Quote Originally Posted by Eddie View Post
What are your guys feelings about us creating a section on 3DPrintBoard.com specifically to help facilitate those with missing hands, fingers, etc to connect with individuals that have 3D printers and are willing to print them a prosthetic. I got this idea from doing research into the many different robotic hands out there. I've found that there are some really good designs, that are helping a lot of people already. However, I have also had people email me asking me about where they can have a hand 3D printed. I was considering opening up an organization in order to help facilitate this, but the work load involved would probably be way too much for me to handle. That's when I got the idea to use a section of this forum to do this. What do you guys think? I'd love to get some feedback.

Eddie
Well of course my answer is "Yes!" But I'm a BioMedical engineering student. It might be good to recognize up front that there are other important topics for 3D-Printing in the Medical field besides prosthetics. The materials are going to be a very big deal. Also the actual printing of replacement organs is going to become increasingly important. The argument against the bigger view (for here) is the hobbyist can't really participate in those topics and probably there wouldn't be enough discussion to warrant extra sections.

But even staying focused on prosthetics, the materials topic comes into play. For example, on that finger prosthetic, of course it needs to be strong and work, but having the finger tip be printed with a soft, rubbery texture so it can 'grab' and 'grip' better will eventually become important. The ability to print with a seperate material to conduct heat and cold from the finger tip down a heat pipe to where it mounts on the person's finger would be helpful in certain circumstances.

I'm sure if there was enough discussion in the area, it would eventually make sense how to break things out further.