# 3d printed pen blank



## Rachgard (Apr 29, 2018)

Here’s a pen that I made from a blank I designed and 3d printed. I ended up really liking this stained-glass / triangle look. I printed it in “silver” PLA and it surprisingly shined up pretty well. The kit that I used was pretty terrible, but I did this as a concept pen to see if the blank was going to work out. Let me know what you guys think!


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## Charlie_W (Apr 29, 2018)

Great job on the pen!...both creating the blanks and turning/ finishing them.

I am not up to speed with much of the 3D printing process so I do have some questions. Did you print a solid blank and drill or build the blank in the tube?
Also, did you use different plastics to achieve the coloring or did you color the blanks after they were printed?
This is very unique and I do like what you have achieved!


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## Rachgard (Apr 29, 2018)

Charlie_W said:


> Great job on the pen!...both creating the blanks and turning/ finishing them.
> 
> 
> 
> ...







I printed an empty blank that was just going to be the design. Although I printed them so they would be self contained, I taped it off because I wasn’t sure if it would leak, sometimes there are tiny holes in it you can’t see. Then I did an alumilite pour of rose pink, reflex violet, duo red blue, and flamingo pink. I didn’t really pay attention to the pour. Put it in the pressure pot, then I cut and drilled like you would with any pen. Because of the nature of the design, I wasn’t worried about being super straight or lined up. It turns and polishes just like a regular acrylic blank.


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## MRDucks2 (Apr 29, 2018)

I find it interesting that you printed the mold as well as the design. What are the economics on the printed item?  Not counting the printer itself is it a 3 cent piece, a 30 cent piece or a $3 piece, for instance. 


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## Rachgard (Apr 29, 2018)

MRDucks2 said:


> I find it interesting that you printed the mold as well as the design. What are the economics on the printed item?  Not counting the printer itself is it a 3 cent piece, a 30 cent piece or a $3 piece, for instance.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app





It is about 45 cents depending on the roll of PLA.


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## Rachgard (Apr 29, 2018)

I would also imagine that the actual sides that contain the blank cost only maybe 4-5 cents of that. The bulk of the weight is in the design. 


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## robutacion (Apr 29, 2018)

Rachgard said:


> Charlie_W said:
> 
> 
> > Great job on the pen!...both creating the blanks and turning/ finishing them.
> ...



OK so, you printed the mold but not the blank itself, you poured a number of Alumilite colours into the mold like any other castings and that is quite different than actually printing the tubes and that would be something that would be intrigued about, nevertheless, creating casting molds on 3D printing is a great idea, congrats.

Cheers
George


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## Charlie_W (Apr 29, 2018)

Thanks for the pic and explanation of the process. That clears it up for me....and still a cool technique!
Should you see a difference in the finish with plastic and Alumilite, you could add a CA finish.


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## leehljp (Apr 29, 2018)

Beautiful and creative work Rachel!


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## Gregory Hardy (Apr 30, 2018)

Neat process and a great final product.


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## MillerTurnings (Apr 30, 2018)

Printing a combination of mold and design is a neat idea. Shouldn't take long to come up with other designs to take advantage of that. Well done...


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## randyrls (Apr 30, 2018)

Rachel;  I have an i3 3D printer but still a noob there.  Do you have a two extruder printer or did you print these as two separate objects?


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## Rachgard (Apr 30, 2018)

randyrls said:


> Rachel;  I have an i3 3D printer but still a noob there.  Do you have a two extruder printer or did you print these as two separate objects?





It’s just a single object that’s all together. If you want, pm me offline and I can send you the stl files.


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## PMBROTH.NY (Apr 30, 2018)

Rachgard said:


> randyrls said:
> 
> 
> > Rachel;  I have an i3 3D printer but still a noob there.  Do you have a two extruder printer or did you print these as two separate objects?
> ...





Hello,

Can you send me the stl?    Great Job
Pmbroth.ny@gmail.com


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Rachgard (May 1, 2018)

PMBROTH.NY said:


> Rachgard said:
> 
> 
> > randyrls said:
> ...





You got it!


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## Cwalker935 (May 1, 2018)

Nice job very innovative


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## Gary Beasley (May 1, 2018)

Can you also print a solid color fill in the divisions? That technique looks like a good way to do a true radial pattern like wrap around honeycomb or brick wall once the programming is right. May not be that hard to do the hole down the middle to ensure centering on the tube.


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## vtgaryw (May 1, 2018)

Someone in one of the Pen Groups on Facebook did a radial honeycomb, I think with the center like you said.

Gary


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## MRDucks2 (May 1, 2018)

There is also a post for the radial honeycomb on IAP. If I recall correctly he may have had to print that one vertically. 


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## jkeith (May 2, 2018)

I think its awesome! Great job on the print and the pen! I could never get silver to look as good as yours does. Keep at it!


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## jkeith (May 2, 2018)

Gary Beasley said:


> Can you also print a solid color fill in the divisions? That technique looks like a good way to do a true radial pattern like wrap around honeycomb or brick wall once the programming is right. May not be that hard to do the hole down the middle to ensure centering on the tube.



You can fill in the gaps or divisions with the printer but due to the way the printers work, they are not truly 100% filled or solid. If you try to fill in too much with just the print you will either have resin seep into the voids when you cast it or when turning you will have open voids from all the unfilled portions.

As for a true radial pattern I made a post on IAP recently with my 360° honeycomb design but I don't want to hijack her post. You can PM me if your interested.


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## Gary Beasley (May 2, 2018)

Thanks jkeith, I find the process interesting but have no plans at this point to get into getting a 3d printer, too many irons in the fire! I look forward to your next project.


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## KDM (Jun 17, 2018)

Great looking pen. Great concept. Have you varnished it? Reason I ask is that PLA is biodegradable, particularly when exposed to body tissue they use it for self-dissolving screws when you break a bone, for example.

Did any of the PLA dissolve in the alumlite?

I'm going to try something similar with ABS and PR. I suspect that the ABS will dissolve (since they are both soluble in acetone).


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