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- Oct 29, 2012
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This isn't an advertisement so I'm not going to post which one I have unless someone wants to know, but there are many 3D pens available and the reviews will surely steer you to a good one. These 3D pens are intended for free-hand "3D printing" of which you can see videos on youtube (example below) but I got one hoping to use it as a MIG welder for 3D printed parts and found that you absolutely can do that. It's amazing! You don't need to go try a dozen different glues until you find one that works on whatever filament you're using; you can just use the same filament the parts are made of. Design bevels into your parts and fill them with "weld bead" just like you would do if you were designing weldments.
You can also use this for things like adding colored text to parts if you don't have a multi-material printer. You can use it to save failed prints. You don't really even need to be 3D printing to use this. It could weld together non-3D printed parts too, broken stuff, if you know what kind of plastic it is and can find the same kind of filament. It uses the same 1.75mm filament that is sold for 3D printers (confirm before you buy, actually some use other diameters and only compatible with "sticks" that they sell). It's basically like an advanced hot glue gun that can spit out most kinds of plastic, not just the EVA glue sticks.
Here I used it to weld together this massive 8-piece shroud/duct I designed for my scroll compressor so that the motor will draw air through the radiator.
Here I used it to shore up and bridge together some supports that were getting knocked over. I saved 2kg of filament by doing this so it paid for itself 100% just in that one use. (Ignore nasty stringing, I obviously don't have my printer tuned properly for this filament yet)
Here is what it's "supposed" to be used for (which is also cool as heck but not my use case):
You can also use this for things like adding colored text to parts if you don't have a multi-material printer. You can use it to save failed prints. You don't really even need to be 3D printing to use this. It could weld together non-3D printed parts too, broken stuff, if you know what kind of plastic it is and can find the same kind of filament. It uses the same 1.75mm filament that is sold for 3D printers (confirm before you buy, actually some use other diameters and only compatible with "sticks" that they sell). It's basically like an advanced hot glue gun that can spit out most kinds of plastic, not just the EVA glue sticks.
Here I used it to weld together this massive 8-piece shroud/duct I designed for my scroll compressor so that the motor will draw air through the radiator.
Here I used it to shore up and bridge together some supports that were getting knocked over. I saved 2kg of filament by doing this so it paid for itself 100% just in that one use. (Ignore nasty stringing, I obviously don't have my printer tuned properly for this filament yet)
Here is what it's "supposed" to be used for (which is also cool as heck but not my use case):
