Why 3D Printing?

When originally researching for this project I wanted to create a biosand filtration system. These types of systems use sand to filter out water contaminants. It's also a system most used in developing worlds, where access to a clean drinking supply is hard to find. Some of the materials for the filtration system were inaccessible to me. Additionally, the component of the filter that filters the microbial contaminents of the water take at least a month to incubate. I instead tried to scale the filtration back and wanted to make a small scale biosand filtration system using just a plastic bottle and sand from the beaches of Lake Michigan. This did not satisfy the extent of what I wanted to do. My next thought was to research rain barrels and how they can be used to both trap and conserve water. I wanted to connect how increasing precipitation and precipitation events in the Great Lakes region will provide greater incentive for rain barrel use. I wanted to see whether it was possible to not only trap rain but also filter it for potable use. This posed numerous problems. I would have to test the water to see what kinds of contaminants are present in rain, test whether the filter media adequately purified water, and physically make a structure that would connect to a rain barrel. I recognized that perhaps this was not entirely feasible given the amount of time and resources I had. I finally remembered that the Harold Washington Library on Van Buren and State had recently created a Maker Lab which gave people access to 3D printers, laser cutters, and instructors to help with the machines and software. I thought it would be interesting to create a filter using 3D parts that I created. This would give me more autonomy to be able to create unique structures by learning software instead of working with machinery and raw materials. That's on top of the fact that 3D printing is really cool.