e-Nable hand for Blanca

e-Nabling the future!

View project on GitHub

Raptor Hand

This page documents the initial build of a Raptor e-Nable prosthetic hand for Blanca, a 9 year old student from Stockbridge, GA

I am working on this with staff from Blanca's school as well as a small team that I rallied from the Maker Station makerspace in Marietta. Files for 3D printing the hand can be downloaded using the buttons on the right.

Team Members:
Recipient: Khamareon, Teachers: Cassie N, Shawn G, Makers: Tanju B, Bret L, Mike S, Beverly L, Mycheal J, Jay D

Below is a brief summary blog of milestones as well as details about e-Nable.


Handoff, May 1, 2015

Blanca received her new hand on May 1st!


Hand Assembly - Stringing up the tensioners, April 11, 2015

We got strung out stringing up the hands this past weekend, but we made good progress this past weekend. Just need to tune them now and add the velcro.

Everyone agreed that this part of the assembly process is much harder than the actual printing. Nevertheless, we're on track to have them ready by April 30. Woot!


Raptor Hand print out and assembly, April 6, 2015

Raptor Hand Assembly.jpg

We're having good success printing out the raptor hand. We are liking this design better than the cyborg-beast because the connecting pins are part of the design and are printed along with the rest of the other parts. It makes assembly more productive and satisfying to see it all come together so fast, vs having to size holes and bolting for cyborg beast. You can see the cyborg beast sitting on the table waiting on hardware.

Next step is procuring the tension cables and foam padding.


1st Meeting & Initial Prints, April 3-5, 2015

1st Meeting.jpg

It took us a couple of iterations trying to work off of a photograph to understand the general sizing input for enablethefuture.org's handomatic scaling tool. From a photograph, I input a reference dimension of 74.6 mm off of her right hand. This output a model that had a width of approximately 76 mm. The test print seemed too big for a 10 year old kid, so we were motivated to meet Blanca to get an actual measurement.

After getting a chance to meet Blanca and get a look at her hand inside of the test print, it was obviously too big. We were able to take measurements by direct measurement. We were also able to cast a mold using insta-mold product purchased from Michael's craft store. The casting matched the dimensions that we captured.

Test Palm and Casting -63 mm

Using a 63 mm reference dimension input to the handomatic, I generated a new raptor model and shared with Brett to have him print the fingers on his Up printer at home. Mike will be printing the palm and gauntlet on the new LulzBot Mini down at the MakerStation later in the week.

Target hand delivery date is Apr 30.


About The Maker Station makerspace

The Maker Station is a collaborative, shared workspace where curious and like-minded individuals can come together to work on projects, discover new areas of interest, develop a new business idea, or simply grow their personal hobbies. The space serves the interstate corridor northwest of Atlanta, GA. This includes Marietta, Kennesaw, Acworth, and surrounding areas.


About e-Nable

The e-NABLE community and the “3d Mechanical Hand – Maker Movement” that was inspired by two strangers (a prop maker from the USA and a carpenter from South Africa) that came together from 10,000 miles apart – to create a prosthetic hand device for a small child in South Africa …and then gave the plans away – for free…so that those in need of the device could make them for themselves or have someone make it for them.

What originally started out as a couple of guys who created something to help one child in need…has grown into a world wide movement of tinkerers, engineers, 3D print enthusiasts, occupational therapists, university professors, designers, parents, families, artists, students, teachers and people who just want to make a difference.


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