3D Printing?

[AnnieB123]

Just wondering if anyone out there has contemplated playing around with a 3D printer to make a pen body or any parts?

 

I think it looks pretty nifty, but I don't have one to play with.. or at least not easily accessible...

http://icdn6.digitaltrends.com/image/personal-3d-printer-h-650x0.jpg

http://www.graphic-design.com/news/2013/3D_printing.jpg

 

I wants mah pen!

 

[WirsPlm]

At least one: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/253521-pjotr-the-first-3d-printed-fountain-pen-in-the-world/

 

I haven't heard of any plastic 3D printing, which seems strange because you'd think that would be easier than metal. Maybe there's just not a lot of overlap between pen makers and 3D printing hobbyists.

[balson]

i am very excited about the possibilities of 3d printing and scanning but i think it will be about a decade before the technology is at the level that the average user can really start making good things with it.

 

the ego of pjort's press release is a little off putting. he did make a very thought out and polished pen but there is a much earlier example of a 3d printed fountain pen in this thread and given the hisotry of 3d printing as a rapid prototyping tool i am willing to bet that there are 3d printed mont blancs and parkers out there

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/199695-3d-printer/page-2?hl=printing

[Remy]

@WirsPlm,

 

It's available... but...

 

When 3D printing plastic using the powder method, as far as i know, the resulting piece will still have to be saturated with resin and cured before it is ready for day-to-day use..

 

 

There's another machine that uses rolls of tape instead of powder and binder, and that one doesn't require as much effort to complete the piece.

[UK Mike]

Firstly, the current resolution of affordable 3D plastic printers is pretty low.

 

Secondly, the best pens are essentially cylindrical, or facetted cylinders, which lends the designs to simple mechanical processes such as turning and milling.

 

Thirdly - those Pjotr pen designs are pretty horrible to my eyes.

[Felix1]

Popular Science magazine ran an article last year claiming that a working assault rifle had been made with a 3-D Printer. So I would assume something as simple as a pen could be made if a template is available.

 

 

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-07/working-assault-rifle-made-3-d-printer

[Centopar]

Ah - this is something I know quite a lot about, thanks to good ol' work. With a home 3d printer or the sort you might find in a hackspace or in an office like mine? (We have it for when we want to look cool in front of visitors or amuse visiting schoolkids.) Probably not.

 

There *are* some 3d printers with very, very precise resolution and a smooth finish (I've seen jewellers' prototypes made with cured-powder 3d printers) - but these printers are specialised, expensive and tend to use mechanisms like laser cintering or UV-curing, with polymer powders or ceramic powders with a resin binder as the base material. These methods and materials cost a lot more and are much harder to set up than the desktop setups you're likely to have come across, which use heat-extruded plastic filament you can buy on a reel. The powders are available in very few colours (I have only ever seen red being used). And the powder methods (like the desktop 3d printer, but moreso) take a long time to make a single item; your model is being cured microscopic layer by microscopic layer, and fine resolution takes time to achieve.

 

With traditional desktop thermoplastic 3d printing, techniques for better calibrating the machinery, making the filament finer and improving the finish are coming on all the time; they're sometimes not very home-DIY friendly, though. (Creating a glossy finish for your thermoplastic object by suspending it in a bell jar so it can be surrounded by vapours from boiling acetone is not a kitchen-table job.) But you can see from the photos at the top of the thread that even once sanded and cleaned up, items made in a non-powder 3d printer have a distinctive texture, which is not particularly pleasing or even. This is because the filament method (which is what every commercial 3d printer I've seen and used works with) is a bit like that thing you used to do with plasticine when you were a kid: it's a microscopic version of making a long snake of material and coiling and snipping it until you have a pot/jar/cog/dalek/pen, and that means you end up with tiny striations throughout the finished object. If you calibrate your machine really well, the striations are not terribly obvious, but they're still visible and they don't feel terrific against your fingertips.

 

All the same, it's likely that at least some pen manufactures use 3d printers for prototyping. I work with and commission objects from some plastics companies, and their prototypes are always 3d printed nowadays (and finished, sanded and cleaned by hand before the customer sees them). It's a lot cheaper and faster than going through many iterations of making a metal mould for the object until you hit on exactly the right shape, and it's used where once companies used to make clay or plaster prototypes. Once the prototype is settled on, *then* an expensive mould is commissioned. 3d printing's not really useable for scale production; it takes too long, the materials (even the thermoplastic, which is cheaper than the powder and is available in more colours) are much more expensive than the equivalent beads of plastic you'd use in a moulded object, and the finish is not good enough yet.

 

(TL;DR: nope, you can't really. Not yet, anyway.)

[Indigo]

I have bought several pieces of jewelry from Shapeways - no pens. You will find some pens and pen-related items here:

https://www.shapeways.com/search?q=pen

 

If you are a designer you can have Shapeways print your designs.

[AnnieB123]

Thank you so very much for that link!! I've been perusing (and drooling) for about 45 minutes Definitely going to do some of my holiday shopping here!

[TehWildman]

reminds me of the time I made a pilot-g2-based pen on a 3d printer back in high school (it was a simple design with two parts, essentially two cylinders that screw together).

 

The problem was that 3d printers tend to hate cylindrical objects (because like computer screens, they all grids of "pixels" that can only be soo small.). While it worked as a pen, it proved very uncomfortable to even hold, and eventually moved into a permanent residence in the high school drafting lab as a record of the first thing someone every printed off that printer (except for the preceding test part.). Wish I still had pictures.

 

And that was a two part poly-cylindrical object with extremely wide tolerances that was responsible for acting as an "adapter" between the refill and my hand. A fountain pen is easily way more complicated parts, out of multiple materials, often with extremely tight tolerances and has a lot more to do than hold a cartridge.

[c4bb0ose]

this was posted a month or 2 back on reddit http://imgur.com/a/MLe0h

He had certain pieces 3d printed then used a wood turning kit for the rest.

[Indigo]

Thank you so very much for that link!! I've been perusing (and drooling) for about 45 minutes Definitely going to do some of my holiday shopping here!

Your are welcome. I have really like everything I bought there.