You can learn 3D Printing at Johnson County Library!

Have you ever wanted to make your renders and models built in Autodesk Maya or other three dimensional software into real world physical model?

 If you have a Johnson County Library card, you can.  You don't have to live in Johnson County to receive a JOCO library card.

 The Makerspace is currently being remodeled into a much larger space at the 
Johnson County Central Resource library, however 3D printing is available at the Oak    Park Library at 9500 Bluejacket Street right off 95th Street close to Oak Park Mall.

 To prep your renders or models to be able to be read by the makerbot, save them into a jump or external hard drive as a STL or OBJ file to bring to the library.

If you would like to use the makerbot by yourself without assistance, there are tutorials available at jocolibrary.org under "E learning" at lynda.com which you are able to use for free with your JOCO library card.  

                 First, load your OBJ or STL file into the maker computer for editing.

After you have positioned your model in the Maker Bot computer to "slice" it so the 3D image can be recreated, save your file to a SDHC memory card (used for digital cameras) similar to the card pictured below.

Once you have saved your models updated dimensions, you are ready to 3D print.  Eject your memory card and/or jumpdrive/external drive and load SDHC memory card into the Maker Bot 3D printer.  The finished product of the F-18 is below. This render took just over one hour. 

The finished product is made with PLA filament which is a non-toxic resin made of sugar derived from field corn or ABS plastic commonly.  The library render has "bridges" that will needed to be removed. Since I originally had the F-18 small in Autodesk Maya, I had to enlarge it before saving the sliced file to transfer. 

The first finished prototype 3D print is exciting to see, however I would like to also try to do another run taking it back into Autodesk Maya to enlarge the F-18 dimensions to see if quality improves.  

See you at the Johnson County Library soon for more 3D printing runs.  I also hope to see you at a local film festival with our short film "Siri Sail Tail."  Please check out our trailer here: Siri Sail Tail Movie Trailer! Thanks!