Signs Are All Around Us

A year ago, my 4 year-old son walked into my office while I was working from home, and laid a broken GI Joe on my desk.  He asked me to fix it.  

What was wrong with it?  The leg had broken off, and could not be reattached.

I had done a seminar at a local elementary school with 3Doodlers, and brought them home.  I pulled one out, Patriot jumped on my lap, and we started to lay down thermoplastic in a melted spool that resembled a small tornado.  Once it was high enough, we put a little super glue on the "amputated leg" and attached the mini prosthetic leg.

In total, the fix took about 10 minutes!

It was a revelation to me, and my 4 YEAR OLD, who is ALREADY USING A FORM OF ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING!

So many things came from the moment:

• Connecting with my son, and holding him while he is still my little baby.
• Exposing him to a technology that is changing the world.
• Planting the seeds of using 3D printing at an early age.

I was reminded of this memory while in Target last night, and took the picture above. Remember when 3Doodlers where on crowdfunding sites? Tangible Solutions bought 3.

Immediately, I looked at the price, $49.99.  Wow.  Tip of the iceberg people.  This looked much more kid friendly, and the design was made for little hands.  Stop looking at MakerBot and the premature purchase made by Stratasys.  3Doodlers are sneaking into homes while mainstream looks at the hype.

There is so much happening in the world of Additive Manufacturing today at a very technical level, and it is trickling into so many industries.  If you still think Additive Manufacturing is not a viable option for production, don't tell that to 4th Grade Students whose ONLY means FOR productions is a MakerBot.  Don't tell that to my son who is using a 3D Printer to fix his toys.  Don't tell that to Stryker, GE, Caterpillar, and many many more.  

To the Future!

Adam Clark