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About e-NABLE

The Origins of e-NABLE

The e-NABLE Community is an amazing group of individuals from all over the world who are using their 3D printers to create free 3D printed hands and arms for those in need of an upper limb assistive device.

They are people who have put aside their political, religious, cultural and personal differences – to come together and collaborate on ways to help improve the open source 3D printable designs for hands and arms for those who were born missing fingers or who have lost them due to war, disease or natural disaster.

The e-NABLE Community is made up of teachers, students, engineers, scientists, medical professionals, tinkerers, designers, parents, children, scout troops, artists, philanthropists, dreamers, coders, makers and every day people who just want to make a difference and help to “Give The World A Helping Hand.”

https://vimeo.com/152492035“Giving the World a Helping Hand” from Jen Martin Studios on Vimeo.

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In 2011 Ivan Owen created a crazy metal functional puppet hand to wear to a steampunk convention. When he and his wife, Jen Owen, returned home from their adventure, he decided to post a short video of it on Youtube. Little did they know that one simple video clip would change their lives and thousands of others – forever.

A simple Youtube video of the hand led to an email from a carpenter named Richard from South Africa, who had lost his fingers in a woodworking accident and a collaboration across 10,000 miles to create a replacement finger for him that lasted nearly a year. They worked through various prototypes and designs via Skype and email, using objects they could both find around their homes and respective countries.

This ultimately led to a mother of a 5-year-old boy contacting them to see about the creation of a tiny version of this hand for a little boy named Liam who lives in South Africa who was born with no fingers on his right hand.

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Ivan started researching prosthetic devices and stumbled upon the story of Corporal Coles hand. It was created in the early 1800’s by an Australian dentist named Dr. Robert Norman who constructed it from whalebone, cables, and pulleys. This one hand, created over 100 years prior, inspired the design of what is now the building block for every e-NABLE Community 3D printed hand.

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After creating the first prototype for Liam, Ivan realized that he would quickly outgrow the hand and started researching the use of 3D printing to create the next version. He taught himself how to use 3D printer design software and contacted a 3D printer company that donated 2 3D printers so they could work on creating a stronger and more functional design for him.

Together, they created the first 3D printed mechanical hand.

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Instead of patenting the design for this new hand and making a profit, Ivan decided to publish the design files as open-source and public domain, so that not only could Liam have a hand, but so that people could download and print these devices for anyone that needed one too – anywhere in the world. In January 2013, the files went live on Thingiverse in their clunky, chunky, “Frankenhand” style and all he could do was hope that a more experienced designer would find them and take them and improve them and re-share…and boy did they ever!

The Birth of the e-NABLE Community

In July of 2013, Jon Schull, a professor at RIT, came upon a video featuring Liam using his newest 3D printed hand and noticed that people were leaving comments and offering up their own 3D printers to help make hands for people who might need them. He decided to see what would happen if he went and started a Google+ group and created a map for makers to share their locations so that people who were seeking a hand could find the closest volunteer. He left a comment on the video and invited people to join him and put themselves on the map.

The e-NABLE Community started with around 100 or so people who were simply offering to print the files that were already in existence and a handful of devices had been made..and then something beautiful started happening…designers started joining and doing exactly what Ivan had hoped they would…..they started innovating….collaborating and re-sharing the improved design files back out into the universe! It was incredible!

Within that first year – the e-NABLE community grew from 100 members to over 3000. They created over 750 hands for people around the world.

Now, several years later, they have grown to over 10,000 members and several thousand devices created and gifted to individuals in over 100 countries.

All of these 3D printed hands and arms were free to the end user thanks to the incredible volunteers in our community.

As the community of makers began to grow, Jen Owen decided to start a blog about this project to document the designs as they changed and morphed into better and more functional versions. Makers were joining the community by the hundreds every week and sharing and re-sharing their ideas and new files. More and more children were getting helped as we began a matching process that would connect a recipient to a maker willing to print and assemble a device for them.

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Infinite Possibilities

It is incredible to think that a simple prop mechanical hand was the catalyst for what is now a global movement and a community of makers, tinkerers, artists, designers, humanitarians, teachers, parents, children, engineers, occupational therapists, medical professionals, philanthropists, inventors and everyday people who are using their 3D printers and design skills to create free 3D printed hands and arms for those who need them.

You never know where your ideas and imagination will take you!

There are random strangers creating hands for children they will never meet.

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There are teachers helping school children to learn to build hands for other children and inspiring them to turn around and use these experiences to find ways to change the world in other ways.

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There are hundreds of scouts troops who are spending their free time to put on large build workshops to create hundreds of 3D printed hands to ship to places like Haiti and Syria.

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There are parents creating devices for their own children.

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There are people reaching out into their communities and helping people in places where medical care is hard to find and owning a traditional prosthetic device is nothing but a dream.

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There are children who are learning to print, build and assemble their very own hands.

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Together, we can change the world.

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“Now all the fingers of this tree (darling) have hands, and all the hands have people; and more, each particular person is (my love) alive than every world can understand…” – E.E. Cummings