3D Pen Experiments

[wotan]

My 3D pen arrived in the post so I thought I would start some experiments and post a sort of review if anyone else feels tempted to try one.

I got a MYNT3D pen to start with. It seems to be a fairly reasonable version priced at somewhere around $60 plus postage for us so about 40 pounds I imagine. It comes with everything you need and is powered by a standard USB charger. On the top of the pen is a little display that shows the temperature. I chose to work with PLA filament which melts at about 175 degrees C and is the most ecological type with no smelly vapeurs. ABS is the other common filament type, this melts at about 220 degrees C but also emits some chemical type odeurs so SWMBO would not like that. It is small and light to operate.



On one side of the pen is a speed adjustment for the rate of extrusion and on the other side is the extrude and reverse buttons for drawing or to remove the PLA filament.



I bought a reel of PLA for about $25 I am told that it contains about 300 meters. I suspect that this stuff gets used up fairly quickly.

The pen is manipulated like a regular drawing instrument and so the results are a little dependent on your drawing skills. One thing is certain and that is it is very difficult, if not impossible to obtain smooth finished models with such a device. If you can imagine it is like sculpting with thin floppy spaghetti. Having said that I still think it can perform a number of tasks quite well. As a first experiment I decided to have a go at making an approximately 1/35 scale tree. I drew on a paper surface then lifted the plastic off to assemble the tree. Assembly is very straight forward since the pen works like a simple spot welder and individual pieces can be stuck together or unstuck with a little touch of the nozzle.



Here is my first attempt. In order to shape some of the branches or to 'smooth' the surface I used a pyrogravure although a cool soldering iron would also work. The finished product can be primed with regular Tamiya super fine and painted with acrylics. I think I will buy some other coloured filament so that the surface can be seen a little better. With the addition of some foliage I think there is definitely potential for vegetation modelling. Next time I will try some other types of modelling experiments.

I hope someone may find this interesting.

John

[scottie3158]

Hi John,
Good to see you about again. That is an interesting gizmo it will be interesting to see how you get on with it.

[Bortig the Viking]

A bit above my level, but looks interesting.

[minitnkr]

Looks like you could draw some interesting weld beads on armor & maybe not need adhesive. PaulE

[Jim R]

Hi John
A very interesting piece of kit. Never heard of it before. Certainly has possibilities especially in the hands of an artist like yourself. The tree definitely shows promise.
Jim

[boatman]

HI YEA I never knew their is a 3D pen out an It looks very handy BUT I must admit a bit to costly for me but could you do some more work please an more pics with it an does it do colours ? so to me this is like a mig welder yea ?
chris

[Dave Ward]

John,
I looked at these when they first came out - I was interested in trying to build some 1/35 dry stone walls - I came to the conclusion that it wasn't really suitable, there were better methods available. The PLA is touted as biodegradeable , but I haven't seen any figures on lifespan, or method of degrading ( UV light? moisture? ). ABS shrinks & warps, and due to the higher temperatures, gives off nasty vapours.
It'll be interesting to see how your experiments progress
Dave

[SimonT]

You can pick them up off eBay for less than £15 (no idea what sort of quality though)

I decided that the generally rough output from these things wasn't going to be much use and bought a 3d printer to play with instead

Still not really much use but interesting

[Gern]

I wonder how useful they might be for filling seams.

[SimonT]

I wonder how useful they might be for filling seams.

Not very good I would think

PLA is pretty tough stuff and does not sand easily, as I have found with 3D printed items

With it being harder than the surrounding kit styrene I think you would run the risk of sanding off more kit than PLA

[Steven000]

...PLA is pretty tough stuff and does not sand easily, as I have found with 3D printed items

With it being harder than the surrounding kit styrene I think you would run the risk of sanding off more kit than PLA

I agree, I used to print in ABS because of the sanding issue.
The right tool for that job... stays putty :tongue-out3:

And nice tree John! Doesn't look easy with such a pen...

Cheers, Steven

[Peter Gillson]

Interesting, thanks for posting. i hope you post more, it will be interesting to see how Good it can be as you get used to using it.

peter

[Neil Merryweather]

Good idea for a first build,John. We have one at work and it's good for filling gaps in 3D printed parts,but apart from some gimmicky things we haven't done much else with it. The tree really exploits the textural quality. It will be good to see what else you come up with

[wotan]

Good to see the interest.

Simon is right as far as panel lines are concerned, I don't think it would work. I have continue to play with this thing and am now mid way through my second project.



I suspect many of you will recognize the Pantheon in Rome. I wanted to see how smooth the finish could be. I still lack skills in getting the best from it but my technique is coming along. I must say it is not easy to get anywhere near to smooth so this has to remain more of a sketching tool than a serious scale model builder. I must say most of the satisfaction comes from working through the engineering challenges of producing the various forms and then seeing them materialize out of thin air as it were. The process for building this is to trace various sections from the plan I got from the interwebs, then effectively welding the parts together. To get anything resembling a smooth finish certainly requires a pyrogravure with a flat tip, a fairly aggressive file, and a quick finish with a lighter or butane torch to restore the finish. If I were building something with flat walls, then evergreen or similar would be much better. However I chose this building for the circular walls and the dome, both of which can be built with a 3D pen without too much trouble.

If anyone decides to look into this stuff I found another pen at $35 so about 22 pounds, and it appears to give similar results even if it's not quite so stylish. I would also recommend not using black PLA, except where needed, since it is difficult to see the details. I will be getting some light grey or beige stuff for general playing about.

John

[wotan]

Just to complete this adventure here is the finished thing. Complete with wonky columns and general rough exterior. Having said that I do think this is a fun tool to have around if only for sketching ideas and making monsters for the grand daughter.



John