He can create anything you want
By John Gregory
There are many brilliant kids in Scripps Ranch. Torrey Smith – who is advancing from Marshall Middle School to Scripps Ranch High – is one of them.
Smith is the founder of Axolotl Labs, an online business that creates 3D printed items for its customers. There are other companies providing this same service, but Axolotl Labs is run by this rather impressive young man with a bright future.
His interest in 3D printing began when he was in the fourth or fifth grade when he was using some rudimentary software and made a printed model. He started his business about 1 ½ years ago. He began using an upgraded printer when he was in the seventh grade and has been personally modifying it to get better print quality.
He named his company after an unusual type of salamander.
“I’m currently running a Bambu P1S 3D printer which is capable of pretty high quality materials and results. It’s able to print really whatever I want,” Smith said.
How does he do it?
Smith usually uses a photo of the proposed item, then gets a couple of reference images to design the product and model a similar shape using colored filament.
“I can load up multiple colors in different materials and it will do all the stuff for me. It will just come out fully in color,” he said. “I’m creating a model. Then that model is put through what’s called a slicing program which tells the printer to be here and do this when this happens, basically. It’s just a list of inst-
ructions the printer follows and then builds up the part. … Consider a conventional printer. It goes across the page and creates your image. But what this does is it creates the image … it finishes that image and it creates another one on top of that. It keeps stacking up the layers to create a full model.”
Smith programs the printer first.
“I purchased an automatic material system (AMS) for the printer, which allows me to put in four different spools of filament, then it controls which one goes into the hot end at a time. The hot end is what creates the layers. So, in my software, I assign – I paint on the colors to specific parts of a model. When it gets to that point it will switch to that color and print that in that color and switch back,” he explained.
“The thing with 3D printing, the cool thing, is it can basically be anything,” he added. “I can print super small, fine figures or details. I can make large, functional bits. … With the variety of materials available, I can create flexible bits, really strong bits, aerospace grade materials, all kinds of stuff.”
Smith hasn’t decided on a college to pursue yet, but he said he would like to get into some sort of engineering to work in computer-aided (CAD) software to invent things – and possibly study a form of architecture as well.
Visit axolotlabs.com.