Joey Hudy is another example of a kid badass (we’ve covered many on the site) who has become empowered by the Maker revolution currently taking place. He’s been Making with a capital “M” for a while now, guiding crowds in the programming of LED lights with an Arduino at MakerFaire, which led to his own Arduino shield kits at Maker Shed. At CES, he spoke to the 170,000 patrons at CES, manning the booth for Intel. He even apologized to will.i.am for missing him at the show because he (Joey) was too busy on stage.
[nggallery id=135]Because Joey has fully embraced the affordable and user-friendly technology of the day, it was natural for him to turn to 3D printing. So, in 2013, he contacted Afinia about getting his hands on one of their 3D printers. After receiving his H-Series at a big discount, Joey immediately took a liking to the printer and declared himself an Afiniac. The prints he made demonstrate some of the best examples of applications for which FFF machines can be used at their current stage: a T.A.R.D.I.S.-shaped cookie cutter and chocolate mould, models of Dr. Who’s Dalek, and a 3D-printed self-portrait created with a Microsoft Kinect and a Skanect 3D scanner.
What introduced my wife and I to Joey’s work, in the first place, was a 3D printed robot displayed at the Afinia booth at CES 2014. While I was talking to Joe Scott from Afinia, reminiscent of my best friend Ben’s dad from Minnesota and one of the nicest guys I’ve met, Danielle was getting the low-down on the robot. Printed in a translucent green on his H-Series, the robot rotated its head from side to side and lifted its arms up and down, thanks to an Arduino programmed by Joey. Danielle instantly declared the robot the cutest thing at the convention.
As Joey only received his printer last year, it’s only a matter of time before he 3D prints an InMoov robot or something of that magnitude, so I definitely recommend following him on Twitter and checking out his blog, “Look What Joey’s Making”. He’s an example for everyone out there, young and old, with his tagline acting as words to live and die by: “Don’t be bored… Make something.” The kid’s so talented, he even impressed the President of the United States with his marshmallow launcher:
