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During Rapid + TCT last week, David Tobin and Joel Telling of the popular YouTube channel 3D Printing Nerd, announced the Community Manufacturing Initiative (CMI): a “service learning” initiative in collaboration with non-profit Experiential to support students, enthusiasts, and small producers in design and fabrication.

“CMI is a coordinated effort to integrate manufacturing into the community by fostering partnerships between local businesses, educational institutions, and local government,” an Experiential press release says.

Basically, Experiential, in partnership with Tobin and Telling, is helping local economies by connecting design, manufacturing, and marketing resources with local needs.

“We want everyone to have access to everything,” Tobin says, in an interview with All3DP. “When the pandemic hit, we really saw how we could be a part of that. We helped make face shields – helped coordinate groups all over the US and other countries. We’ve got to start letting these communities know these amazing resources exist and amplify that.”

CMI connects infrastructure, like maker spaces and print farms in schools and local communities, with local businesses or other producers that need manufacturing resources.

And the initiative has already worked.

At Spark Academy, a tuition-free New Hampshire charter school for advanced manufacturing and robotics, students manufactured Experiential’s open-source XRP robots for classrooms in the state. Within 90 days, Experiential says, the cost of its print farm was made up. Students gained valuable tools and experience, a necessary product was created, and manufacturing skills in the community were stimulated – allowing businesses to draw on that knowledge when students enter the workforce.

Spark Academy students assembling Experiential’s XRP robotics kit (Source: Experiential)

“We started talking to bigger businesses, and they’re like, ‘we need people that know what SLS printing is’, for example,” Tobin says. “Now schools are actively putting people into the workforce or training them in real-world situations, and we’re giving kids a chance to be a part of a bigger picture.”

“Every location or participant will have different needs. Some will be looking for resources on print farming, others might be trying to get a print farm in their elementary school. The goal is to take the resources that exist out there and help make them more accessible and work with communities to help them thrive. My cheesy line is ‘open source, open hearts’, right?”

If you’re a school, college, or community organization interested in taking part in the Community Manufacturing Initiative, get in touch via the Experiential website.

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License: The text of "The Creators of 3D Printing Nerd Are Leading a New Community Manufacturing Initiative" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.