The first surprise is that the Toronto Reference Library has a drone. The second one is that when a part broke off, a new one was created using one of library’s 3D printers.

No, you can’t borrow the small drone. It’s for a staff video project and not publicly available. But library card holders can use one of the two 3D printers in the Digital Innovation Hub on the main level and on a recent day, both were busy cranking out red and blue plastic pieces for a variety of uses.

Engineering students Lucas Campbell and David Ghazi were working on their final project for George Brown College, printing a prototype for an automated pill dispenser they designed. Objects must be made in two-hour time slots, so Ghazi phones the library to make sure he and Campbell get the first one available. They’ve spent nearly 40 hours at the library so far, and only spent $114 — printing costs five cents a minute.

“Our budget was $1,500 and we’ve barely touched it,” Campbell said. Before 3D printers, which arrived this year at the library, the project would have been much more arduous: Casting a mould, milling some parts, shaping others by hand.

At the library, “we just relax, basically,” as the pieces print out, Ghazi said. “The last time we were here, we just played cards.”

Related:

3D printing full of potential, pitfalls

Will 3D printing revolutionize the way we live?

It took two hours to print a red cylinder about 15 centimetres in diameter and the same for a small set of interlocking squares which will become a 3D “gear cube” for another designer, Ryan Petroff. Like a hot glue gun controlled by a computer, the printer lays down long strings of plastic that harden as they cool in a grid formation.

Using the machines, which each cost the library $2,200, requires a short certification course. More than 325 people have been certified since February and each class fills up, said library project leader Ab Velasco.

Most projects fall into two categories: Whimsical or practical. Phone cases are very popular. Websites like thingiverse.com allow users to download free designs for anything from camera lens caps to lemon juicers to jewelry to prosthetic limbs, though that’s never been tried at the library. Plastic keys, hearts, figurines, puzzles, board game pieces and something called a lithophane — a three-dimensional photograph — have all been printed.

The library has ordered black and glow-in-the-dark plastic for fun and is hosting a “3D selfie” workshop on Tuesday, when people can sign up to be scanned and rendered into a plastic bust.

“2D selfies are so 2013,” Velasco said.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

The possibilities are endless, said “Innovator-in-Residence” Derek Quenneville, who was wearing pink earrings printed in the shape of aliens from the arcade game Space Invaders.

“As long as you have access to a printer, it’s empowering,” Quenneville said. “You can go from imagining something or needing something to holding it in your hand.”