The Career and Technical Education department acquired a 3D printer Oct. 28.

The printer will make executing projects easier for students of manufacturing teacher Joe Bower.

“[It will be used for] testing students’ prototypes and designs,” Bower said. “It’s something for students to physically create parts after they design them in a 3D CAD [computer-aided drafting] environment.”

The machine works by an extruder that pulls plastic through a filament to heat it up and melt it. A carriage moves back and forth to complete layers of the object and then drops down for each layer, which are each about .015 inch thick.

“It’s pretty cool,” Bower said. “There’s a bit of a learning curve when you first get it, but after that it’s easy. You have to already know how to use 3D CAD pretty well before you can do much on it.”

Bower and his students are excited about the possibilities with their new piece of equipment.

“Well, last night I made an engine block,” Bower said. “This morning I made a cookie cutter. It’s fun. A lot of them have been really excited. Probably the biggest question of gotten has been, ‘Can we make a gun with it?’ And the answer is no.”