# 3D Printers



## Dan26 (Apr 14, 2013)

Just wondering...will the advent of 3D printers add another possibility to pen blank design?


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## monophoto (Apr 14, 2013)

3d printers could eliminate the need for turning


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## Displaced Canadian (Apr 14, 2013)

Is it basically the same as CNC?


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## ed4copies (Apr 14, 2013)

monophoto said:


> 3d printers could eliminate the need for turning



So could injection molded plastic, but it hasn't.  Diversity will continue:biggrin::biggrin:


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## Haynie (Apr 14, 2013)

It will be the big boys who have to worry.  They are already worrying about copyright laws.  There is nothing to stop someone from scanning a Montblanc then printing it out.  All they would have to do is figure out how to get the bird poop design on it, call it lux resin and sell it.  

Pen turners make their pens out of so many materials that variety will still win.  Plus it is hard to print out wood.


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## palmermethod (Apr 26, 2013)

Different technology. From what I've seen, state-of-the-art is very early. PCB boards, container boxes, odd shaped thingies are what affordable 3D does now. Materials are plastic strings of various types and colors. And 3D is slow. And good finish is not there yet. For home use anyway. 

Plus many issues with thin walled objects, strength, material collapsing, etc. I think you'd be making a Log blank best with 3D then have to turn it anyway.


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## Scruffy (Apr 26, 2013)

These things have the possibility of being a game changer in a number of areas of life.  Rather than actually having hard parts around, all you need is a coded blue print and you can produce as many as you material for the printer.

1) Gun parts.  Using Some kid at University of Texas has been able to use the 3d printer to replicate parts for an AK-47 receiver.  He made the process public and has created a number of different weapon bodies.  This has mostly been done using advanced Polymers. Takes hours to create a full receiver, but it works.

2) Soft Tools.  Soft tools usually can be used to machine parts about 25,000-50,000 times, this is about 1/10 the life expectancy of hard tools.  The 3d printers make them easy and cheap to produce so for products that have a limited production. Right now these can be done on the printers for plastics, Polymer and some metals.

3) Medical. As I know, right now they are experimenting with reproducing internal organs.  The procedure that is being targeted is for a medical technician to input organ design parameters and have the printers build a replacement organ.  This is years away but shows a lot of potential.

4) Machine and auto parts. Using some metal, certain parts (machine and auto) can be created if the appropriate design is input.  These have to be single parts, not multi-element parts.

5) Rapid prototyping.  The printers are being used right now for rapid prototyping of hardware prototypes.  The prototypes can be created in hours not days like it would take with the engineering changes process.

I have been following 3D printers for a couple years.  They have a lot of potential.

To build a pen you would have to input the design parameters and acquire the appropriate acrylics (if they exist).  Right now you would only be able to produce a barrel in about a couple hours.   But you could reproduce the same barrel down to the molecule endless times.

A link to a 3D Printer company: http://www.3dsystems.com/


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## broitblat (Apr 26, 2013)

I was thinking that 3D printers could be used to design (molds for) your own metal parts.  Print a custom band or clip and then use lost "wax" casting methods to fabricate the actual part.

What do you think?

  -Barry


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## Scruffy (Apr 26, 2013)

*I had not thought of making molds, but ..*

I think you could do it.  As long as the "ink" (or what ever they call the build-up materials) has been developed that suits an application.  They can make plastic molds now.  Or if you are prototyping you can make a prototype of the actual part.

But I think they have material now for making molds.


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## Curly (Apr 27, 2013)

There is a company in Europe that has started making 3D pens. http://www.pjotrpens.com At some point the process will become commonplace and another way to manufacture good of all kinds.


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## LenKaltman (Apr 30, 2013)

I've been playing around at http://www.shapeways.com and have uploaded a few of my 3d designs - mostly small geometric shapes just to get an idea of cost and quality.  Their choice of materials is extremely limited, but it's fun to see all the cool stuff people are making.


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## jyreene (Apr 30, 2013)

If you really want to read up on it good old Wikipedia is great:

3D printing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From the things I have seen 3D printing is almost there. It's now a matter of the binders that add the strength. I'm pretty sure very soon if you had the expensive machines you could just design a pen and have it printed and just add the ink tube. It could lead to some interesting design. Some of the plastic and metal pieces are already quite durable.


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## mikespenturningz (Apr 30, 2013)

Check out this youtube from Jay Leno's Garage 

Jay Leno's Garage: Faro 3D Laser Scanner - YouTube

Actually all of the videos on Jay Leno's Garage are great..


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## mredburn (Apr 30, 2013)

You do not need to make print a mold to make a  clip part for lost wax casting. Just print the clip in the resin and do the lost wax casting process with the resin clip. They are doing that all the time with jewelry. I am starting to have things printed for me when the details are smaller than my cutter can go. There are several problems with resolution of the prints and the surface of the piece cast tends to have patterns in the surface from the process that have to be removed. Some shapes more than other.


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## Paul in OKC (May 4, 2013)

mikespenturningz said:


> Check out this youtube from Jay Leno's Garage
> 
> Jay Leno's Garage: Faro 3D Laser Scanner - YouTube
> 
> Actually all of the videos on Jay Leno's Garage are great..



We actually have recently gotten one of those Faro arms, not quite the scale of the one in Leno's garage, but......I will be headed to Dallas for training on it the end of the month. We also have available to us two printers. Have used to make proto types before manufacturing a couple of times. Still figuring them out a bit. One is a two color. Went to an industrial show last week and saw some products where the plastic was actually printed around a metal part. Pretty cool stuff.
They are slow, and need a 3-d rendering to make a part, but.....


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## wouldentu2? (May 5, 2013)

3D printers will replace pen turning just as computers have eliminated paper.


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## Ed McDonnell (May 5, 2013)

The last issue of Pen World had an article about a dutchman who is using a 3D printer to print pens.  I found some information online for anyone interested:

3D printed fountain pen by Pjotr with price tag of

It's not a pen I would care to own / use, but it does demonstrate what can be done today with 3D printing technology.  However, 3D printing was not the only process used to create the pen.  

Here's some more:

Pjotr | Exclusive fountain pens |

3D printer technology has been around for about 30 years now.  At the pace it's advancing, I don't think pen turning will disappear in my lifetime.

Ed


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## jyreene (May 5, 2013)

I agree. What we do won't disappear. There are still blacksmiths out there, some even make swords still! 

I would love to be able to 3-D print my own kits and make pens that are truly of my own make!


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## walshjp17 (May 5, 2013)

Curly said:


> There is a company in Europe that has started making 3D pens. Pjotr | Exclusive fountain pens | At some point the process will become commonplace and another way to manufacture good of all kinds.



Prices start at €6,000.00.  Beautiful but very pricy.


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## Scruffy (May 5, 2013)

*Just look at at the technology growth potential ..*

In 1984, the company I worked for purchased an external hard drive for my PC. It was about the size of a loaf of bread. Around 12 pounds. and it had 1o megs of memory. It cost over $9,000. 

My wife recently bought memory for her camera.  35 gigs, around 1/3 or an ounce, about the 1/3 the size of a dime, and cost around $60.

There will be growth in printers because people will want them and they will become consumer products which will accelerate their value and function growth.  The only real gating factors I see are the availability of off the self materials and the 3D design availability.  Knowing people, there definitely will be an underground of designs.  

Bio-organic materials are already in developed.  So medical potential abounds.

These printers can cause all sorts of challenges to copyrights,  patents and access control laws.

Going to be interesting to watch.


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