Printed Solid 3D Printing Store GRAND OPENING and Open House Maker Festival!

April 14, 2016

3dprinting, grand opening, store, ultimaker filament, USA Colorfabb

We’ve been spending the last several months working hard to get our new warehouse and showroom ready to open.

On May 15th, 2016 from 10-4 we will be celebrating with an Open House and Maker Festival and YOU are invited. Our showroom and the entire warehouse at 2850 Ogletown Rd, Newark, DE will be open to the public for this event!

If you want to help us know how many people are coming, please RSVP at event brite. It is free.

Here is some of what we will have going on.

All the products you see at PrintedSolid.com will be on display. Interested in Bronzefill, but haven't been able to convince yourself to make the plunge and buy some? Maybe you think you want a shiny new BCN Sigma 3D Printer, but don't want to make the jump without seeing it in person. This is your chance to check everything out.

If the stars align, we'll have our a brand new Lulzbot Taz 6 sitting for your evaluation and to take preorders.

DOOR PRIZES! We'll be giving out a number of cool things including free class sessions and printed things.

Free samples. Our friends at colorFabb have donated free samples of NGEN filament to giveaway to attendees with printers.

Meet some cool people at our Makers Festival

Special Visiting Guest: Joel Telling from the 3D Printing Nerd YouTube Channel.

Joel has been a friend of ours for a while now. When he heard we were going to be hosting this event, he wanted to be a part of it. So, he’s going to be flying out all the way from Seattle to come for a visit. Stop by to meet him and maybe get a 15 minutes of fame in the video he films of the event (or not if you are shy).

Learn about 3D Design

A representative from Morphi, the easy to use ipad 3D Design App will be present to give demonstrations. Learn how you can easily create your own models for 3D Printing!

3D Printing in Education

We are huge proponents of using 3D Printing as part of education. We've worked closely to help several schools in the region develop strong programs and have also helped many schools throughout the USA select the right material for student projects. Josh Ajima, author of the excellent DesignMakeTeach blog will present some of his work. Local educators will also be on hand to talk about how they use 3D Printing as part of their curriculum.

3D Printing in Engineering Use

3D Printing has a huge amount of value in engineering. It allows ideas to be quickly evaluated. Some of the materials we carry with improved mechanical properties allow some users to even print parts of functional machines on their own printers. Most of the time, these applications are proprietary to the companies doing the work, but competitive robotics teams can be great examples of this application.

The Flaming Phoenix Robotics FTC team will be on site to demonstrate their competition robot. They have made heavy use of 3D Printing on this machine.

Another application is using the 3D printer to print other 3D printers! This is known as reprap and is really the birthplace of all of the consumer grade machines we use. John Abella will be on site demonstrating RepRap printers.

3D Printing as a Creative Outlet

Alright, I’ll admit it. A lot of what you’ve probably seen with 3D Printing and a lot of what we show at our table is simply things that look cool. Hey, I'm a mechanical engineer and have spent most of my adult life working on functional things. Part of what I love about 3D Printing is the ability it gives me as an engineer to produce artistic works that would otherwise be outside of my reach.

We’ll have two 3D Printing artists on site. Vicky Somma and Cole Hastings. We’ll also be showing off some work from Chris Milnes. Here are some examples of their work.

Creative works by Vicky Somma

Some 3D Printed Pop Art from Chris Milnes

3D Printing Medical Applications

3D Printing has become very popular for printing prosthetic arms primarily for kids who quickly outgrow expensive purchased prosthetics. Not only does this allow children who might not otherwise have access to prosthetics to have them, it allows for customization. Our friend Aaron Brown is an active member of the organization E-Nable and has designed numerous character themed arms for kids. Check out this Wolverine themed prosthetic (it's OK mom, the claws are only decorative).

In addition, 3D Printing can be used to help visualize anatomy to help doctors prepare for surgery.

We’ll be featuring an example printed arm as well as example printed anatomy.

What are the kids making?

4 Youth Productions will be showing off some of the work they have done with kids in arts and technology.

Mike Carroll, author of the Dewey Mac book series will be on hand with books and Detective Invent kits.

Facilities and Groups to Access More Making Tools and Expertise

Sometimes you have a project that is more than you can handle on your own. Maybe you need access to expensive equipment, space, or expertise that you don’t have. Or maybe you just want some camaraderie from other like-minded people. That’s what Makerspaces are for.

Wilmington based Barrel of Makers as well as Lancaster based Make717 will both be on hand for hands on demonstrations and to talk about what is available in their organizations.