Zac Waters, a 13-year-old from Lehi, Utah, spent his summer designing and 3D-printing a custom wheelchair for a 21-month-old girl with a disability, putting in roughly 300 hours on the project.
Waters is a fan of watching YouTube videos about 3D printing, and this summer he decided to turn that knowledge into a project that would make life easier for a girl who is barely two years old.
From a YouTube channel to a 300-hour project
The videos Waters watched inspired him to turn his hobby into something with real impact, which led him to MakeGood, a nonprofit organization that uses 3D printers to make assistive devices for people with disabilities in different countries. As soon as he learned about its work, he decided to join the cause.
MakeGood relies heavily on volunteers like Waters, people with access to a 3D printer who are willing to learn and who design and build devices for free that, bought commercially, usually come with a high cost and long delivery times, especially for custom equipment for growing children. That was the challenge Waters took on with a project of this scale.
The teenager devoted the whole summer to the project: designing the chair, printing each piece, testing them and assembling them into the final result, a process that took about 300 hours. He said his favorite part of 3D printing is the moment of putting the pieces together, and this chair was no exception.
A chair designed in detail, with room to grow
The finished chair includes several details chosen specifically for the girl who will use it. Along with pink finishes, her favorite color, it has a removable cup holder, a tray table and a space in the backrest built to hold heavier medical equipment. The straps are made from a soft, flexible material for comfort, while the footrest and headrest are adjustable so the chair can grow along with her.
Waters summed up his motivation by saying the project combines his two favorite things in life, 3D printing and helping people in need, and that everything just fits. He also credited his family's role throughout the process, comparing them to the bumper lanes set up for beginners at a bowling alley, always there to keep him on track and let him bounce ideas around until he reached a solution.
His grandmother, Charlotte Waters, put his gesture into context, saying they hope he always remembers that the greatest legacy anyone can leave is improving another person's life, and that his age does not define his capacity to make a difference, his character does.
Looking to the future, Waters said he wants to pursue something technical and hopes to keep training in 3D printing to help more people, with the goal of one day reaching the level of expertise of the MakeGood team that designed the chair that first inspired him.
