NB library makes idea come to life with 3D printer

NORTH BALTIMORE — Visiting the main desk at the North Baltimore Public Library is like playing a game of "I Spy." The front counter looks normal until a second glance reveals a small orange pumpkin, a white bobblehead ghost, a plastic box to hold batteries and duck and chicken Easter egg holders complete with orange and yellow feet. The three-dimensional doo-dads were made using a 3D printer. "It just melts the filament down. Each layer is 2 millimeters so it just keeps building it back up," said Tammy Trout, the library's on-site tech coordinator who is also in charge of the 3D printer. Patrons got their first taste of the capabilities of a 3D printing prior to COVID, she said. NORWELD — the Northwest Regional Library System that the North Baltimore library is a member of — had a 3D printer libraries could use. "So we would get it for a month and the kids were all like, 'oh, it's so cool,'" said Trout. "So that's why we ended up deciding to go ahead and get one of our own." At first she made items for the Dragons and Dungeons and Magic games. Trout also created keychains for her daughter's softball team. "Kids like to have Anime characters printed out, but it doesn't do great with characters," she said. "They're so detailed and the one (printer) we have isn't that fine. And the hands never come out right. They always look weird." Trout said her husband, an architect, created a 3D file of the library building and two of its additions. "He went through the library and did the windows and everything in it," she said. "He even made the roof removable so you could see the rooms inside. The only thing we don't have is when they added the Wolfe Community Room. Everything up to that is done." While the printer is not able to layer colors, the filament is available in a variety of hues as well as glow-in-the-dark and one that changes color when the temperature changes. "It's pretty basic, but you can paint them so a lot of people have fun with it," said Trout. Library users can also request and buy printed items. The library restricts making anything that looks like a weapon, she said. Patrons first need to find an item they like. Free patterns the library uses can be found on the website https://www.thingiverse.com. A program can calculate the cost for the filament. Once payment is made, the item will be printed, she said. "The kids, when they would see stuff, would ask, oh, can you print this for me? So to kind of showcase it, we decided to start doing a Make of the Month," said Trout. These are pieces she makes up ahead of time that can be purchased for a few dollars. "We don't try to make a profit off of it," she said. "We just make it so people can see what we offer." In 2023, Trout found ornaments that could be personalized. "So people would come in and they would want them done for their grandkids. Personalizing something takes a little bit more time because you can only print one at a time whereas just a basic thing, you can print a couple at a time," she explained. She has produced fairy garden pieces with a bench, bridge, birdbath and stepping stones; grocery bag holders; a box to hold a deck of Uno cards; and planters that resemble a stack of books. But the pumpkins and ghosts have been the most popular by far, said Trout, who turned out about 40 pieces. A part in the printer went bad in November 2024. When it was working again, Trout created the egg holders for Easter and herb markers since the village is planting its first community garden this summer. Still, things can happen, she noted. Trout will sometimes leave the printer running overnight for a larger item. But if the filament is crossed and doesn't roll off the spool as easy, it will pull the head of the printer and become off center. Once the filament comes off the spindle, it can't be used, she said. "At Halloween I was doing the pumpkins and the filament must have gotten caught or whatever. We came in the next day and it just looked like the whole thing was full of spaghetti because it kept going. It must have untangled itself or whatever. It kept going but it was completely off so it was just stringy and orange all over the place," said Trout. Staff members actually took the plastic mess and used it around one of the library's Halloween displays. "I said, 'what is that?' They said, 'that's your string. Your thing messed up the other day.' And they're like, 'I hope you can screw this up again next year because we need it,'" she laughed. "I have way too much fun with this some days."