Man regains use of injured hand using 3D printer

"What happened?"

Cornelius Quiring wants to avoid that question. He is asked this about his right hand, which he injured in a childhood farming accident and now does not have full use of.

So he’s using a 3D printer to make an assistive glove to regain the use of his hand.

He designs the glove on his computer, and then goes to non-profit Toronto Tool Library to print the exoskeleton of his hand.

"More than restoring use of my right hand, it needs to be beautiful," he said of the glove. "It must be fashionable and spark conversation of 'what is that' and not 'what happened.'"

The exoskeleton mimics the structure and movements of a healthy hand. Quiring tailored the exoskeleton to his left hand and printed the "bones" using the 3D printer.

In March 2014, Quiring uploaded a video to YouTube explaining his plans. "I'm going take my ability to create and my eye for design to create the coolest bionic hand," he said at the time. "I don't know how, but I'll figure it out, one step at a time."

And so far, he has. He uploads his progress to YouTube whenever he makes it.

As can be expected, building a prosthetic limb from scratch takes a lot of refinement.

A recent adjustment found the bones of the exoskeleton too close together. Once he tried it on his right hand, he found he gained 60 per cent range of motion. He fine-tuned the fit and spacing between the bones and got range of motion up to 85 per cent. His goal is to hit 100 per cent.