

3Doodler: The World's First 3D Printing Pen - ericabiz
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1351910088/3doodler-the-worlds-first-3d-printing-pen/

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bmmayer1
The comments on this thread are ridiculous. This product is awesome. Who cares
that they call it a 3D printing pen? I'd like to see you try to make one...

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largehotcoffee
But... it's a glue gun.

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simias
It looks like a bit more than just a glue gun because of the way the plastic
seems to cool almost instantly. I suppose they need to control the temperature
very precisely.

That being said, in their video the actual "3D" drawing (i.e. in the air)
seems extremely imprecise and for their eiffel tower demo they just make 2D
sides that they glue together, so in this case it's probably fair to call it
"just a glue gun", or rather a "stand-alone 3D printing head/glue gun".

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WestCoastJustin
Not very often you see an idea, and think, this is so simple, why didn't this
already exist?! Going to be a massive hit in art class! I'd like one just to
bring my drawings to life.

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Kliment
Cool. I only wish they weren't trying to patent it. Prior art exists in the
form of [http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2010/09/19/repurpose-your-
old-m...](http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2010/09/19/repurpose-your-old-
mk4-plastruder-into-a-plastic-welding-gun/) at the very least. I've emailed
the EFF 3d printer patentbusting group to see what they can do about making
sure the patent does not get issued.

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adrianhoward
What's the patent for? I'd tend to think that it's not just "hand held plastic
extruder"...

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Kliment
Nobody knows. The application is not public yet. All they are saying is
"patent pending" with no specifics.

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erickhill
Pretty decent thread on this previously, with the link to the kickstarter
page. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5243271>

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habosa
I think the hot glue gun comments are misguided. This is a really amazing
product, as you can see by the professional "3doodles" from the Etsy artists.
I do agree that this isn't "3D printing" because you're not printing from a
model, but it's similar in intent. I'm not anything close to an artist but I'd
love to have one of these, and if I had artistic talent I'd buy one
immediately.

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brittohalloran
Interesting, but I think it's stretching the term 3D printing a bit.

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nmcfarl
Yeah - this is 3D drawing.

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brittohalloran
I actually like that term and think it would have worked well for them.

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tathagata
I see an immense potential for a product like this. Art and architecture come
immediately to mind. Because it makes a physical wire-frame quickly, it can
also be used for prototyping and brain-storming product ideas. I am sure
people will come out with extraordinarily creative things to do with this once
they get them in their hand.

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nvr219
I think calling this a printer is somewhat of a misnomer... Would you call a
glue gun a printer?

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sirwitti
I like the idea. But what happens with all that plastic after it's been drawn.

Can you reuse it somehow? Otherwise this looks like a huge source of waste?

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uxp
I'd personally love to see the next "generation" (if you can even call the
evolution of 3d printers "generations") input a hopper of plastic pellets
instead of an expensive filament spool. A simple grinder/shredder could easily
recycle old printed models into new raw material.

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revdinosaur
There is a product aimed at doing just that: <http://filabot.com/> Closing the
loop and attaching the output of the Filabot directly to a 3d printer wouldn't
be too difficult.

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vanni
Previous discussion:

3D printing pen lets you draw sculptures in thin air (newscientist.com)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5243271>

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brador
Any ideas on the cost difference of having this made in China vs. US?

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etrautmann
It's clear that a product like this will sell, though I'm hard pressed to
think of applications beyond making small sculptures.

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aviswanathan
I'm pleasantly surprised that this product passed Kickstarter's (increasingly)
stringent guidelines for acceptable projects

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smackfu
I bet it's a lot harder technique-wise to draw in empty space than the video
makes it appear. If you go too fast, it won't be self-supporting, and if you
go too slow, the already drawn part will be in the way and probably get pushed
aside.

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10dpd
3D Printing Pen, Glue Gun, whatever... my question is, what is it useful for?

Although I'm not sure its worth dismissing the product if the answer is for
art students, this in itself would be an interesting market for a hardware
product.

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taneliv
I wonder if the glue is too hot to draw on human skin. Could make unique
jewellery, very tight fitting (if ephemeral, I don't think they would last too
long). Maybe for some special events, like weddings and other ceremonies?

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laveur
I am amazed at how much news this has garnered... I personally know the people
involved in this project through the larger Boston Burner community, was
surprised to hear that it was from one of our own.

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showsover
It looks awesome and I want one. The only problem now is that I can't draw.

Perhaps there's a market for making tutorials for drawing with the pen?

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smackfu
I think that's why they are pushing the part about drawing a flat framework
over a printed stencil, and then assembling them in 3D space, like the Eiffel
Tower in the video. Shouldn't require much artistic skill.

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mbell
So its a hot glue gun with a fine tip and auto-feed?

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mercuryrising
The 'hot glue' is thin enough and needs to be hot enough to let you 'float'
what you're drawing in mid air, hot glue would stay viscous for too long to
let that happen.

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joshmlewis
Yeah I think this is what a lot of people are missing with the glue gun
comments. With a glue gun you can make a blob at the base but you can't string
a piece along like this, much less string a piece along in mid air. This also
has the fan which helps in that matter.

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mbell
Thats caused by the material, not the gun. The kickstarter says they use
standard ABS/PLA 3mm plastic for the material.

The first rep-rap 3D printer used a tweaked hot glue gun as the extruder.

