The World’s First 3D Printing Pen that Lets you Draw Sculptures (opens in new tab)

(thisiscolossal.com)

25 pointsadd13y ago10 comments

10 comments

Huh.

My childhood consisted of doing this with a five dollar product that's been around for ages.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003L264JA/

I mean its great, but this product has a lot more in common with the glue guns that I've known and loved for my entire conscious life than it does any 3D printing technology. I'm surprised that neither this site nor the kickstarter even mention glue guns.

Judging by the fact that most of the video is sped up, I imagine it takes almost as long to 'dry' as it did when I was a kid, too, though it may cure a little faster because its a thinner glue stream.

damian200013y ago

Isn't there a couple of big differences though - the end product is made of plastic, so will last a long time. Also, the nozzle can pump continuously, whereas with a glue gun you have to keep pressing the trigger?

regularfry13y ago

The point is that it's quick to solidify. They're using the same sort of extruder (and plastic, I think) as reprap-style printers use, with a fan mounted into the case to cool and harden the plastic stream quickly.

InclinedPlane13y ago

Do you happen to have any pictures of any of the creations you made in childhood? Maybe just a general description?

ColinWright13y ago

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5248780

obilgic13y ago

Same topics come up again and again here lately. Hn needs to detect duplicate topics not urls anymore...

addOP13y ago

I want to apologize for reposting the same story. I missed the earlier one and since the HN didn't detect it as duplicate I thought it was new.

BHSPitMonkey13y ago

Does a regular pen "2D print" drawings?

tehwalrus13y ago

just as you could hook up a pen to a plotting machine ( http://www.niklasroy.com/project/149/cardboard_plotter ) and use it as a printer, you could hook this up to (e.g. lego mindstorms, arduino, whatever) and implement a 3D printer.

Arguably, humans are also (rather overspec'd) plotting machines.

upinsmoke13y ago

Glue guns are fun.

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