WENATCHEE — A working hand isn't the first thing students at WestSide High School thought they would be making with a 3-D printer. But when there was a need, the new technology helped them find a way.
Seniors Christian Edson and Lucas Stadther used a new 3-D printer in Brian Herling's math and science class to fabricate a working hand for Leavenworth resident Tom Guthrie. Guthrie, 70, had his right hand and both his legs amputated three years ago after he was infected with sepsis, commonly known as blood poisoning.
The two students presented the hand to Guthrie at the school Wednesday. They helped him put the hand on with Velcro straps. Within a few minutes, Guthrie was able to use wrist motion to open and close the plastic fingers and thumb and pick up light objects including a soft ball and a plastic cup. A full can of Red Bull was too narrow and smooth for his grasp.
"It feels good. It's not too heavy or uncomfortable," said Guthrie, a retired environmental health specialist for the Chelan-Douglas Health District. "This part of my hand gets in the way. I might have to cut a little more off," he joked about his stub that made a poor substitute for the palm of the artificial hand.
"It's going to take awhile to learn how to use it," said Herling.
Edson made some adjustments to the wires that controlled the hand's fingers and thumb. Easy access screws provided fine tuning. Major changes in tension required cutting the length of the wires.
"It's a pretty simplistic design. There's no separate articulation of the fingers. They all work together," said the 18-year-old. "It can pick up larger objects, like a can or a cup. Probably not a coffee cup full of coffee."
Principal Kory Kalahar decided to test that theory a bit. He found a 16-ounce plastic cup and filled it half full of water. Guthrie was able to clutch it in the new hand on his first try and raise it to his lips. The accomplishment brought applause from the group of students and teachers who had assembled in Herling's classroom for the presentation.
Stadther, 17, said he and Edson were learning how to use the new 3-D printer in the class when Galen Guthrie, a teaching assistant at the school, suggested making a hand for her father. It didn't take long for the two eager students to find plans for such a prosthetic on the Internet.
"We didn't have to design it ourselves. Someone else did. We just downloaded it from the Internet. We'd like to design another prosthetic that would be able to pick up smaller objects," he said.
Herling said a perfect-running printer could probably turn out the pieces in less than two full days. But he and students were still learning the process and there were lots of breakdowns, so the project took more than a month. The class now has four 3-D printers of various functionality. Students are using them for an array of projects.
Herling said he works with each student in his math classes. Personalized education is the driving philosophy at the alternative high school. Edson and Stadther are exceptional students who are very curious and self motivated, he said. The 3-D printer offered them an opportunity to do something unique. The school connection with Guthrie escalated the project to one with purpose and need.
"When you have a 3-D printer, you start thinking very differently about things. You can make things that didn't exist before," he said.
It's all very exciting for Stadther and Edson, as well as other students at the school.
"This whole thing is all so new," said Stadther. "We're just on the ground floor of what can be done."
