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Class builds custom holders to help local veterinarian

Ooltewah High School students display a blood vial holder they designed for Sale Creek Veterinary Clinic. The clinic staff members wanted a better blood vial holder than the one they had, which allowed the smaller tubes to fall through its holes. Senior Dylan Vaca designed a holder that could hold nine vials and included a paw print design on the bottom. Senior Santiago Ruiz used a 3-D printer to create the holder. The clinic's Dr. Katherine Thigpen was thrilled with the result and asked if the students could design two more to hold different-sized vials. Senior Tommy Sluss stepped in to modify the original design to suit different sizes and included the clinic's logo on the front. From left are Vaca and Sluss.
Ooltewah High School students display a blood vial holder they designed for Sale Creek Veterinary Clinic. The clinic staff members wanted a better blood vial holder than the one they had, which allowed the smaller tubes to fall through its holes. Senior Dylan Vaca designed a holder that could hold nine vials and included a paw print design on the bottom. Senior Santiago Ruiz used a 3-D printer to create the holder. The clinic's Dr. Katherine Thigpen was thrilled with the result and asked if the students could design two more to hold different-sized vials. Senior Tommy Sluss stepped in to modify the original design to suit different sizes and included the clinic's logo on the front. From left are Vaca and Sluss. Ooltewah High School students display a blood vial holder they designed for Sale Creek Veterinary Clinic. The clinic staff members wanted a better blood vial holder than the one they had, which allowed the smaller tubes to fall through its holes. Senior Dylan Vaca designed a holder that could hold nine vials and included a paw print design on the bottom. Senior Santiago Ruiz used a 3-D printer to create the holder. The clinic's Dr. Katherine Thigpen was thrilled with the result and asked if the students could design two more to hold different-sized vials. Senior Tommy Sluss stepped in to modify the original design to suit different sizes and included the clinic's logo on the front. From left are Vaca and Sluss.

By Kaitlin Colon 3 min read

Ooltewah High School teacher Karen Haynes took her dog in for a routine checkup at Sale Creek Veterinary Clinic and ended up leaving with a 3-D printing project for her engineering class. She discovered the need when she saw the vet tech wrestling to keep the blood vials on the counter.

“[They] drew some blood and the tech just laid the vials on the counter,” said Haynes. “They kept rolling around and she kept pushing them back.”

When Haynes asked about holders, clinic employees said they tried to find some but were struggling to get some that accommodated the smaller vial sizes. Haynes offered to have her students design custom holders and took an empty vial for specifications.

The holders were designed by Dylan Vaca and the printing process was overseen by Santiago Ruiz, both seniors at OHS. Ruiz said they often use free designs that they find online, but for this particular situation they used 3-D printing software to meet the exact specifications needed by the vet.

Katherine Thigpen, veterinarian at Sale Creek Veterinary Clinic, was delighted with the results.