In a news release, the St Joseph School District announced that Jackson Weston was burned in a house fire about four years ago. He suffered burns over 65% of his body and lost his fingers in the fire. Douglas Weston, who adopted Jackson after the fire calls him his “little miracle boy.”
“Jackson wasn’t supposed to make it, and if he made it, he wasn’t supposed to walk,” he said. Today Jackson is an energetic and enthusiastic nine-year-old student at Carden Park Elementary School.
Weston first thought of the idea of the 3D-printed hand after a co-worker shared a news story with him about a man who 3D printed a hand for himself. He began researching 3D printing, and was all set to purchase the machinery, but decided to contact Hillyard first to see if there was another way. “I’m glad they were able to do it, because now that I’ve seen the process, I know it would have been hard for me to complete.”
Roger Mapel’s CAD class decided to take on the project. “I had actually seen an article about a 3D-printed hand,” said Mapel, “and my classes read it as part of an assignment last year. Luckily, the creator was not looking to make money and had made his designs available online.” The project dovetails with the engineering process the students learn: design, print prototype, adjust, refine.
The class was able to modify the designs using Jackson’s measurements, and has created an initial prototype. After fitting the model to Jackson’s hand, the class is now working to tweak the design to be as useful as possible, which includes designing a sleeve and palm support to make the plastic hand fit onto Jackson’s palm comfortably.
John DeLee is the Adult Educational Coordinator at Hillyard. “Hillyard acquired the first 3D printer in St Joseph about ten years ago,” DeLee said. “At that time, we started a CAD/CAM lab which was shared by students in the machine shop and computer aided drafting programs.”
The school’s second printer, currently in use, is the Dimension Elite, manufactured by Stratasys. DeLee says they acquired the new printer about four years ago.
“When we did our research, this was the product that came out on top, in terms of quality, durability and ease of use,” he said.
In the ensuing years, all three high schools in the St Joseph School District have acquired 3D printers for plastic. The district’s Industrial Technology Coordinator, and Project Lead The Way Coordinator Ryan Stobaugh, says Central High School also has a 3D power resin full color printer. That was purchased about three years ago.
Mr Stobaugh says all three district high schools have next ending 3D scanners. He says middle schools may soon receive smaller 3D printers, depending on grand funding.
As for Jackson, he is excited. His new hand will be in blue and orange, his favorite colors, and will include his favorite superheroes on the palm support.