Giving a little girl a new 3D Printed pink and purple prosthetic arm has to be one of the most admirable uses of a 3D Printer. However, undervaluing design time by charging $50 raises a lot of questions about design, engineering, and printing time. Except for such worthwhile charitable ventures, can you really charge enough to cover the design and fabrication time? Joining Tom and Tracy Hazzard to answer this question is Mark Lengsfeld, the owner of Build It Workspace. Mark introduces us to the reality of what it takes to complete a prosthetic project including design hours, engineering, fabricating, design models, and so much more.
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Listen to the podcast here:
Undervaluing Design Time & Fabrication Hours

3D Printed Prosthetic Arms: Build It Workspace is helping people to help themselves create their own ideas and bring them out to fruition.
Undervaluing design time and fabrication hours can be a slippery slope if you are 3D Printing for a living. But, if you are Mark Lengsfeld from Build It Workspace in Los Alamitos, a project like 3D Printing a prosthetic arm for a 7-year old girl might be completely worth it.

3D Printed Prosthetic Arms: There are some aspects that you may be surprise about, but that goes with any project that you take on.
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Giving a little girl a new 3D Printed pink & purple prosthetic arm has to be one of the most admirable uses of a 3D Printer. But undervaluing design time by charging $50 raised a lot of questions for us about design, engineering and printing time. With the exception of such worthwhile charitable ventures, can you really charge enough to cover the design and fabrication time? Here’s what Mark Lengsfeld had to say… Download the WTFFF 006 Show Notes PDF.
IN THIS EPISODE:
- Understanding the complexities of a prosthetic project
- Knowing when to get help with design models, expert assistance, print settings, etc.
- Realistic estimates of the hours to design, engineer and fabricate
- Views into the iterative nature of 3D Printing any design
- Considerations on when it is worth undervaluing design time
LINKS MENTIONED:
- Build It Workspace
- e-NABLE
- Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) – free file download
- Airwolf 3D
- Cal State Dominguez Hills Orthotics & Prosthetics
- NBC Nightly News segment on Faith Lennox
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Special Thanks!
Thanks to our guest, Mark Lengsfeld from Build It Workspace for sharing his experience (and Faith Lennox’s story) with us.
Thanks also to Jonatan Lind of JTL Films for all the video and audio support and for making us look and sound good! A special shout-out to our daughter Alexandra – without her all the little things like transcripts, proofing and links. We couldn’t do this without you both!
TRANSCRIPT
Click here to download the Transcript for WTFFF 006 Show Notes PDF.
WTFFF?! 3D Printing Videocast
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