Making Children’s 3D Printed Prosthetics…”SUPER” Awesome…With A Wolverine HAND!

Sometimes…our volunteers get a little crafty…a little artistic and a whole lot – “SUPER” AWESOME! 

One of our volunteers, Aaron Brown, decided that he wanted to build a hand to take to a local children’s hospital and the MakerFaire in Grand Rapids, Michigan and wanted to try using some bright colors…and it just so happens that the college sports teams there are known as the Wolverines.  Aaron writes, “The Comic loving nerd inside of me (along with some Facebook friends) said there is no way I can make a Wolverine hand without CLAWS…so I modeled some in Sketchup the morning before the makerfaire, printed ’em, spray painted ’em silver and velcro’d ’em on there. Turned out pretty darn cool!”

He also writes, “The major holy wow! That’s awesome!” response the Wolverine hand received at the makerfaire, has totally inspired me to build more themed hands. People’s faces just LIT UP! The kids went crazy over it. And don’t worry…the claws aren’t sharp! They are rounded plastic and just stick on and off with velcro…we don’t need to cut off more fingers just to promote e-NABLE!”

We asked Aaron how he got started volunteering with e-NABLE and ended up at a makerfaire with the coolest 3D printed Superhero prosthetic to date – and he said, “I worked for about 7 years in nightclub security, with a few less exciting factory jobs before that..(making cardboard boxes may sound thrilling until you do it for a couple of years!)  

Playing around with technology has always been a passion and hobby on the side and when my grandfather passed away unexpectedly last year, I was left with a small amount of funds in his will – just enough to start building my own business. 

That’s when I started plans to build my own 3D print shop here in town and I bought my first printer and have been devoting every day to learning the industry before I finally invest in a property and a few more machines. 

It was very early on this year, while studying 3D printing that I saw what the e-NABLE group was doing. I knew instantly and told my wife that I couldn’t own a 3D printer, let alone make plans to own many more and not do my part to help the cause. That’s when I built my first trial hand. A little snap together Robohand. Since then, I have just finished my 5th e-NABLE hand, the Wolverine Edition, and I am planning to make many more.

I hope to help any way that I can and keep promoting e-NABLE more and more, especially once I open the doors to my print shop. In the mean time, I have plans for a few project hands – like a Military Wounded Soldier themed hand geared toward adults and to promote to Veteran’s Hospitals, VWF Groups and American Legion Halls. I also want to do some more themed hands for kids…Batman, Iron Man, Captain America…we’ll see!” 

Well – the e-NABLE community is excited to see what Aaron comes up with next for his cool themed hands and I think we may have to start working on investing in super hero colored filaments!