It was almost a year ago that I met Charles Mire and Andrew Finkle of Structur3D Printing. I had heard they were by kwartzlab and chatting about their paste extruder attachment for 3D printers, but I only met them in person when they joined the Communitech HYPERDRIVE accelerator program. Communitech’s Director of Editorial Strategy, Tony Reinhart, asked me to do a story on Structur3D. One story turned into two as we discovered that both Structur3D and I were on our way to San Mateo, California in May for Maker Faire. More recently, upon graduation from HYPERDRIVE, Structur3D moved into their new home over on St. Leger Street just a few blocks from the Hub.
I bumped into Charles last week and he said to come by on Friday afternoon for a beer. So I did. Above, I had Andrew model the holy trinity of local startups: company t-shirt, the requisite tech-uniform hoodie, and the engineer’s iron ring from UW.
Poking around 72 St Leger, I knew I had found the right place when I saw this in the hallway. It’s a little thing we call shipping product. Love the stenciled boxes. From inside: “Hey, there’s a guy crouched in the hallway shooting pictures.” And then another voice: “Oh, that’s just Darin.”
Looking in the door gave me a déjà vu slap up side the head. Back in 2009 when we were in search of a home for kwartzlab, we looked at a number of units in this building, including… [if this were TV, we would now see a foggy 2009 dream-sequence effect]
This one! I believe this is Suite 320 that I shot back in June 2009. Way back then…
[Still foggy 2009 dream-sequence] it didn’t even have complete partition walls…
or paint, but the bones were there. [Here endeth the 2009 dream-sequence]
Fast forward to last Friday, 2015, to find the Structur3D posse in Suite 320, looking like they’ve been there forever and not just since December.
Discov3ry extruders heading out the door.
This well-used stencil was visually delightful.
As is the “spray booth”.
Thanks for the beer.
The quick-start guide to paste extruding. Did you guys tell me Olga designed this?
Andrew Finkle, co-founder.
Some new faces: Amir Solowiejczyk.
Co-founder, Charles Mire (left) talking with Duncan McDowell from Blitzen who stopped by.
The whole place is decorated in awesome crate-chic. Andrew’s brother Adam showed me this one he had painted up.
Here’s the evolution of the Discov3ry extruder, going from right to left.
Co-founder, Dr. Charles Mire.
Olga Lioudvinevitch, now on the team.
Can you tell these guys are brothers? Andrew with brother Adam Finkle (right).
Near-meta. Nice camera.
Duncan in the kitchen.
These 3D-scan-prints of Charles and Andrew took me to the uncanny valley.
Amir still needs a paint job.
The product’s gotta have all the checkmarks to get out the door.
Chillin’ after a busy week.
I peeked in the adjoining shop.
Got a lot more room in this new place…
to GSD. Wicked.
Well, we started this post with a UW reference, so I reckon we’d better…
finish with one. Andrew’s jacket. All the best in your new digs, Structur3D Printing!
From St. Leger Street, this is Kitchener.
DW