Faces of Manufacturing: Mason Handy of Handykline Prototyping

Mason Handy of Handykline Prototyping, LLC is making his mark as a 3D printing entrepreneur. The 26-year-old Sharon Springs, New York, native has set up shop in the Mohawk Valley and works with Connor Kline, a high school classmate whom Handy met through the New Visions Engineering program at ONC BOCES. Under the direction of STEM Instructor David Morell, Handy and Kline discovered the power of 3D printing, which builds three-dimensional objects from digital models.

Education and Internships

“I took in-depth tours of several upstate New York manufacturing facilities through that program,” Handy says of his experience with Otsego Northern Catskills (ONC) BOCES, which provides shared educational programs to school districts in Delaware, Greene, Otsego, and Schoharie counties. These in-depth tours “piqued my interest in manufacturing,” Handy explains. “There’s something special about taking a raw material and seeing a finished product at the end,” he adds.

After graduating from Sharon Springs Central School, Handy attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts. At WPI, he studied aerospace engineering and led projects in the Surface Metrology Lab, which he also managed for two years. He also interned at Integrated Liner Technologies in Rensselaer and at Temper Corporation in Fonda, New York. Temper is a leading manufacturer of custom rings, seals, and spacers for aerospace and other industries.

From Employee to Entrepreneur

Handy’s internship led to an offer of employment, and he worked for Temper as a design engineer for five years. During this time, he re-connected with Kline and co-founded the prototyping business that bears both their names. When full-time entrepreneurship called, Handy answered. Today, he and Kline work out of garages in Sharon Springs and Norwich, New York. The company’s expertise is engineering thermoplastics, but Handykline Prototyping also works with composite materials.

Handykline’s 3D printing services cover four technologies: fused deposition modeling (FDM), stereolithography (SLA), selective laser sintering (SLS), and multi jet fusion (MJF). Critics might dismiss FDM and SLA as desktop technologies for hobbyists, but Handykline uses advanced post-processing techniques to achieve tolerances and surface finishes that are acceptable in several industrial applications. Depending on the material, parts sizes can range from 11.1 x 14.9 x 14.9 inches to 24.6 x 19.2 x 17.9 inches (HWD).

3D Printing Capabilities

Handykline uses FDM to create 3D objects from popular thermoplastics such as PLA, TPU, ABS, and PETG. The company also uses SLA with various resins. FDM can achieve tolerances of +/- .008 inches, and SLA supports tolerances of +/- .004 inches. Depending on part geometry, FDM’s layer thicknesses range from .004 to .016 inches. Vapor smoothing or plating is used to improve a part’s surface finish. With SLA, layer thickness ranges between a smooth .001 to .012 inches.

SLS 3D printing is used with nylon-based materials and thermoplastics while MJF is for nylon-based polymers. SLS can achieve tolerances of +/- .010 inches, a layer thickness of about .004 inches, and a surface finish between 65 to 100um that uses bead blasting, vapor smoothing, or plating. MJF supports tolerances of +/- .012 inches, layer thicknesses of about .004 inches, and a surface finish of about 65 to 100um using the same post-processing methods.

Growth Services

Today, Handykline’s customers include a large healthcare company, local machine shops, and other manufacturers. Recent projects include functional prototypes and tooling. The Sharon Springs startup can also leverage metal 3D printing and is planning to launch 3D scanning services and non-destructive quality testing later this year. “By leveraging other modes of manufacturing as well as some software integrations, my goal is to grow Handykline into a comprehensive cloud manufacturer and solutions provider,” Handy says.

When Handy contacted FuzeHub for assistance recently, he took another important step in building the business. FuzeHub connected Handy to the Advanced Institute for Manufacturing (AIM), the Mohawk Valley’s New York Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NY MEP) center. With assistance from AIM, the company is pursuing ISO 9001, AS9100, and CMMC certifications. Handykline is also looking to grow out of its garage environment, but while staying in the Mohawk Valley.

“It’s my home and it’s Connor’s home,” Handy says. “We don’t plan on leaving it.”