https://www.etsy.com/store/SassyCentaur
Are you a 3D printing/CNC/Laser Reducing/digital fabrication maker and wish to be our subsequent Hacker of the Month? E-mail your story to chris.morgan@matterhackers.com and it’s possible you’ll be featured in our month-to-month e-newsletter.