14 DAY TRIAL // 3D printing pens are very interesting things, capable of building things out of extruded plastic (3Doodler) or fast-cured resin (Polyes Q1). They really allow you to express your ideas the way you want, in both two and three dimensions. The only limitation lies in how steady your hand is.
But maybe you don't feel like paying the couple dozen bucks it would take to acquire one of those things. Or perhaps you want to be more involved in the creation of the pen.
Whatever the reason, you now have a way to build your own 3D printer at home. A very bulky and ugly thing to be honest, but a 3D printing pen home-made recipe all the same.
Instructables user Zepherocity is the one we have to thank for this strange idea. And the people who first invented hot glue guns we wager.
The home-made 3D printing pen
Take one hot glue gun, combine it with the motor from a CD drive, tie everything together with duct tape and voila! A 3D printing pen, completely home-brewed. Shaken, not stirred.
You will also need a few bits of easily bendable plastic, plus some metal wire and an on-off switch, but the glue gun and CD drive motor are the most important.
ABS thermoplastic 3D printing filament can be used with the resulting contraption, but nothing else. This is the main limitation of the filament gun.
The instructable doesn't have very verbose guidelines, so that might put some people off even more than the weird looks. But Zepherocity says to just “snip anything that could block the inner components from not fitting right” and everything will fall into place.
The 3D printing pen will certainly be a lot larger and bulkier than the official ones, and the exclusive material limitation won't endear anyone to it.
Still, it's an interesting idea, one that could be used as the basis for some really interesting things indeed.
Availability
Since this is an instructable, you probably won't ever see a commercial version up for sale anywhere. Also, unless the young inventor sees fit to update the page somewhat, the instructions aren't a perfect step-by-step guide. It's especially unclear how the motor connects to the plastic and what powers it.
A battery is mentioned in the list of required items, and connecting it to the motor is simple enough, but exactly how that pair fits in the bigger scheme of the glue gun is not quite clear.
