Episode 302: Mercy Wolverton: Solving Real-World Problems with 3D Printers

This week, we share our interview with Mercy Wolverton! Mercy is a student at George Mason University who learned how to use her 3D printer in high school during a senior project seeking to solve real world problems! Mercy shares some of the websites and resources that she used to learn how to print in 3D, and how you can get started as quickly and inexpensively as possible!

Before the interview, Chris and Rachel briefly tease takeaways from their time at ATIA, and talk about a recent email from Brian Whitmer about a google form about the state of AAC in 2024.

Key Ideas this Week:

🔑 Mercy says, when you are learning 3D printing, don’t be afraid of mistakes! It can take several tries to figure out how to make something with a 3D printer, and approaching these mistakes with a growth mindset can help us think of it as a learning opportunity!

🔑 There are 3D printers that are available to use for free at universities, schools, and libraries. If there is someone there who knows how to use the printer, they may be really helpful troubleshooting problems using it.

🔑 Mercy created a website for the work she has done at mercywolverton.com. On her site, Mercy shares about her coding and 3D printing projects and some of her interests. Chris shares why he loves that idea, and why more people should create a website to showcase their interests and projects.

Links from the Episode

3D Printing Resources: Thingiverse (thingiverse.com), Tech Owl (techowlpa.org/3d-printing-at), & Makers Making Change (www.makersmakingchange.com)

Brian Whitmer on TWT discussing Open AAC: https://www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/brian-whitmer

Open AAC’s State of AAC survey, collecting feedback on the state of AAC over the last year

Transcript of the Episode

Please Note: This transcript was generated using speech recognition & AI tools; it may contain some grammatical and/or spelling errors.

00:00:08
Welcome to Talking With Tech. I'm your host Rachel Madel. Join us always by Chris Bugay. Hey, Chris.

00:00:12
How's it going, Rachel?

00:00:13
It's good.

00:00:15
So we just got back from Atia 2024. We're not actually going to talk about it right now. We're teasing it because we're going to record what's probably going to be an entire episode about reflecting on all the major stuff and takeaways from from that conference. Does that sound right to you?

00:00:35
Yes, we had such a great week and I feel very tired but also very energized. I feel like it really fills my cup to be around other people who are just as passionate about AAC as I am and I learned a ton. I connected with so many amazing people and yes, I'm feeling very grateful for this community and really excited to dive in with a full episode for everyone.

00:01:03
Now it's something that I heard nobody talk about at Atia 2024 was open AAC. That didn't come up in a single conversation for me. How about you?

00:01:12
Nope, did not hear open AAC stuff.

00:01:15
Yeah. And just to recap real quick, if you're like what's opening AC, it's the notion that maybe you could place any app on any device. Right now, certain applications might only work on certain devices. But sometimes when you're doing feature matching, you're like, oh, I want this app, but I want this hardware, right? Or I want this software on that hardware.

00:01:38
And it currently the way things are, it's not mix and match like that. You might have to pick some things that sacrifice some of the features because it doesn't exist on a particular system. So the notion of open AAC is meant to sort of address that. And there's lots of challenges around it, and a person that has attempted to maybe take that on, that challenge on is Brian Whitmer. We've done an episode with Brian Whitmer before where we've talked all about open AAC.

00:02:09
I'm sure Luke will will.

00:02:11
Share it in the show notes But so that was not talked about at all in any ATIA. But when we got home from Atia, I had a message in my in my inbox from Brian saying hey Chris, we are putting together a or we have put together a Google form that is on the state of AAC in 2024. Would you mind sharing this? And so I was like sure, I reposted it on X. And essentially what it is, is a number of questions sort of just asking about what your experience has been like around AAC throughout the year.

00:02:51
Yes, I also have an e-mail that needs to be responded to from Brian Whitmer. What happens when I'm away, Chris, is that it's just so many emails like plug the inbox and I'm just like I can't even get to where I need to go. It's just like crazy how many emails you can get in one week. But yes, I'm really excited about this and I really love what Brian is doing because it just feels like everything is so segregated in a lot of ways. And it just ultimately feels really important for us to kind of come together as a field and a niche area being AAC and figure out ways to make that more fluid and more unified.

00:03:37
And so I feel like that's exactly what this is doing and I'm really excited to support this project and this form. So if you guys are listening, I would really encourage you to click on the link and answer some of these questions and really provide information to kind of help move this ball forward.

00:03:54
And I get the impression although he didn't say this explicitly but he asked me to share it on X so it's which is formerly Twitter, that they would like a large number of responses. So what it says here is we are collecting responses from AAC users, family members, therapists, AIDS and anyone else involved in the world of AAC. We would appreciate any help you can provide. So. And it also says all fields are optional and open-ended, of course, because it's opening AC.

00:04:22
So please share what you can and to the level of detail that works for you. So that means if you're listening to this, not only would we invite you to click on the link in the show notes and then fill it out yourself, but if you're working with families, maybe share it with them. If you're working with therapists, other therapists, share it with your team. Share it with educators. It sounds like they want as many responses as possible, and this is the state of AAC in 2024, but what they're really asking for is your reflection on what you've seen in your experiences in 2020.

00:04:53
3.

00:04:55
Yes, so definitely go to our show notes. The link will be in there. Really excited to help support Brian and get more. More information is always better. So if you have anyone you can share with us, with families that you work with, anyone involved in the world of AAC, I feel like it would be really useful.

00:05:14
Let me tell you about our interview today. Now this one I'm particularly excited about because it's a student, right? And I just love the the idea of our podcast where we have some veterans in the field that are getting close to retirement and we have AC users and family members, and sometimes we have students on the podcast. We get the whole gamut here. And this particular student was someone I met when I went to Alabama.

00:05:40
And at the unit, it was called the United Ability Conference. And part of that conference was tables set up and you could kind of walk around kind of like a share fair. And one of the tables set up was this mother daughter team really was just the daughter. And the mom was there supporting her. But she was a high school freshman at the time.

00:06:00
She's a high school senior at the time. She's a college freshman now. And at the table, just tons of 3D printed materials.

00:06:10
For.

00:06:11
People with disabilities and beyond, right? There was some nerd stuff there too, like, you know, Mandalorian helmet and stuff. So of course I was going over there, right? And nerd, I mean, is a term of affection because you know what I mean? OK, so I go over there and we start talking, you know, 3D printing stuff and all the different things and how you can find it, find materials and make materials and how it's it might feel to listeners.

00:06:36
Right now they're like I'm not doing 3D printing. That's somebody elses job. I'm not. They're turning off the interview. No, listen to this interview.

00:06:42
She talks about how it makes it so accessible to everybody and how you can create anything and so we and how it's not as intimidating as it might sound and and there's tons of people in this community that would be eager to help you either get started or help you just do for you. I need this thing. I want to create this thing. I'm having this problem. These are people with a maker mentality and this student is one too.

00:07:08
So without further ado, I would invite you to listen to Mercy Wolverton, who is now a freshman at George Mason University.

00:07:27
We'd like to thank all of the wonderful Patreon supporters who make this show possible. This podcast is funded by listeners just like you who signed up at patreon.com\, Talking with Tech to show their support. Because of the generosity of our amazing Patreon community, we're able to pay Luke and Michaela, our podcast producer and audio engineer who keep the show looking and sounding great. Patreon supporters also received bonus content such as early access to interviews, behind the scenes recordings, additional curated resources and materials, and so much more. Check it out at patreon.com back slash talking with Tech.

00:07:56
Now let's head back into the episode.

00:08:07
Welcome to the Talking with Tech podcast. My name is Chris Bougay and today I have the great honor to be joined by someone I met in Alabama. I had the great privilege to go to a conference and participate in a conference put on by an organization called United Ability. And on the first night of this conference there was sort of a get together and there was a bunch of tables there and at one of the tables is is the guest that we have today. So, mercy, could you introduce yourself and tell people a little bit about who you are, more what you do?

00:08:38
Yeah, so my name is Mercy Wolverton, and I'm a recent homeschool graduate, so I'm going off to college right now. But I've been kind of following hobbies through 3D printing and just like as a maker in general, like my whole high school career. So I've got to really be hands on in a bunch of different aspects in both in coding and 3D printing. So that's kind of like where I've been as like a maker.

00:09:02
Yeah. And I was helping set up the Lesson Picks booth because my friend Beth works for Lesson Picks and we were traveling together. So I was like, well, let me just, and you were setting up right next door to that and I'm like O3D printer. And of course I've had that just grabbed my attention and I I came over to chat with you for a little bit. So let's start there.

00:09:22
How did you get invited to the United Ability Conference? And then what was your table makeup? You know, what was it all about?

00:09:30
Yeah. So last year was my senior year of high school. So I was trying to go and find some big project or big goal to do that year. Because as a home school student, I already had like all of the credits I needed. I really just needed to pick what I wanted to do that year.

00:09:45
So I found this global organization called the Knowledge Society. They call themselves the Human Accelerators where it had they get a bunch of teenagers together to solve real problems in the world. So and then they just kind of keep going through this iterative process throughout the whole year. And through that process I did a project where I was trying to apply my chosen technology, which was 3D printing and find real use cases for it. So the biggest one you find when you're just like Googling, you'll find prosthetics.

00:10:18
After some more work, I found that there's actually even more that you can do with just aids in like little things that you can make rather than a full on hand or alternative device for a limb. But my first project was recreating what other people there's a whole maker community out there with a program called Enable and they had the designs and instructions to create a prosthetic hand. So I just followed those and that was like one of my projects and as part of TK s s program, they want you to get interacting with people who are experts in that field. So I wanted to connect with people who knew a lot about the end users and what they're actually looking for is this something that's real and could be impactful. So I reached out to the wonderful Ashley McElroy at the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services and I have been kind of contacting her back and forth a few times throughout my project.

00:11:12
And then like a month before the convention or a conference, she reached out to me to see if I wanted to put together a booth. And then also later she asked me if I wanted to also speak the following day on 3D printing. So that was kind of like it wasn't my goal, but I'm really glad that it ended there.

00:11:29
Yeah, what an amazing opportunity. So let me take a step back and ask you, when you you said when you first got hooked up with this organization and you were going through the the the process of solving some sort of authentic problem, your interest was in 3D printing. So where did that stem from? Like, I'm always curious where where people find their interests and so how did you gravitate towards 3D printing?

00:11:57
So I think it was like I was probably like 11 or 12 at the time and like 3D printers were just kind of like becoming more well known. And my dad is a he's works in computers and everything. So he was kind of like, on top of that, he's like, oh, this is really cool. SO1 Christmas, that's what we got as like a family Christmas gift. I then proceeded to take it up to my room and it was considered mine then.

00:12:18
So I got to tinker with it and I made little things like key chains, random little figures, stuff like that, that are just fun. But then I that was actually like the year before the pandemic happened, and I kept getting people sending me links for something called the ear guard or an ear saver. And what it is, is it's this plastic like rectangle almost, that has notches on both sides for when you're using a medical mask. Instead of having it shaved behind your ears, it would hold on to the plastic piece and then it would save your ears. That's hence the name Ear Saver or Ear Guard.

00:12:53
And everybody was sending me these links about these other makers around the world who had been making these. So I then was able to kind of change gears from just making figurines. And then I was kind of upscaling. Instead of running it like once a week, I was then running it nonstop. And then I was like learning all of these things because once you're running it nonstop, you're learning 10 times faster.

00:13:14
So that was really great to have like a project and a goal. And so that was kind of where it took off from there. And then, so that was kind of like a real use case. But then the next project that I set my eyes on was a personal project where I wanted to make a Mandalorian suit of armor. So that was kind of the next big project that I had been kind of building up to.

00:13:36
That's so fun. So you add. So it starts with some doodads just to see if you can print them oh, here's something interesting. But then it turns into something that is actually useful for for real people. I know exactly what you're talking about.

00:13:49
I used those towards the start of the pandemic and then print and actually printed a bunch of them so that so that people could use them because it was hurting their ears. Their ears were chafing on the the the people who are not used to wearing masks so that you know exactly the your guard that you're talking about or a version of it. You know what I mean? Because there's definitely multiple versions out there. And then that fuels 22 parts.

00:14:12
There's like a how can I make things that actually help actual people? And oh, how can I make things with some stuff that I'm just interested in like The Mandalorian? And that was a certainly when we were you and I were talking at your table, you were talking about The Mandalorian and you were talking about some of the the cosplay stuff that you had made and just showing me, you know, the pictures. And of course I was geeking out because I'm a Star Wars fan. My son and I watch not just all the shows but like all the animated shows.

00:14:42
So the time of this recording Ahsoka's about to come out in in like a week or something like that. And so we're super excited.

00:14:49
And Marvel. So when I got the chance to kind of make something from those into real life, that was that was awesome.

00:14:56
Yeah, so cool. So cool. So Speaking of cool, you made the ear guard things. That's something useful. What are some?

00:15:04
And you had mentioned how in the E Naval community there's a bunch of things that are made. So what are some of the cool things that you were showing off with at the at the booth and during your presentation at the United Ability Conference?

00:15:18
So there's a bunch of different things that are out there, and there's a bunch of different groups of makers who have kind of put together all the different models. So I didn't actually design any of these models, but there was anything from a something to help you hold lots of bags to something to help you open a water bottle or a can opener or something to hold a can with that's like a soda can that you'd hold with your whole hand. It would give you a handle so that it just kind of sits in there. And then there was a bunch of stuff that was really cool that was like tactile. So for vision impairment.

00:15:50
So if anything from, there's one website that you can put in like an address and it will create a tactile map for it and then you can download it, print it. So like one of the objects I had was I put that in for the location of the the vendors. So I had a tactile map where you can kind of feel the road that we went in and where we were parked and where we were at. There's a bunch of stuff that you can do for like monuments like I I was Sphinx. And then on one side it had the Sphinx like the name of it on in regular text.

00:16:23
And then on the other side, it was in Braille so that you can kind of see it with your hands rather than with your eyes.

00:16:30
Awesome, awesome. I I have been working with students with visual impairments for many years and one of the things that we've had to do in the past is create these tactile maps like you're talking about and we'd have to do it with like glue and let it dry sometimes these things called wiki sticks, you know? And inevitably when we would create something like that, all the other kids would be like, oh, I could learn from this too, right. And that's what I'm sort of hearing you say with the 3D printing is just this is a new way of of and more yeah I guess a new way of thinking about how you can and create tactile supports for anybody. So OK so you're making this awesome stuff that's useful for people with disabilities and beyond.

00:17:18
You mentioned like this organization enable but there's a bunch out there that you might be you could go and look for. Let's talk about some of the tools that you use like you said you had this 3D printer that became yours. Let's talk about some of the tools, some of the websites, some of the software. If if people were like, OK, well I I'd like to print something like this or I'd like to go investigate. What are some of those tools that you would point people to?

00:17:46
So I guess the big part is the 3D printer itself. I have my own 3D printer, but you can actually use them at schools, at public libraries, universities, maker spaces, all of those different buildings and facilities. You'll likely have at least one of them that are open for you to use, and you'll usually be able to use it for free. And if you want to buy your own, then there's a bunch of beginner printers out there that you can get for like less than $200. Or you can even get what I would consider one of the best printers on the market right now for $500.

00:18:19
So you can even the top end models are starting to come down in budget, which is actually making it more feasible for more people to get into it. So when you have those, the printer and you're, you know, able to use it either whether it's you have your own or you're using somebody else's, then you want to find a model. So there's a bunch of websites that you can find a bunch of models that other makers all over the world have kind of put out what they already created. So the biggest one you'll find anytime somebody's talking about 3D modeling is Thingiverse. It can be anywhere, like a bunch of the models that I had on display at my vendor booth.

00:18:56
A lot of them were found on Thingiverse, but then you can also find things like when I was making the Mandalorian, all of the Mandalorian parts were on Thingiverse. Any little figures, any anything is on Thingiverse. That's usually the go to. But then you'll also find a lot of smaller, maybe more specific websites like enable their downloads and everything were on their own website. And then there's another big one for different aids is Makers making Change and Tech Owl.

00:19:25
So I think Tech Owl is like a Pennsylvania organization and then makers making changes another global, I think it's global, not just countrywide, I think it's global bunch of makers coming together and sharing all these files. So then you can find the models, you don't have to create them yourself.

00:19:43
So tell us about the 3D printers that you use is we understand that you're not actually getting sponsored by these and we're not sponsored by these. But still, if people were going to go search what are where's what's a good like, you know, oh here's what, here's the high end one. This is what I would recommend or this is a starter one. What would you suggest?

00:20:00
So the easy starter one is Creality Ender 3 or you can go a few steps that there's a whole lot in that whole Ender 3 division. So there's the basic Ender 3 model, and then there's Ender 3V2. And then the Neo is kind of like has all the basic upgrades and they kind of go up like 50 to $100 each different version of the Ender 3. But that's a good go to, it'll probably be two to $300.00 based on what upgrades you do with it. And then the big one that I is my baby right now.

00:20:29
I just got it this past December and it's the bamboo P1P and it also just decreased by $100 because they just released, yeah, another version of their printer. And it probably prints. It's the one that I brought to the conference and it prints like three times as fast and is like three times as accurate. So I love it. It's a really solid printer.

00:20:50
It's $500.00, so it's a little bit more than, you know, a starter printer, but it doesn't fail nearly as much. So it's a really great printer.

00:20:58
How many years do you think you'd expect to get out of a 3D printer? Like, OK, yeah, I'm going to pony up 500 bucks, but that's going to mean I have this thing that lasts for.

00:21:10
So let's see, I have the first printer that I got. I still have, it's still running. It's had some kinks along the way, a lot of parts that I've had to fix, but I think that was ACR 10 model, which is a little bit different. It was a DIY model we got. It was some off brand, but that one was probably six years ago and it's still running.

00:21:33
We had to replace the power supply, but everything else it the core of it is still running like the motherboard and everything so.

00:21:42
And like anything, if you take care of it, but generally it just runs and there's a little bit of maintenance, but otherwise six years and still going right. So you can get six worth, six years worth of of 3D printing. I'm going to go and say that since we're having this conversation about like acquiring a 3D printer, something that a lot of people listening to this podcast might be interested in using a 3D printer for is 3D printing key guards. We've done a whole episode and talked to people who who who sort of specialize in printing 3D key guards. So you can imagine a a communication device.

00:22:17
Yeah, you saw a bunch of them at the at the conference, right. And sometimes people will have to get a key guard to help them target what target the cells on these communication devices, and 3D printing is a perfect use for that. But what I found is you need a bed, meaning the the platform that the 3D printer is printing on needs to be large enough to print the the key guard. So I'd be looking at something that would be large enough to to print a key guard. So that's another little piece of advice for me based on this conversation.

00:22:52
So that's the hardware. And then you mentioned a bunch of software. I could not agree more about Thingiverse. That's a good place to go and just sort of tinker around like, you know, somebody that is a that's big into dinosaurs. You know, let's type in dinosaurs.

00:23:07
You know, you're like somebody that just loves Chihuahuas. Type in Chihuahuas and see what kind, you know, making what what kind, what's been created already there's the maker community is and especially those making in 3D, they making 3D objects are very open to sharing their work. Is is that at least that's my perspective. Have you found that as well?

00:23:30
Definitely. Like, they're even willing for you to, like, take theirs and keep editing it. And then you send out a remix on Thingiverse and you'll find like one model with 20 remixes of it.

00:23:40
Yes, yes, I've added this. I've added that. I've changed this. Yeah, it's sort of a picture of open learning or open source. And the whole idea is that I'll create something and then I'll I.

00:23:53
So when anyone creates anything, that person automatically owns the copyright.

00:23:59
For it, but they can.

00:24:00
License their thing out and say, hey, no, I'm actually going to make this Creative Commons and I'm going to put it open to the world. So I love your word remix that someone else can remix it. They could duplicate it just as it is, or they can remix it how they want, and there's different levels of licensing that way. But the maker community certainly is very open that way about sharing. OK, so those are some great tools to go check out if you want to get started.

00:24:24
I also want to reiterate your advice to, if you don't own one, to check out your local school, I bet you you know some somebody that does people listening to this podcast. If you don't work in a school, the local library totally makes sense. Most libraries, many libraries, certainly in our neck of the woods, all the public libraries have 3D printers and they know somebody, somebody works there that knows how to give you some advice about, oh, why isn't this printing right? Or, you know, what's the what does rafting mean or what are layers, You know, like all this kind of there's a little bit of a jargon to it, but not not a huge learning curve. Has that been your experience?

00:25:02
Yeah. And I I actually first started in like the public sphere was in a maker space and they had a bunch of courses. So they had somebody who was like their guru with 3D printing. And he would be like, Oh yeah, every Wednesday come by and we'll make something walk through the whole steps.

00:25:18
So is that how you literally learned it? I mean, was it, was it mostly going to these classes or Let's talk about that just for a second. How did you learn how to 3D print?

00:25:27
So I learned just through trial and error, I had like a YouTube video that showed me how to set it up and I played the the default print that came with the printer and then just kind of started finding other prints that I wanted to make and trial and error found me to where I'm at now. I made some good friends who are also into 3D printing. So like when I was doing the ear guard project, we were comparing like he was doing 10 different ear guards on his build plate and it took him two hours. I was doing 10 and it took me 5 and we're like, wait, that doesn't sound right. What?

00:25:59
What settings do you have that I don't have? So like that is like a really fast way to learn all the specific settings is by just getting to know other people who are doing it. But then I did get to talk a lot with the people at their makerspace. I mainly learned a lot in like CNC and ABS, so I do a lot with a material called PLA. So just plastic.

00:26:21
It's very safe, especially since I took the printer up to my bedroom. So I don't use ABS which emits some fumes while it's printing, but it is a really nice and cool filament to know how to use. So I was learning kind of from people who know how to deal with it safely at the makerspace. In in addition to, there are other machines that they had in there.

00:26:41
All right. So at this point, listeners might be going PLAABS and well, this is, I just want to print something. What advice would you give to an educator to kind of get started? Like, OK, here's what you need to know.

00:26:57
So first, I would just say you want to be able to make sure that you're failing fast. Because the more you're failing, the more that you're trying to print something, the more you're going to end up printing. It doesn't matter if you failed 10 times and it looks like a whole bunch of mess of plastic and you don't have anything in your hands, but then you have that one finished piece and it probably took you. Maybe it took you 10 fails to get there, but if you failed the first time and never picked it up again, you never would have gotten to that success. Also the another big thing is whenever you're doing any of the models, like you're downloading it from Thingiverse or whatever, there's so many defaults already put in place that you don't have to do a lot of tweaking and knowing what all of the jargon is to hit print.

00:27:42
And once you just hit print, then you can see if it doesn't work, you can kind of see, well, what did happen? Like, does it, What does it look like? Can you explain that? And then you just go to Google and you say, well, my print looks like spaghetti. Why is that?

00:27:54
And then a lot of the people, it's a really great maker community. They've all, there's so many threads online that you can see like, Oh yeah, this person has the exact same type of printer with me. And they even share, like, this photo that's exactly like mine. Oh, And they said change the bed temperature to be 5° higher. So you try that.

00:28:10
So you just once you can get it to the print just using the defaults, then you can start tweaking and making it different until you get it to where you want to be.

00:28:19
I absolutely love this advice, not just for 3D printing, but really just about anything. Because what I heard is, well, you said fail fast, and I think of it as fail forward. Like no one, anyone listening to this podcast would probably has an experience around writing an essay or something like that. Well, no one just spits out the perfect essay. No one spits out the perfect e-mail.

00:28:43
There's always the back button for a reason. You you. It's iterative design, right? You get better and better by making mistakes. So go ahead and make those mistakes.

00:28:53
There could be a fear when it comes to 3D printing. Like, Oh my goodness, I it turned out like spaghetti. Like it. The thing didn't go right and now I've wasted all this filament. But you wouldn't say that or you wouldn't.

00:29:09
You'd maybe forgive yourself if you printed three if you printed paper and you'd be like, oh geez, this didn't print right. Yeah, you might feel a little bit of waste, but you rip it up and you print again. Same idea that it's very inexpensive is that. I mean, again, expense is subjective, but still, it's not so expensive that you need to beat yourself up for it. You should really think of it as a learning opportunity.

00:29:31
Is that fair?

00:29:33
Yeah, for sure. I I actually keep all of my failed prints because I think in some way down the line there's going to be a way to recycle it. It's not there yet, but eventually. But right now I have like 2 full trash bags in the last year of all of the failed prints, so I I think that I'm a pretty solid maker at this point. I've made several suits of armor and all these other things, but I still fail a lot.

00:29:56
Totally. And you will in everything you try. But that's how you succeed, right? So let me just tell you, here's what I do with my failed prints. And so when, Let's tell people this.

00:30:07
So when you're 3D printing, often there's a base and then you're going to peel off that base afterwards and that do something you discard. Well, I don't even discard that. That goes into a bucket. But so these are often the size of like, let's say, ornaments that you hang on a tree, right? Is that fair?

00:30:24
Like, you know, they often know that size. And so something that my kids and I have done is we've taken all of these, many of these, we've drilled holes in them, tied a little fishing line around them. And then just with marker, we write some sort of affirmation like you're awesome or look around or smell the roses. Then we take them out to the woods. And near our house we have some trails.

00:30:48
And so we hang them up on these trails and we call it trail magic. Right As you're going through the trails, what's this thing that I discovered here hanging on this tree? Oh, it says I look like, great today, you know? Or whatever that affirmation is so that there's some use for this plastic. It doesn't feel like you're wasting.

00:31:04
It feels like, well, we can recycle it. And I also love your thought about how someday, maybe someone will create something where you send this to it, it melts it down in a RE you can reuse. It goes back into a spool of new PLA to for someone else to to to use.

00:31:21
Yeah, exactly. I actually, when I was first going through the projects for like what I wanted to do with 3D printing, my first idea was to make something that kind of melted it down and re spooled it. And then I actually went down like a rabbit hole for like probably 48 hours where I was doing all of this research on how that would actually work. And there's actually a lot out there already that people are working on it. So like, I can tell that if 3D printers have come down in so much price and have increased in quality by like 100%, I have no doubt in the next like 5 to 10 years we're going to have that.

00:31:56
It might not be something in everybody's household, but it's going to be something that people can actually use, and it's going to be more. It's going to make this process where you're failing and you're failing often, and it's going to make that way more. I kind of like taking a burden off your shoulders because you're going to be able to just repurpose it and then you can just fail again with the new one. And you're not failing with new material or anything. You're just kind of repurposing the old material.

00:32:21
Now, something else that I heard you say, both in how you're learning, but then also the advice that you gave you gave is finding a community and leaning on that community, not not being afraid to ask questions. And then of course, once you learn something, contribute back to that community with what you've learned and become an active member of that community. Would you Would you feel like you're a part of an A maker community?

00:32:46
For sure. It's crazy how people can be so far away from you and can have the same exact passions that you can have and then that really just having that same passion no matter where or who you're from or whatever, It kind of brings you together and it allows you to get so much better at what you're doing by sharing information and everything. I have one friend that I met in the Knowledge Society this year. He lives in Canada, but he also has what we call print farm, which is where you have a lot of 3D printers. So he has that set up in his room, and I have mine set up now and I'm in my laundry room.

00:33:24
It's moved from my bedroom now, but we were kind of comparing and contrasting what 3D printers we liked. And he was the one who actually gave me the recommendation for the bamboo printer that I ended up getting this in this past December. So that's where I got really great advice for finding a new printer and we had so many great conversations throughout that process. That was just awesome.

00:33:45
Yeah, and you can just lean on each other and you feel like if you're stuck, you have someone you can go to or a whole community, people they can go to and they can come to you and you find your people that way, right? And become part of a community. Mercy, let me ask you. You said you made like Mandalorian costumes, right? And well, I'll come to this in a second, but it seems like you would 3D print some of the elements of a Mandalorian costume.

00:34:17
Or really, if you think of cosplay or creating things in general, 3D printing is one element of a larger maker mindset or creating mindset. What are some other materials you use? You know, when you're crafting the Mandalorian helmet and armour and and all that kind of stuff? What else do you use?

00:34:39
So I guess the biggest other material is Velcro kind of holding it all together cuz you have all of these finished plastic parts, but they don't magically attach to your shirt or whatever pants they are using. You have to find a way to keep them on and to do that secure, but also so that you can still take it on and off. And so like my first iteration was, I actually tried to use magnets, which was great. But then sometimes when I was walking, the pieces would just be like falling off because I nudged it. So we're like, OK, maybe magnets won't work, but we had, we found Velcro, and it's like this industrial Velcro that I put 1/2 of it onto whatever shirt or sweatpants that I'm using for the suit.

00:35:23
And I'll put the other one on the back of the 3D print. And it has held super strong. And I've had no flying, you know, pieces of armor when I'm walking around. And then I just have to kind of designate this shirt is forever going to be the Mandalorian shirt. And this pair of sweatpants is forever going to be the Mandalorian pair of sweatpants.

00:35:42
But that's I've kind of like gotten around the use of having to do a lot of sewing or different fabric work, because I'm choosing these characters that have like 90% of them is covered in armor. And then the biggest part is just finding what what shirt is good underneath what like pants or like cargo pants or whatever. And then like I got to find, I had to find a cool Cape. So that was the cool part. But that wasn't hard.

00:36:09
I just had to find the cool looking Cape.

00:36:12
That's awesome. That's awesome. So let me again try and synthesize some of what I hear you saying about the what you're creating and how you're creating it. So in Virginia and really in the larger scope of things and you should know this because we haven't said, we haven't said this yet, right. But you're this, these are next steps.

00:36:34
You're going to be coming to Virginia. So that's foreshadowing from what Mercy's going to talk about here in a second. But here in Virginia in the larger landscape of education, we have something called the Five CS. Back in the day when I was in school, we had the the Rs like you know the Three R reading, writing and arithmetic. But today's day and age, we have the CS and that stands for the first C is critical thinking.

00:36:57
And certainly when you're creating anything from a maker space perspective on a 3D printer or the armor that you're making, you're constantly thinking through what what makes sense? Why isn't this working? You're going through sort of a logical troubleshooting, problem solving mentality. Does that, first of all, does that resonate? Do you find that you're constantly problem solving and so you're building your critical thinking skills?

00:37:23
Yeah.

00:37:24
Yes.

00:37:25
Cool. The next C that people talk about is collaboration. And here you're talking about the the guy with the server farm that you made friends with and you're collaborating back and forth. And that's just one person. I'm going to guess that there's people in a Star Wars community that once you've made the Mandalorian armor or other people that have this really niche that they're making Mandalorian armor.

00:37:48
So the, the, the, the, the macrocosm of making the smaller organization or a smaller group of people that make cosplay and then the smaller organization of group of people that make Mandalorian or Star Wars cosplay, but all of those you're collaborating with, all of those, is that fair?

00:38:09
Yeah, you can find anyone in, whether it's like very broad or very specific, you'll be surprised who you'll connect with.

00:38:17
Now one of the other CS that we talked about, we talked about the five CS is creativity. And is there anything more creative than making stuff like this, you know, and figuring out besides the problem solving with the critical thinking, just being creative in how you want to paint it and how you want it to look, you know, let me ask you that. When you were making your Mandalorian armor, did you make your own Mandalorian armor or did you make it a replica of a character in like, you know what I mean? Like are you making your own? What do you?

00:38:49
I made my own. I didn't want to do the basic silver one. I didn't think at that point I could make it convincingly look like silver, But I also, more than just that, I wanted to make it purple, so I didn't see one out there. I hadn't watched Clone Wars yet. Like, don't tell Anybody, but I hadn't watched that.

00:39:07
So I hadn't seen a lot of other Mandalorian armor from Star Wars outside of just Boba Fett and the Mandalorian. So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to find a bunch of mismatchy models out that I like. They're not even, like, a lot of them aren't from Denjure. And who's the Mandalorian?

00:39:25
I think I had like a couple that are from Boba Fett. But mostly it's just a bunch of random Mandalorian armor pieces that I kind of just chose which one I thought looked best. And then I was just like, oh, and I think I want to do purple and white and I just kind of got to decide the color scheme and all of that. That was really fun part.

00:39:42
That is so fun, right? How creative can you get to make my own own character, right. So I just want to clarify something. So did you not know who Boca Tan was until you saw The Mandalorian? You didn't know the back story I.

00:39:56
Did not. But one of my friends again, the collaboration thing, you'll find a bunch of random people and he was telling me about how you know, it was so awesome to see Boca hand in there. I'm like. Oh, so that was supposed to be like this really great, like, connection to the other part of the universe. And I didn't even catch it.

00:40:14
So they told me they give me a list of episodes to watch. I have yet to follow through, but I will do so.

00:40:19
That's what's so fun about. I mean, there's a lot of universes like this, right? Marvel's like this, actually. I think The Walking Dead is like this. There's a bunch of different where you can enjoy it on different levels.

00:40:30
If you get all those connections, great. And if not, it didn't inhibit your enjoyment of the show itself. It's a awesome character that I get to fall in love with and what you know really resonate with. I mean, I certainly did without knowing the back story, but if you want to go deeper, you can, you know, there's all sorts of different.

00:40:48
Countries. That was really awesome. I didn't lose anything in the storyline. The storyline was well thought out.

00:40:54
Yeah, totally, totally. All right. So the other CS are what I'm a big fan of. In fact, I should have mentioned it first because this podcast is all really about this communication, right? So not only are you talking to these people, but it leads to like the the community that we're talking about, but it leads to opportunities like this professional opportunities where you're learning.

00:41:17
So I, I, I, I can talk to my friends about this. I can talk in professional spaces about this. You're learning communication skills. Is that fair?

00:41:25
100% It's easier to communicate about something you know or want to know about too. So whether or not you're nervous about going into something like this, and I've never done something like this before or with the speaking at the conference, I've never really done anything to that level before. But having that, like knowing that you're doing something that you're passionate about or that people are going to be listening to you because they're also passionate about it or passionate to learn about it, then it just kind of makes it easier to go into this learning how to communicate and doing all of these like speaking and everything with that. So it's it's been a great just to have that passion to learn that communication.

00:42:04
Awesome, awesome. The last C, just to round them out. There is also a theme of what you've been talking about is either that some people say contributing is other people's say citizenship, but the idea is that you could just make for you and if you wanted to great. But I definitely hear this theme of wait, there's I can solve, I can help other people with the work that I'm doing with my skill set and my knowledge, and so why don't I contribute back, right So And is that fair?

00:42:34
For sure I There's so many ways that even if it isn't something that you decide, oh, I am going to go out and find this problem like I did with the prosthetics and I kind of actively went and sought that one out. But even just if you're talking to people about what you like to do on on the side, like when I was first telling people that I liked 3D printing stuff, then I had people coming to me and sharing with me the ear guards and the ear savers. So like, sometimes if you just communicate and you get into a community, things will find you and then you'll find a way to give back, even if it isn't something you were initially seeking out.

00:43:09
I love that. I love that. So much. So mercy at. In Alabama, when you and I met, you had business cards.

00:43:17
In fact, did you 3D print a business card holder? Am I remembering that that it was in a or is it? Were they just?

00:43:22
In a stack. It was in a plastic stand, but it was not the one that I 3D printed. I have one 3D printed but I didn't bring it with.

00:43:28
Me. Gotcha, gotcha. And I've known people that 3D printed their business cards too, if that's something.

00:43:35
I've been looking at doing that, but I haven't found a good way to do it yet for mine.

00:43:39
So I'm looking. So I get your business card. I bring it home. I put it on the coffee table. You know, I empty my pockets.

00:43:46
You know, my wife is sitting there and she's like, oh, what's this? And so I'm telling her about you and I'm like, wait, you've got a website? And so let me just say how impressed both my wife and I were about your website because we don't know many people your age that sort of have built a website about who they are, what they're into and use it for professional purposes, you know what I mean? So can we talk about your website for a second and how it the genesis of it? How what, what made you want to make one?

00:44:16
Can you describe a little bit for this audio podcast? We'll put it in the show notes, if you can go check it out. Just tell us a little bit about how it got started and how you're using it and you know your thoughts about it in general.

00:44:27
So I guess it comes back again to the knowledge society. They were kind of building your whole portfolio and one of the things that they were like, oh, it's, you know, something that you'll want to have is a website. So I researched how to make a website and I think I used like GoDaddy or something online that just was dragging blocks in. So I was able to just create it. It has like the a very broad high on mercy and then it has kind of I broke down everything that I've kind of been working on into like I think, I think it's three different categories, like what I learn, what I'm making and what I'm teaching.

00:45:05
So it's kind of like the three state stages. I start by learning whatever it is. Like when I was learning coding, I had to learn it first and then I found that I was really passionate with it. So then I wanted to do stuff with it. So I was creating like text based games or different programs, automations, and then I was really happy with what I was doing and everything and I wanted to share it.

00:45:27
So I started teaching and tutoring in coding. So I've done that with a bunch of different aspects in my life, whether it's coding or 3D printing or anything. So it kind of all falls down into those 3 stages. So I kind of was able to outline that and then I think I highlighted a couple other projects that I had been working on, on the website as well. So that was kind of like the overview of what I had on there, Yeah.

00:45:49
It's awesome. I feel like that in in this day and age, everybody should have a website that sort of illustrates who they are. And it feels like before you go off to when you're transitioning because you're currently transitioning from your current schooling to the next schooling, that is a perfect time to build something like this so people know who you are and what you're about. And I love the idea of what I'm learning about putting that on the that's a that's a strategy a lot of teachers use is like here's what I'm reading or here's what I'm learning about to illustrate that we're lifelong learners. I love that on a website as well.

00:46:23
So I I've hinted at it a couple Times Now about what comes next for you. So let's tell people what comes next for you.

00:46:30
So it's very soon actually. I think I'm moving in a couple days, but I'm going to be moving from northern Alabama over to George Mason University around Fairfax area. So it's actually coming full circle for me. I was born in Virginia, and my older sister lives right there. So I'll be right next to family, but away from home.

00:46:50
So it'll be a nice kind of balance between the two. But at George Mason, I get to kind of mention that I'm into computers. So I'm going to be following cybersecurity as my major cybersecurity engineering. But then since we've been kind of talking this whole time about 3D printing, I also made sure when we were going up there and scouting out the canvas and everything that they have this really cool maker space where I think they have a whole table like front and back full of just ender threes. And it's like, I'm just trying to visualize all the different parts that I can have simultaneously printing at the same time.

00:47:24
And I'm like, oh, I cannot wait to make use of their maker space in there. And like, beyond that, they have resin printers, which I haven't gotten into that much. They have 3D scanners in there. So like, I've done like trinkety little scanner things, but they have an actual one. So like you can make figures of yourself.

00:47:42
And there's so many different things in their maker space that I want to just kind of tinker around with and like, learn more about. So that's kind of like the next big thing is kind of learning from that community that's there.

00:47:52
Oh, that's going to be so fun. I'm familiar with the place you're talking about because Fairfax is neighboring to Loudon County. I'm in Loudon County, So welcome, welcome to Northern Virginia. That's exactly where I am. And I think actually as you're on your way up, my son is going to Virginia Tech.

00:48:10
We'll be passing each other on Route 81 probably on the same day I think of of moving into our different colleges here. So that's super exciting to to know that there's already community that you can step into. You have this confidence of because of all the years of of tinkering and playing and learning that you can walk into and and and the mindset to continue growing and learning. So super exciting. Let me ask you this in the maybe maybe it's a big sort of final question here because we wish you the best of luck in your in your studies up here in Northern Virginia.

00:48:46
And oh by the way I should say too that if you ever need anything I know tons of people that work at George Mason. I used to be an adjunct adjunct professor there so happy to connect you with people if you ever need to. So don't don't hesitate to reach out. So big final question here for you is beyond 3D printing maybe in relation to making but it doesn't have to be in relation to making. What are you learning about or like you mentioned coding.

00:49:13
Is there something in the world right now that has kind of got you jazzed that you're curious about? It's got you, you know, you're talking about in your communities, you're asking people about what sort of is floating your boat right now? I'd.

00:49:27
Say so I kind of talked about the difference between like PLA and ABS, and I was recently working on this one project that kind of opened my eyes to using different materials. And recently I was playing around a lot with PET G filament and it's a lot more of a flexible filament, but it's also a lot more resistant. So there's I don't know how it came along, but like I had like 3 different projects that all like the solution to all the problems I've been having was just using PETGI instead of PLA. I was making a solution to somebody had a piece for their garden that like, it covers the top where they had like a water system where they had a bunch of plants and stuff that the lid like flew off in the storms that we've been having. So she was, she wanted to see if I could print a solution to it.

00:50:16
So the first one I made it was PLA and it like crumbled in the first couple days and I'm like, OK, back to the drawing boards. And I've had a roll of PETG or PETG in my, you know, laundry room that I just never really touched because I hadn't learned how to use it. And I was like, you know, and now is as good a time as any. And I figured out how to kind of change the settings to work with Pet G and I sent it to her and this one has been going strong for two weeks now with no visible damage or anything. It's withstood the several storms we've had since then.

00:50:49
So that was awesome. And then I had a different project where I'm designing a a sock guide for somebody who is working on they have to wear like thigh high socks, but it's hard for them to bend over every morning. So I have this design where it will they'll kind of like use jump ropes to pull it up their leg. But the issue was like, it was so stuck where it was like in the shape that you couldn't it wouldn't like morph to the sock or the foot or it just wasn't quite working right. It was too big and too small and it just I couldn't really figure out how to fix that if it was both too big and too small.

00:51:25
So once I had kind of like learned more about pet GI was like Oh well this isn't perfect application for this other project that I was working on. So now I'm actually going to after this be presenting that to the person. We get it kind of try it out see if it works. But that's all to just just to say, like, I've just scratched the surface with PLAI think I've got a pretty good understanding of it now, but there's so many different applications for it and with pet G and like all the other types of filaments. So I can't wait to kind of mess around with the other types of filaments now that I kind of reached the surface of them.

00:51:59
Yeah, Mercy, what you're talking about here really resonates with me. I was working with a teacher in our local school district. We were doing 3D printing of key guards, and a big discussion was what material do we use to print these key guards? Yes, PLA. That's probably the most popular and the one people use the most.

00:52:19
And certainly we started, but then he used a different material. And I don't know if it's the one you're talking about, but it was more rubbery, you know, like it came out more rubbery and it was a little bit more flexible. And if you as your finger goes to hit the AAC button, if it hits the this, this rubbery, you'd still get the feedback, but it was just a little bit more forgiving it would be, it wouldn't break as as often it was a little bit more pliable. You could bend it and more fit to get it into different cases, Often the PLA. It's flexible, but not as flexible as this rubbery material.

00:52:52
So do you think that's what it might be? This? Would you call it Pet G?

00:52:55
Pet G or PETG? I've heard several different people call it different things. I've only ever read it up to this point, so I don't know if that's how you pronounce it or not. But PETG or Pet G, another one that's super flexible is TPU, and that's more like if you're making a toy car and you wanted to make the tires. It's like literal rubber.

00:53:15
I tried that also for the the sock guide, but that turned out to be way too flexible. It would not hold up at all. But yeah, PETG has been awesome.

00:53:25
Awesome. OK, so that's what you're experimenting with is experimenting with different filament types and seeing if they can be the solution to some of the different problems that you're having.

00:53:33
Yeah, exactly.

00:53:35
Oh, exciting. So exciting. All right. Any final thoughts? Mercy before I before we end the podcast here, any other thoughts?

00:53:41
Thoughts that thoughts that to to help educators in their endeavor to to to make stuff.

00:53:48
Just keep failing. Don't be afraid of a failure.

00:53:52
Love it, love it. Don't just drop the mic there. If people did want to reach out to you, is there a way to just direct them to your website?

00:53:59
Yeah, there's a contact on my website that'll get directly to my inbox.

00:54:03
Awesome. Well, best of luck in college and stay in touch.

00:54:08
Awesome. Thank you.