A UK man was able to put his design talent and honed skills to good use

Jun 18, 2014 09:31 GMT  ·  By

3D printing technology may be, mostly, about automated construction of three-dimensional devices, but there are some things that still put the full control in your hands. Literally. The 3Doodler 3D printing pen is an example of this.

In fact, Matthew Butchard from the United Kingdom has just proven the usefulness of the 3D printing pen by using it to build a flight-capable, remote-controlled airplane.

A toy airplane, granted, but a flying device all the same. Sure, the motor and everything electronic had to be procured separately, but the frame (minus the impeller) were made by hand.

3Doodler is a pen that uses sticks of plastic instead of ink. It superheats the plastic until it's malleable enough to draw lines on paper, or on a desk.

More importantly, however, is that the drawing process doesn't have to be restricted to 2D. Sure, you need a foundation for anything to stand upright, but you can, in fact, draw in the air.

And that is precisely what Matthew Butchard did, as he does, in fact, possess the steady hand and artistic talent required to truly use the 3Doodler at its full potential.

The airplane doesn't look as crude as we'd expect. In fact, there's barely any evidence of misapplied junctures or instances where the print head was kept in place too long or for too little time.

Butchard had to wrap the wings in plastic foil in order for air to be properly captured though. Not that it would have been impossible to just print them whole, but it would have taken too long, and would, no doubt, have looked horribly ugly at the end of it.

It's one thing to draw sticks, and another to try and print wide, homogeneous areas. Even the most steady-handed people would have trouble making things look decent instead of nasty and wrinkly.

Anyway, the remote-controlled toy airplane isn't the only thing that the designer made with the 3Doodler. He also printed a car, or the frame anyway. The wheel arches were the hardest things to do, but he pulled it off in the end. He had to change the setting on the 3Doodler 3D printing pen to “slow” before he made a proper set.

Matthew Butchard has posted his creations on his blog and fully intends to make other things with the 3Doodler. Who knows, maybe he will try out the more elegant (albeit smaller) Lix too at some point. And we can't forget about the recent pen that prints from ink and ultraviolet light.

3Doodled plane and car (3 Images)

3Doodler-printed airplane
3Doodler-printed toy car3Doodler-printed airplane
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