Making Things That Make Sense: Repurposing 3D Printers for Good

With the rise in adoption of 3D printers and a new generation of faster, smarter 3D printer models, older 3D printers are being left aside to gather dust. Unlike most commercial e-waste that's hidden behind layers of proprietary tech, the OpenSource nature of early 3D printers allows for the creative reuse of their parts.

We take a closer look at 3 opensource hardware projects that are made almost entirely from 3D printer parts: Recreator3D & Polyformer, BrailleRap Braille Embosser, GuidedHands assistive device. We also look at a range of similar openscience and openhardware projects that implement creative re-use of e-waste to understand how some parts are easier to re-purpose than others.

Hands-on: Using the provided electronic parts (mostly from 3d printers) and with the Critical Making framework in mind, how might we imagine the creative re-purpose of 3D printer and other e-waste parts (or similarly commonplace machines)?

No experience with electronics is required, this workshop involves learning from examples and drawing / sketching imagined machines.