PIKA 3D Printing Pen: amzn.to/3Q4hc7H PLA filament: www.matterhackers.com/store/c/mh-build-series-pla?aff=7553 Bambu Lab X1C 3D printer: www.matterhackers.com/store/l/bambu-lab-x1-carbon-combo-3d-printer/sk/M80GDCL5?aff=7553 Disclaimer: Tested may earn an affiliate commission when you buy through the links here.
This 3D printing pen just looks exactly like most generic 3D printing pens you can find online, you can get them from loads of places, I don’t think anything about this one is special. So this is likely just one of those generic pens but with their brand on it. I got mine from sunlu and it has been fine too. Edit: I have no idea who actually originally made these pens but I couldn’t find it.
I've been using similar pens for years. Another thing they're really good for is stitching together parts into a larger piece. It takes a bit of practice, but it is every bit as strong as the rest of the print when you're done. I've made very large structures, put holes in walls to fill with ballast for weight (BBs) and filled in the holes again, and even repaired broken components with the appropriate filament (ABS, PETG, etc). Also recommend getting some large blade/shape ends for a soldering iron to use for smoothing and shaping to help reduce the amount of clean up necessary after filling/joining pieces. One last thing, there are other 3D pens on the market you can find that are much smaller and easier to use for this purpose, some being a little bigger than a sharpie. I found them much easier to use and see what I'm doing than the bigger, bulky ones.
Try tough PLA or PLA plus. Durability of ABS and the more tougher filaments but pretty much the same parameters and handling as regular PLA, so not nearly as fidgety. Been using it for my tools and fixtures as I've been inspired by Tested to organize my shop.
@@giantweevil2737 Only drawback is the still relatively lower heat tolerance. For that I use PETG/PETG+ or ASA if I need UV stability and higher heat tolerances.
QUICK TIP: A silicone mat and silicone clay sculpting tools work great for flattening and pushing hot material around. Only issue is you have to do it fairly quickly, but if you plan it out a few seconds ahead of time, or mount your part so you can have a silicone tool in one hand and the print pen in the other, it works great.
This just makes me think about getting some wider tips for my TS101, and adjusting it to a lower temperature to function in this role. =) Been resin printing for a while, but looking to get a filament one soon.
I don't use sculpting tools. I use a butane operated soldering iron with specialized hot ends for sculpting. That way you can finish your print or rather drawing in this case and clean it up afterwards.
I saw someone use a silicone spatula that they made a little rig for it follows the persons pen strokes and smooths the filamebt out for them. Was frankly kinda genious
You might also try a flat or wedge tipped soldering iron to melt, flatten, and smooth out small rough sections on your 3d print. Combine that with your new 3d print pen, and I think you'll get the results you're looking for.
Soldering iron gets to hot for most plastics, but get one of those adjustable heat ones that are meant for wax and can heat up enough for solder would be the best. That's been the best tool I got for 3d printing by far for me
@@gruntes11istttYou can buy temperature adjustable soldering irons, but that might also be a good idea. Or a set of tools used for wood burning could also provide several options.
Second this and add - get a dedicated temp controlled soldering iron, needs to have a range that goes down to 190C I got a cheap one $20 80W 180 to 520C its been perfect for print touch up and welding, I don't have a pen as I can 'weld in' new material as needed
Love my 3D pen- I don't use it often, but it's often invaluable when I do. I mostly use it like a welder. Great for when the way I want to design something isn't ideal for the constraints of 3D printing because I can just separately print the bit that wouldn't print or would require a lot of support and weld it on. Often it's a situation where there isn't really enough surface area for using adhesives.
Adam have you tried coupling this with a soldering iron/hot knife type of thing? You can get some really good results with 3d pens by using the right tools along with it!
You beat me to it! I use a hot knife and my 3D pen. The hot knife can be turned on its side to act like an iron or you can use an old soldering iron to help iron parts to smooth the plastic. The 3D pen is great for filling cracks or gaps. It can weld parts together too. I've made butterflies and flowers with it too.
theres a whole bunch of artists on youtube making things with 3dpens and they use pyrography tools designed for wood burning to get beautiful smooth results.
Adam, I have been developing an “industrial 3D pen” for the past year and will be showing it publicly for the first time at the maker faire next weekend…. 4x faster, hotter and spool fed. More like a plastic mig welder than a “3d pen”. Come try it out!
It's one of those things you learn over time with experience, but that ladder model might have printed better standing up vertically or in its face (or back), possibly even without support! Bridging (crossing a gap with no support, but a solid anchor on both sides) is pretty reliable with modern printers
Seems to me that the layer lines would be in the wrong direction and it would have made a very weak part. Might be fine for cosmetic parts though, I mostly print structural engineering parts.
And try organic supports if bridging distance is to large, they seem to come off more as a whole piece and the small dots are easy to clean. Maybe try to manually place them
And also lose a ton of fidelity and turn any curved surfaces into PS1 models with tinkercads terrible resolution. Just use a slicer with a built in cut function. @@SimplyDudeFace
I recommend an adjustable heating iron, ones that heat up just enough for wax but can get hot enough to do high temp solder. Each plastic has it's unquie melting point once you figure out a good at it you can start plastic welding with it or make perfectly smooth parts. It's my number one recommend tool for 3d printing. The trick for welding pieces together or the adding fill is to heat up the object to just bellow or at it's melting point then adding the fill or pieces. Combine this with a 3d pen is amazing
The tool you want to use to smooth out the 3D pen filling is a wood burning tool. They are typically about $30 and come with a large array of burning tips, many of which are shaped like spatulas, which are great for melting and shoving the extra plastic into gaps. Ideally you'll get one with a temperature adjustment so you can pick a setting that's just right to soften the plastic, not liquify or burn it. Some things to note about using 3D printer pens - the filament that extrudes is usually going to be quite a lot thicker than what your printer extrudes, because it isn't a precisely-controlled extrusion paired with precisely-controlled motion. When you lay down blobs with the 3D pen, it's going to be tougher to cut and sand than you think. Also, they all overflow after extrusions - I think most 3D printer pens either don't have retraction or just suck at doing so because of the nozzle design.
Apart from repairing your 3d prints, it could be also used to make sculpts, creating objects etc. A soldering iron with an iron tip along with sandpaper or a fine grit file is a must if you want smooth results.
I'm loving all the 3D printing content from you Adam. A lot of people are scared of 3D pens, and they can be messy, but I appreciate that you see the value in having one in your 3D printing toolkit. I would suggest Mynt3D pens if you want an upgrade. I consider them the gold standard, having tried dozens of brands :) I look forward to your continued explorations in the 3D printing space! Cheers, Devin
Tip: When sanding PLA FDM prints, try soaking your file or sandpaper in ethanol, it really works wonders for the finish. I've been able to get a very smooth surface that way (especially on the parts of the model, where the support hits). I was inspired by this process from a video by Ben from by Applied Science, where he quickly cuts threats in acrylic sheets with a drill by using water or alcohol as a coolant (a great way to get good threads in plastic, that I've used ever since). My guess is that the ethanol constantly cools the plastic, and you therefore don't get any heat build-up from the friction, so you remove the material, instead of just melting it and move it somewhere else but still sticking to the piece. You could probably try it out with water as well, but I don't think the files would like that as much as the alcohol,... :)
I use isopropyl alcohol for the same thing. The evaporation helps keeping things cool. But, i don't sand that much anymore, not since i got miniature card scrapers. PLA behaves very, very well with scraping techniques. No dust, no heat and often creates perfect finish. It is tons faster too, 1 hour sanding jobs are now 10 minute scraping jobs.
I've also seen isopropyl alcohol used to make "transparent" filements more transparent and it works, to a degree if you align all the layers so all lines alig but still not fully transparent. Great tip I learned the other day. A blow touch. Sounds crazy but if you hit an FDM print for a second or under, any stringing or tiny filement that sticks anywhere "like a white spot. It also brings out more detail and instantly smoothes out any rough spots.. Super quick post processing if just super minor issues. Printed a dragon the other day and hitting the face for a second really brought out the detail in the eyes and ears/horns. Obviously have to be careful though. I already ruined one print but user error. The guy in the video said it had to be a blow torch, not a butane lighter, like for creme brulee or obviously a real one. Luckily I already had one. Not sure if that's true or not but taking his word for it. Best thing is if you have to sand, because everyone loves it,which always makes the color look more matte or "washed out", hitting it very quickly will bring the color back like it was just printed.
I've been 3D printing for a couple years now, I wish they did one with a smaller nozzle and lower flowrate for fixing little imperfections a bit more delicately, also PETG reacts much better to sanding, PLA is really hard to sand
Wow. I had this idea months ago! And it’s worked well for me! I’m amazed I had the same idea as Adam!!!!! He is a GENIUS that I’ve looked up to for over 20 years now since I was a child!!!
Yeah and they were awful. They mostly still are - you saw what quality came out of that thing - but as a method of getting extra molten plastic into a space for later cutting and sanding? Possibly useful. Just as a sense of scale, the depth you’d have to cut/sand those pillars he made would remove most or all structural support. These pens really struggle with making anything load-bearing or solid.
@@Phlosioneer this is a manual tool, it does what it is supposed to do, which is to squeeze molten plastic out of a nozzle, in that regard the quality is near perfect. As a manual tool however, the skill of the user largely determines the quality of the end result. There are ways you can hold it to get thin vertically but wide horizontally lines, more similar to the lines made by a 3D printer than you can build up better and stronger. You absolutely can make load bearing or solid things with them, it is just about the skill of the user.
The pens came out a little bit after era of 1.75mm home printers started. There were already home printers with firmware that had acceleration then but it wasn't terribly popular of course compared to todays numbers i guess, most everyone was a noob back then anyway, we'd share stuff online like what hairspray works for adhesion(commercial glues and special print surfaces werent yet out), some people were starting to tinker with corexy, most printers were still lasercut plywood etc..
UV resin mixed with corn starch is one of the best ways ive found to "repair" and improve surface issues. Mix it so its fairly thick, paint it on with a brush, then cure it wit a UV flashlight. The resin mixture is far easier to sand than standard PLA and does an excellent job filling small gaps. With some elbow grease you can get a very smooth finish with 2-3 coats.
I have the same pen and use it to pretest a design as you can make a simple version with the pen, especially when its just a small part to make. Then after I know what I need to improve and then go into 3d program to design it and then also already have the measurements needed or want to improve on.
For post-processing: cabinet makers card scrapers, especially smaller once are EXCELLENT. I don't sand much anymore, scraping doesn't create dust, the parts don't get hot and it cuts time to one fifth or less. They are simply amazing with PLA, it is so hard that scraping techniques work.
Having made several helmets the thing I love about my 3d pen is that it's a great way to add strength to the inner seams of a helmet. Rather than try to "weld" with a wood burner I use the 3d pen on all the internal seams of the print. Also filling gaps when you have a print the lifts off the bed just a bit.
I got the original 3Doodler (significantly bulkier than the current 3Doodler) and while it's definitely not a precision instrument and had feed issues, it was an amazing maker tool. The best thing I made with it was a gold vine decoration for a meat cleaver "sword" from an anime. I used paper to draw the shape to fit over the spine of the foam and PVC pipe "blade" and drew the vines flat on the paper template. Then I used a heat gun to make the middle flexible and bent it into shape to clamp onto the "blade" and painted it to the right gold. I think the new ones feed better and have better ergonomic fit to the hand, but I haven't upgraded mine yet.
I came to mention the 3Doodler! I got the original model through KS. Really a neat item, but I had to pass it on because it hurt my hand to use. That's cool that you were able to use it to make the decorations you needed
I have one as well, but probably not the same model. It also has some attachments like a foot pedal and nozzle swaps that include a small metal attachment for smoothing surfaces. Sadly, I never got into using it much. Might get some actual use if I actually start working on 3D prints though
@@gaerekxenosI never saw the foot pedal so I went and looked just now out of curiosity. I'm glad I did. They've changed a lot since I last looked. I kinda want to get the Pro+ that handles nylon, a wood fiber polymer, and a metal infused polymer.
Picked up one of these for a similar reason; been using it as a welder to join parts after printing models that were sliced smaller. It's especially effective if you model a fillet into the part (like how you would grind one for a steel weld) and use the pen to join the parts. I can't imagine it being much good for anything like printing in the air, but it certainly has application for repairs and joining parts.
A good compliment to a 3d pen is a wood burner or similar tool to help smooth out rough edges along side sandpaper and knives, probably works well with 3d prints too. I’ve seen several 3d pen artist use this method in their videos. I’ve seen some impressive stuff made solely with a 3d pen and a wood burner style tool
I know most people opt for PETG, but i found PLA+ just prints easer the only notable negative is temperature resistance. ASA is my go to if i want a useable part you can also acetone smooth the part afterwards if you feel so inclined.
Hey Adam, a neat trick I have found for finishing prints has been to use a metal file. It smooths of PLA beautifully and can remove large quantities of material with less chance to break the break (or stab yourself) as you have with a knife.
I've got an old file that will just eat through crews like butter and still be gentle on my prints. What makes it even better is that on the fine side, it will start to buff the print and make it shiny once it's smooth
One thing you can do with a pen like that is to use it like a welder, joining pieces together that couldn't be printed in one single go. It works fabulously to bond other pieces of PLA together quite strongly. If you manage to find _just_ the right temperature, where the material is the most fluid, but _before_ it starts causing bubbles, then you have an easier time getting the pen to push the plastic into hollows, nooks, and crannies, rather than settling on top, like you tried at 5:44. Mounting a pyrography tip on your soldering iron gives you a great tool for re-heating, smoothing, and sculpting the PLA, after it has hardened. Keep the "leftovers", such as removed support structures or failed prints. You can melt them down in an ordinary oven at less than 200°C, and use moulds (e.g. heat-resistant silicone) to let the material flow into a shape you like. I've had good results from making imprints of a piece I wanted to replicate in a bit of modelling clay, filling the imprint with granules of "waste" PLA, and putting the thing into my oven at 170°C for ten minutes. Because of the low temperature and short time, the clay wasn't really affected, and could be re-used several times.
This is a great idea. I recently had to bind a PETG 3D print to a command strip hook and went with the ol' torch + cyanoacrylic glue technique, but this would've been more elegant haha
I think a milliner or silk flower iron with knife and wedge shaped tips and temp control would be an interesting way to smooth the material. Soldering irons are generally too hot even at the lowest temps.
Read up on using PETG as support interface. A lot cleaner break offs. Also check more walls vs higher infill. 100% infill isn't necessarily stronger than increasing walls for example.
I use the same type of pen, you can adjust the speed using the top buttons, that is handy when you only want a small amount, and can adjust it to work at your speed then. I often join PLA prints using the ABS setting, making it more of a welder, and get a strong bond too. Works for flexible TPU too.
Hey Adam, using a wood burner or a soldering iron set to 60 degrees ( celsius) can help melt and refine the surface. Fill with the 3d pen, iron it out. :) have you given it a try ? Have great day Sir !
I have a phrozen brand vibrating cutter, and it will melt and smooth out my 3d pen added plastic to blend into the surrounding very nicely. Just turn it on and put the side of the blade on it, the blade vibrating will heat it up and melt it slightly, but enough that you can smooth it out. I also use my variable temp soldering iron as well for larger or less visible jobs. Works faster, but not nearly as precise in my experience.
These are invaluable tools for Cosplaying. I have 3 pens in my farm, one for Ultra Low Temperature PCL, I keep one on PLA settings and another on ABS Settings. More often than not, the prints are going to be sanded smooth and/or repainted, so the pen "sloppiness" is nothing to worry about. There are some great artists who use a pen specifically and their work is really cool!
I got one of those cheap 3D pens from Aliexpress and I found a great use for it in retro console modding and stuff like that, like a ZX81 with a piece cut out of the back for something, and I placed some tape as the external surface level and filled it in with the 3D pen, then some sanding after removing the tape and it came up really good, or in the C64 Mini, adding a USB hub board inside with one of the ports on the back for external use, and I used the pen to build up some screw posts for the new board to screw to. For things like creating stuff from scratch it's really just a toy, but for some things, it is definitely a useful tool to have in the box.
Hey Adam, try loading in PETG for supports. It doesn't bond to PLA and works great for a super smooth finish on intaglio surfaces. In Bambu Slicer, switch interface to PETG, Z distance to 0, and spacing on interface to 0. Make sure to calibrate the PETG before doing this to get the smoothest surface.
If you use yout bambu lab X1C with the AMS, you can load in a spool of PETG to use as support interface material. Use the traditional support type (non organic/tree), set interface distance to 0, and set support interface material to PETG. This leaves perfect surface finish on overhangs, steep angles and curved surfaces. PETG releases extremely easily from PLA and ABS prints, and can be printed in a far large temperature range than what is stated on the box. You can also use PLA as support material for PETG. This does however add a bit more time to the print, and you must make sure to set the PLA/ABS as pure white, and the PETG/support material as pure black. The update the flushing volumes. This is to ensure thang the PETG gets sufficiently flushed away, as it otherwise ruins layer adhesion. I recently bought a 3D pen, and it’s really good at welding parts together, though the surface finish is not very nice, and you should probably add a small chamfer to the edges you intend to join. The bad surface finish can be fixed with a scalpel and some sandpaper. The joints are far stronger than superglue
I've been 3D printing for about five years and like you, I tried a 3D printing pen and found it useless, I had a lot more success with a MODIFI3D PRO hot iron with interchangeable nibs
Hey Adam, another tool to look into is a plastic welding kit for surface repair. It looks like a soldering iron with a flat head. It can be a huge help with fixing prints or welding multi-part prints together, and should work really well when combined with that pen. The pen can do the job of filling in the spaces you want with filament, and then the welder can be used after the filament has cooled to smooth it out and help fill in gaps that the pen may not have filled well. It should help make cleaning up the parts easier as well so you don't have to do as much sanding. Best of luck with your future printing projects!
I use my 3D pen sometimes to connect two printed parts. I don't like to contaminate my prints with glue and that way I don't have to. Also i don't have to find glue that works for a specific filament type and no waiting for glue to dry. I also used it once to fix a limit switch on my first 3d printer, because I was not able to print the replacement part. I wanted to replace it afterwards with a newly printed part, but ended up to keep it like that until i rebuilt the whole 3d printer a year later.
i use my 3d printing pen the most for fixing parts together, hold 2 parts together and go over the seem with the 3d pen and it will melt them together it awesome, if you design the parts yourself you can incorperate a litle V-shaped groove where the parts meet and the 3d pen filament will melt into and then you can basicly melt them together without much of a visual defect or sanding afterwards
Instead of sanding, have you tried a soldering iron? I also find that an add on chisel tip works best. It doesn't get too hot but it lets you get a smoother finish before sanding. 👌
Ironing is not a Bambu Lab exclusive. Their slicer is a re-skinned version of Prusa Slicer. Any FDM printer supporting custom gcode can use the ironing function with Prusa Slicer.
I've had a bit of success with a pen much like that, not only giving prints touching up, filling those crevices and not quite fitting parts, but also repairing commercial plastic. 80's joysticks, old camcorders with brittle plastic. Quite lovely.
You may want to look into a "plastic welder" for ironing out crap 3d printed surfaces. I just got the harbor freight one which is a soldering Iron with a flat triangle at the end. If I need to fill a hole in a print I take a foot of filament and light the end until it holds a flame then drip the plastic where I need it.
Little tip from a fellow 3d print nerd - Pyrography tools work well. Just use the lowest heat settings or if you want to go even nerdier reduce the voltage to prevent it getting too hot.
I've been doing this for some 3d prints with not so great support finishes and yeah it's great, hell I even got mine for like 9 dollars new. Though instead of using a knife, I use a sharp wood chisel and hold it close to the tip so I reduce the chance of hurting myself with it, this way I really am sort of sculpting away the excess from what I fill with the 3D pen and really leaves a smooth finish that way, sometimes I don't even need to sand, it depends, you can also use a soldering iron with dedicated tips for woodburning. Another thing I used it for was filling some chipped out ivory keys from a really old organ I've been fixing up, it really is a useful tool, it kinda felt like doing dental fillings. One idea I have for ergonomics is maybe have something like a pedal that controls both the speed and the feeding action, similar to how sewing machines are operated, I think thats very doable (as makers ourselves at least) and these pens would be even greater if they came with something like that
Have you tried using a "carving jack" multi-tool for print touch ups? It's like a little swiss army knife but with all kinds of chisel/whittling blade shapes so you can quickly switch to whatever you need to get into all the weird corners/surfaces with stray filament spaghetti.
I'd love to see if this pen can also fix old/degraded plastics, like toys or games consoles etc.. mainly internal supports and where screws fasten into tend to break
Hello Adam,Greetings from Switzerland! I wanted to express my heartfelt thanks for your brilliant TH-cam contributions. As a model builder, I consider you the "Gyro Gearloose of model making." Your creativity is inspiring and constantly brings a smile to my face - just like Gyro's wacky inventions!Best regards, Patrick
As someone with 8 yrs experience printing and having my own On-demand service, those pens will likely be useful only for repairing holes, maybe filling gaps on assemblies, gashes, imperfections etc Nothing where you can expect quality or usefulness. Supports, bridges, overhangs etc will all get better as you learn how to use the right settings. (top layers, gap, infill for support) Experience will show you how it best works for your workflow.
This would be useful for some repairs for sure. I got a temp adjustable soldering iron last week, and it is amazing for repairs, and re-laminating the filament back together, like on the inside of the trailer neck in the video. I had a part I made this morning where a tab didn't get fully printed, and this thing would have been perfect for trying to finish the tab off.
For me, models that have a tough time printing nice, i will cut them up in to various parts in the slicer so more pieces print flat on the bed for a nicer result. Then i use my 3D pen to “weld” the parts into their final shape. I tried to clean up the parts like Adam did and got the same issue where i was looking at a lot of sanding which is not easy with PLA. So using the pen as a welder to put the now “nicely printed” pieces back together, i get really great results. A lot less sanding and its strong as hell. Like a weld, the PLA melts into the part creating a perfect bond
They do actually work really well. The 3d pens have multiple speed setting and when I need to fill seams I generally use it on the second slowest setting and gives a lot more control with the flow of the filament. Slow it down, works better
Without trying to sound rude..I wouldn't say this is the best use case for a 3D print pen, it adds alot of additional steps. (building up, sanding down, smoothing, etc.) Typically people in the hobby prefer to use a flat ended soldering iron to smooth out the rough finish on such a small part. Especially on a piece where tolerances really matter. Altering the print orientation could also make for a cleaner print requiring less supports. For large prints, like a helmet, this method of using a 3D pen is great for joining parts though. Hope this is helpful info! :)
you can get really clean bottom surfaces on the Bambu printer if you leverage their support material for PLA. what I recommend is using it only for the support interface (meaning it only uses the support material between the model and the support structure. this makes your spool of support material last a long time since it's only a tiny bit that's used. for the support material, you can use cheap leftover filament, but what I recommend is to use the same material for the support structure as you're printing the model with, so you can print both without an extra filament swap each layer. that means if you only have one spot that needs support, it will print in the one filament until you get to that layer, then switch to the support material, then print it, then switch back, and the rest will just be the normal filament, and you can do this with absolutely minimal increase in print time. but the support material is a hotter plastic, so it won't bond with the PLA you print with, so when you go to remove the support material later, it pops off cleanly and often leaves a fairly nice looking surface. it won't look as good as the bottom when printed on a smooth PEI sheet, or the top after ironing, but it can look pretty dang good. good enough to call a production finish in my opinion. give it a shot! oh and for people wanting to save money, people have successfully used PETG for the support interface material when printing PLA and it seems to work about as well, so I think their support material must be ASA or PC or something similar
my go to for cleaning prints is a soldering iron to flatten and smooth. then a dremel to clean up the marks left by the iron the soldering iron is also great for welding printed parts together
for the ladder part you need to print it flat and have support for the bit after 45° incline. Building custom supports with cad will leave you with part that need no extra work
@tested I highly recommend PETG if you want a great all-around material. It's stringy, but it's stronger, has a better working temperature range, and exhibits higher dimensional stability.
The implementation and application clearly has room to grow, but I'd never even considered something like this. Having seen it, the concept seems so simple and obviously powerful now.
I've been 3D printing for about 14 years... whenever the RapMan came out. Anyway, the pens are good for welding two printed parts together. If you want to smooth an FDM print, even one as bad as that part, get some UV reactive resin (like what's used in 3D printers. Mix it with some talc or baby powder. You can get Bondo like consistency. It sands like butter and eliminates layer lines in one or two coats.
Some of these 3D pens have attachments meant for smoothing out your prints. The one I picked up years back had some additional attachments meant to do that in its nozzle size pack
i bought one from temu that even had a speed control which made it so much easier to use if it was a small area. and its great for joining pieces together if you had to split a model to fit the build plate.
I was waiting for the ER run watching the razor blade part. I use a 3d pen for touch ups sometimes but i use pla just like solder with a triangle flat tip soldering iron. Flows like solder and doesn't stick to the tip. Works great for rounding wheels or barrels.
3d pens are great for "weld repairing" parts even without filament loaded into the pen. They are even better for "re filling" parts that had to be cut back to fit, when you have to cut away the outer layers revealing the infill layers. A very handy tool in any makers tool kit. Once you are adept at using them they are fantastic for adding pipe work detailing for models.
I have found it useful for welding prints together and now I even design for it when ever I have 2 parts that fit together rather then glue or screw them together I just weld it with a bead of plastic.
if u are using the ams..use petg as a support against pla..or the other way around..they dont fuse together ..it can really sit on the part to get smooth part when removing the support
On the subject of filaments, when you move from PLA I highly suggest moving to ASA. When properly dried and in a warm, draftless enclosure it prints very similar to PLA. PETG is great for certain parts and projects, but if you need something a bit more rigid and able to hold up in the heat (without breaking the bank) ASA is the way to go. Just make sure to use glue stick or something to act as a barrier between the build sheet and filament.
Couldn't help it but say I love how you say "how beautifully it pops off" then the organic support breaks in a different place. That is a nice way to fix a 3d print, hadn't even crossed my mind. 6:06 I would suggest keeping the pen vertically to the surface rather than the angle of a welder, so the filament has less cooling effect from the surrounding air and reduce overfill as well. 6:40 I've been taught to cut toward air not meat and you've got me nervous. 10:50 I agree about the tip length. Perhaps if made out of an insulating material, it could have been longer. That could also allow for a 90° tip. Question about the pen: Does it have variable speed or is it an all or nothing? If it was variable, then you could slow down as the passes get quicker (less layer cooling time)
These end up being kind of a niche tool, but there's a couple of ways in which these are really handy. You can use them when you need to make a plastic loop around something in situ, to either bind two things together, or form a sort of movable chain-link connection. It makes something that's basically solid plastic when it's done, and a several centimetre wide wrap of PLA/ABS can make a very secure and strong bond. The other use I found handy was for blades and chisels, especially ones with unusual shapes. You can just draw one side of a sheath right onto the tool, pop it off, draw the other side, bond them with the pen, and you have a perfect custom sheath for absolutely any sharp edge. You can even just add loops to hang them on in a couple of seconds with the pen. I used mine to make a perfect sheath for my spoon carving hook knife. It protects the knife edge, stops anything getting cut, and even protects the shape of the blade, as the solid plastic remains in exactly the same shape.
Also to improve prints, and to reduce supports needed, make sure your hotend has dual cooling and use 'bridge' mode. Many printers only have one filament cooling fan, this cools one side of the filament down faster than the other. Dual cooling, via two fans, or by printing a vent that allows a single fans flow to be split in two will definitely improve print quality and as I said, allow less supports. My Ender 3 Max which comes with dual cooling fans can bridge like a champ. Has no problems printing 90 degree overhangs with no supports over short distances.
I've wondered if there is a 3D pen that can be controlled with a foot pedal (like a TIG welder). I could think of scenarios where I would rather control the on/off this way, or even the dispense speed with a pedal. It would also allow the controls to be removed from the pen and streamline the pen body potentially giving a better view of the dispense tip.
You never cease to amaze me in how honest you are in your being a basic human being, LMAO "Who doesn't like picking scabs?" I'm really enjoying the 3D printing journey and all the elements that can be added into it. LOL Not that close up! honestly @12:00 i would probably file first then sand lightly knowing the plastic will heat up and flow if sanded to an extreme. But I am nothing in the world of the plastics of 3D printing, it's all foreign to me.
I bought one of these pens a few years ago. It has come in handy for many things, especially to repair a print that cracked. I didn't want to spend another day and a half printing so I just repaired the crack with the pen.
Filling holes like on the ladder, iron out filament with a wood burning tool. Also great in combination with the 3d pen to extrude a small dot into place
aside from the soldering iron and the mynt3d which can print high temp stuff a useful tool to have if you want to bend and shape plastic around other bits you dont is the hot air soldering station / gun, it has some small nozzles which put a very controllable spot of heat where you need if for bending purposes
I bought a similar 3D printing pen last year to attempt the same thing, but it never works out. I've learned it better to get a soldering iron with flat tip to iron out those areas instead.
what ive used to smooth out PLA prints is one of those pine 64 portable soldering irons and a old soldering tip. that along with this to fill in the spots that need it and the iron to smooth it out/fine fill would be a charm.
HEY ADAM!! To use this method effectively you might want to try a flat end on a soldering iron to manually iron on a smooth finish and better blend the new plastic. Love the channel ❤
Great to know that things work, I have seen it online but doubted it's capabilities but thanks for the demo so now I do. I do wish there was a super small attachment to do a 90 degree angle. Might not be possible Every once in a while I'll get lucky if the issue is somewhere where I can disable my extruder's stepper motor and it's a SOVOL SV06, which has a wheel so I can turn it but a lot of times that isn't possible. Was watching another video the other day and they mentioned using a very quick run over with a blow torch for string, minor imperfections and it removes any adhesive if used. The great thing is if you have to sand, which always makes the color more matte looking, if you hit it with a blow torch it will get its color back like it was just printed. Funny how obvious some things are but not until they are pointed out regarding post processing for 3D printing.
Right when Radio Shack was going out of business, they got some of the first generation of these pens in. It was only on/off forward and reverse. I made one of the ones the manager gave me run on a battery pack I made, and i still have one that I just used last week. I figured that since I had an anycubic kobra max coming in the mail, I'd see what videos were out there, and sure enough, Adam had the same printer. I was going to make a warm box for the filament under the machine, and he had a whole video about doing the same thing! Thank you for making my plans seem more sane. I'll be doing something similar and appreciate the footwork already being done. 😆 I swear, all of us have some kind of hive mind going. Thanks for the helpful videos, folks. I can't wait to print something giant. 🤙🏽
You can also use a wood burner to smooth out prints had support materials to what you need to smooth and then smoosh it flat with the wood burner I say wood burner and not shouldering iron is because there are more attachments for a wood burner
Oh, Adam, you are in for a whole new world with PETG. If you want to print functional stuff that doesn't get exposed to heat, I'm not sure there's anything better. Also, and this may just be me, I find PETG to be a much more delightful plastic to handle in terms of how it feels in my hands. I don't think I've printed anything in PLA since I started with PETG.
If you want to hide layer lines EASILY - try Bambu Lab PLA-CF. Its infused with carbon fiber, which hides layer lines, and also increases certain mechanical properties, while decreasing overall weight. Treat it just like PLA when you print - EZPZ. Also, wet sanding PLA makes a world of difference on the finish.
This would be so cool to use to fix print issues. One of my helmet prints is missing some corners because of warping on the print bed, so I could use this to repair that and fill gaps. Definitely buying this. What would be really cool is if there were a pen like this that instead ironed filament at the surface level to smooth layer lines with heat.
a 3D pen is amazing next to an ordinary printer. I have used it a lot to repair or fill in other prints. but to smooth it out, next to already mentioned soldering iron on of course a low temp setting ( I use somewhere between 180 and 220 C) you could also use "dichloromethane". this desolves PLA just like acetone does with other plastics
I recently grabbed a couple different 3D pens to mess aronud with. So far the best use has been repairing a c-hub on one of my ancient Tamiya RC cars. Using one of these pens, a soldering iron, and a jeweller's file I reconstructed about half the c-hub and it's been holding up to me thrashing this 30 year old car around at well over 50km/h.
PIKA 3D Printing Pen: amzn.to/3Q4hc7H
PLA filament: www.matterhackers.com/store/c/mh-build-series-pla?aff=7553
Bambu Lab X1C 3D printer: www.matterhackers.com/store/l/bambu-lab-x1-carbon-combo-3d-printer/sk/M80GDCL5?aff=7553
Disclaimer: Tested may earn an affiliate commission when you buy through the links here.
This 3D printing pen just looks exactly like most generic 3D printing pens you can find online, you can get them from loads of places, I don’t think anything about this one is special. So this is likely just one of those generic pens but with their brand on it. I got mine from sunlu and it has been fine too.
Edit: I have no idea who actually originally made these pens but I couldn’t find it.
Adam should really disclose if this is a sponsored segment.
I've been using similar pens for years. Another thing they're really good for is stitching together parts into a larger piece. It takes a bit of practice, but it is every bit as strong as the rest of the print when you're done. I've made very large structures, put holes in walls to fill with ballast for weight (BBs) and filled in the holes again, and even repaired broken components with the appropriate filament (ABS, PETG, etc).
Also recommend getting some large blade/shape ends for a soldering iron to use for smoothing and shaping to help reduce the amount of clean up necessary after filling/joining pieces.
One last thing, there are other 3D pens on the market you can find that are much smaller and easier to use for this purpose, some being a little bigger than a sharpie. I found them much easier to use and see what I'm doing than the bigger, bulky ones.
Try tough PLA or PLA plus. Durability of ABS and the more tougher filaments but pretty much the same parameters and handling as regular PLA, so not nearly as fidgety. Been using it for my tools and fixtures as I've been inspired by Tested to organize my shop.
@@giantweevil2737 Only drawback is the still relatively lower heat tolerance. For that I use PETG/PETG+ or ASA if I need UV stability and higher heat tolerances.
QUICK TIP: A silicone mat and silicone clay sculpting tools work great for flattening and pushing hot material around. Only issue is you have to do it fairly quickly, but if you plan it out a few seconds ahead of time, or mount your part so you can have a silicone tool in one hand and the print pen in the other, it works great.
This just makes me think about getting some wider tips for my TS101, and adjusting it to a lower temperature to function in this role. =)
Been resin printing for a while, but looking to get a filament one soon.
@@jubuttib It sticks. Silicone doesn't. I have done it. 100% you can do it. I just prefer not to heat the plastic over and over. One and done.
@@ajosepi1976 Ah right, good point. Thanks for the heads up. I'm sure I'll learn the hard way later too, hehe.
I don't use sculpting tools. I use a butane operated soldering iron with specialized hot ends for sculpting. That way you can finish your print or rather drawing in this case and clean it up afterwards.
I saw someone use a silicone spatula that they made a little rig for it follows the persons pen strokes and smooths the filamebt out for them. Was frankly kinda genious
You might also try a flat or wedge tipped soldering iron to melt, flatten, and smooth out small rough sections on your 3d print.
Combine that with your new 3d print pen, and I think you'll get the results you're looking for.
Soldering iron gets to hot for most plastics, but get one of those adjustable heat ones that are meant for wax and can heat up enough for solder would be the best. That's been the best tool I got for 3d printing by far for me
@@gruntes11istttYou can buy temperature adjustable soldering irons, but that might also be a good idea. Or a set of tools used for wood burning could also provide several options.
Second this and add - get a dedicated temp controlled soldering iron, needs to have a range that goes down to 190C I got a cheap one $20 80W 180 to 520C its been perfect for print touch up and welding, I don't have a pen as I can 'weld in' new material as needed
I pair my TS100 soldering iron with is TS-KU tip at around 180°c and it works perfectly for smoothing
@@vizionthingHadn't considered just "welding" in the new material, but that makes sense. Thanks for the added input.
Love my 3D pen- I don't use it often, but it's often invaluable when I do. I mostly use it like a welder. Great for when the way I want to design something isn't ideal for the constraints of 3D printing because I can just separately print the bit that wouldn't print or would require a lot of support and weld it on. Often it's a situation where there isn't really enough surface area for using adhesives.
Adam have you tried coupling this with a soldering iron/hot knife type of thing? You can get some really good results with 3d pens by using the right tools along with it!
You beat me to it! I use a hot knife and my 3D pen. The hot knife can be turned on its side to act like an iron or you can use an old soldering iron to help iron parts to smooth the plastic.
The 3D pen is great for filling cracks or gaps. It can weld parts together too. I've made butterflies and flowers with it too.
theres a whole bunch of artists on youtube making things with 3dpens and they use pyrography tools designed for wood burning to get beautiful smooth results.
Yep, soldering iron with custom endings and you can basically do anything, and smoothie anything out of a fdm 3d printer
i was gonna say the same thing
Adam, I have been developing an “industrial 3D pen” for the past year and will be showing it publicly for the first time at the maker faire next weekend…. 4x faster, hotter and spool fed. More like a plastic mig welder than a “3d pen”. Come try it out!
It's one of those things you learn over time with experience, but that ladder model might have printed better standing up vertically or in its face (or back), possibly even without support! Bridging (crossing a gap with no support, but a solid anchor on both sides) is pretty reliable with modern printers
Seems to me that the layer lines would be in the wrong direction and it would have made a very weak part. Might be fine for cosmetic parts though, I mostly print structural engineering parts.
I would also consider slicing it into two or three pieces using Tinker cad, and super gluing it together after the face.
@@SimplyDudeFace Even better, PrusaSlicer these days can create splits with easy creation of slots and pegs for alignment as well.
And try organic supports if bridging distance is to large, they seem to come off more as a whole piece and the small dots are easy to clean. Maybe try to manually place them
And also lose a ton of fidelity and turn any curved surfaces into PS1 models with tinkercads terrible resolution. Just use a slicer with a built in cut function. @@SimplyDudeFace
I recommend an adjustable heating iron, ones that heat up just enough for wax but can get hot enough to do high temp solder. Each plastic has it's unquie melting point once you figure out a good at it you can start plastic welding with it or make perfectly smooth parts. It's my number one recommend tool for 3d printing. The trick for welding pieces together or the adding fill is to heat up the object to just bellow or at it's melting point then adding the fill or pieces. Combine this with a 3d pen is amazing
Wow, didn't know about this. Great suggestion, thank you!
The tool you want to use to smooth out the 3D pen filling is a wood burning tool. They are typically about $30 and come with a large array of burning tips, many of which are shaped like spatulas, which are great for melting and shoving the extra plastic into gaps. Ideally you'll get one with a temperature adjustment so you can pick a setting that's just right to soften the plastic, not liquify or burn it.
Some things to note about using 3D printer pens - the filament that extrudes is usually going to be quite a lot thicker than what your printer extrudes, because it isn't a precisely-controlled extrusion paired with precisely-controlled motion. When you lay down blobs with the 3D pen, it's going to be tougher to cut and sand than you think. Also, they all overflow after extrusions - I think most 3D printer pens either don't have retraction or just suck at doing so because of the nozzle design.
Apart from repairing your 3d prints, it could be also used to make sculpts, creating objects etc.
A soldering iron with an iron tip along with sandpaper or a fine grit file is a must if you want smooth results.
I'm loving all the 3D printing content from you Adam. A lot of people are scared of 3D pens, and they can be messy, but I appreciate that you see the value in having one in your 3D printing toolkit. I would suggest Mynt3D pens if you want an upgrade. I consider them the gold standard, having tried dozens of brands :) I look forward to your continued explorations in the 3D printing space!
Cheers,
Devin
Tip: When sanding PLA FDM prints, try soaking your file or sandpaper in ethanol, it really works wonders for the finish. I've been able to get a very smooth surface that way (especially on the parts of the model, where the support hits). I was inspired by this process from a video by Ben from by Applied Science, where he quickly cuts threats in acrylic sheets with a drill by using water or alcohol as a coolant (a great way to get good threads in plastic, that I've used ever since). My guess is that the ethanol constantly cools the plastic, and you therefore don't get any heat build-up from the friction, so you remove the material, instead of just melting it and move it somewhere else but still sticking to the piece. You could probably try it out with water as well, but I don't think the files would like that as much as the alcohol,... :)
I use isopropyl alcohol for the same thing. The evaporation helps keeping things cool. But, i don't sand that much anymore, not since i got miniature card scrapers. PLA behaves very, very well with scraping techniques. No dust, no heat and often creates perfect finish. It is tons faster too, 1 hour sanding jobs are now 10 minute scraping jobs.
@@squidcaps4308 Cool, thanks, I have to try that as well :)
I've also seen isopropyl alcohol used to make "transparent" filements more transparent and it works, to a degree if you align all the layers so all lines alig but still not fully transparent.
Great tip I learned the other day. A blow touch. Sounds crazy but if you hit an FDM print for a second or under, any stringing or tiny filement that sticks anywhere "like a white spot. It also brings out more detail and instantly smoothes out any rough spots.. Super quick post processing if just super minor issues. Printed a dragon the other day and hitting the face for a second really brought out the detail in the eyes and ears/horns.
Obviously have to be careful though. I already ruined one print but user error. The guy in the video said it had to be a blow torch, not a butane lighter, like for creme brulee or obviously a real one. Luckily I already had one. Not sure if that's true or not but taking his word for it.
Best thing is if you have to sand, because everyone loves it,which always makes the color look more matte or "washed out", hitting it very quickly will bring the color back like it was just printed.
I've been 3D printing for a couple years now, I wish they did one with a smaller nozzle and lower flowrate for fixing little imperfections a bit more delicately, also PETG reacts much better to sanding, PLA is really hard to sand
Ohhh, I could definitely see this being useful for filling in gaps left in multi-part prints.
Or even more ambitious: welding multiple 3D printed parts together
Wow. I had this idea months ago! And it’s worked well for me! I’m amazed I had the same idea as Adam!!!!! He is a GENIUS that I’ve looked up to for over 20 years now since I was a child!!!
It's funny I feel like I saw 3D pens advertised as a kid years before 3D printers became popular.
Yeah and they were awful. They mostly still are - you saw what quality came out of that thing - but as a method of getting extra molten plastic into a space for later cutting and sanding? Possibly useful.
Just as a sense of scale, the depth you’d have to cut/sand those pillars he made would remove most or all structural support. These pens really struggle with making anything load-bearing or solid.
The first one was 11 years ago and plastic 3D printers as we think of them now are from 1998.
@@Merennulli 3D printers may have been invented then but they didn’t become widely available for a lot longer.
@@Phlosioneer this is a manual tool, it does what it is supposed to do, which is to squeeze molten plastic out of a nozzle, in that regard the quality is near perfect. As a manual tool however, the skill of the user largely determines the quality of the end result. There are ways you can hold it to get thin vertically but wide horizontally lines, more similar to the lines made by a 3D printer than you can build up better and stronger. You absolutely can make load bearing or solid things with them, it is just about the skill of the user.
The pens came out a little bit after era of 1.75mm home printers started.
There were already home printers with firmware that had acceleration then but it wasn't terribly popular of course compared to todays numbers i guess, most everyone was a noob back then anyway, we'd share stuff online like what hairspray works for adhesion(commercial glues and special print surfaces werent yet out), some people were starting to tinker with corexy, most printers were still lasercut plywood etc..
UV resin mixed with corn starch is one of the best ways ive found to "repair" and improve surface issues. Mix it so its fairly thick, paint it on with a brush, then cure it wit a UV flashlight. The resin mixture is far easier to sand than standard PLA and does an excellent job filling small gaps. With some elbow grease you can get a very smooth finish with 2-3 coats.
I have the same pen and use it to pretest a design as you can make a simple version with the pen, especially when its just a small part to make. Then after I know what I need to improve and then go into 3d program to design it and then also already have the measurements needed or want to improve on.
My favorite use for a 3d pen is making authentic small scale "welds" on seams for smaller models!
Organic supports are fantastic especially when you do "paint on support" Ironing is a feature of the slicer software, not just a bamboo labs thing.
For post-processing: cabinet makers card scrapers, especially smaller once are EXCELLENT. I don't sand much anymore, scraping doesn't create dust, the parts don't get hot and it cuts time to one fifth or less. They are simply amazing with PLA, it is so hard that scraping techniques work.
Having made several helmets the thing I love about my 3d pen is that it's a great way to add strength to the inner seams of a helmet. Rather than try to "weld" with a wood burner I use the 3d pen on all the internal seams of the print. Also filling gaps when you have a print the lifts off the bed just a bit.
I got the original 3Doodler (significantly bulkier than the current 3Doodler) and while it's definitely not a precision instrument and had feed issues, it was an amazing maker tool. The best thing I made with it was a gold vine decoration for a meat cleaver "sword" from an anime. I used paper to draw the shape to fit over the spine of the foam and PVC pipe "blade" and drew the vines flat on the paper template. Then I used a heat gun to make the middle flexible and bent it into shape to clamp onto the "blade" and painted it to the right gold.
I think the new ones feed better and have better ergonomic fit to the hand, but I haven't upgraded mine yet.
I came to mention the 3Doodler! I got the original model through KS. Really a neat item, but I had to pass it on because it hurt my hand to use. That's cool that you were able to use it to make the decorations you needed
I have one as well, but probably not the same model. It also has some attachments like a foot pedal and nozzle swaps that include a small metal attachment for smoothing surfaces. Sadly, I never got into using it much. Might get some actual use if I actually start working on 3D prints though
@@gaerekxenosI never saw the foot pedal so I went and looked just now out of curiosity. I'm glad I did. They've changed a lot since I last looked. I kinda want to get the Pro+ that handles nylon, a wood fiber polymer, and a metal infused polymer.
Picked up one of these for a similar reason; been using it as a welder to join parts after printing models that were sliced smaller. It's especially effective if you model a fillet into the part (like how you would grind one for a steel weld) and use the pen to join the parts. I can't imagine it being much good for anything like printing in the air, but it certainly has application for repairs and joining parts.
A good compliment to a 3d pen is a wood burner or similar tool to help smooth out rough edges along side sandpaper and knives, probably works well with 3d prints too. I’ve seen several 3d pen artist use this method in their videos. I’ve seen some impressive stuff made solely with a 3d pen and a wood burner style tool
I know most people opt for PETG, but i found PLA+ just prints easer the only notable negative is temperature resistance. ASA is my go to if i want a useable part you can also acetone smooth the part afterwards if you feel so inclined.
I second the vote for PLA+. Easier to use than PETG for sure.
Hey Adam, a neat trick I have found for finishing prints has been to use a metal file. It smooths of PLA beautifully and can remove large quantities of material with less chance to break the break (or stab yourself) as you have with a knife.
I've got an old file that will just eat through crews like butter and still be gentle on my prints. What makes it even better is that on the fine side, it will start to buff the print and make it shiny once it's smooth
One thing you can do with a pen like that is to use it like a welder, joining pieces together that couldn't be printed in one single go. It works fabulously to bond other pieces of PLA together quite strongly.
If you manage to find _just_ the right temperature, where the material is the most fluid, but _before_ it starts causing bubbles, then you have an easier time getting the pen to push the plastic into hollows, nooks, and crannies, rather than settling on top, like you tried at 5:44.
Mounting a pyrography tip on your soldering iron gives you a great tool for re-heating, smoothing, and sculpting the PLA, after it has hardened.
Keep the "leftovers", such as removed support structures or failed prints. You can melt them down in an ordinary oven at less than 200°C, and use moulds (e.g. heat-resistant silicone) to let the material flow into a shape you like. I've had good results from making imprints of a piece I wanted to replicate in a bit of modelling clay, filling the imprint with granules of "waste" PLA, and putting the thing into my oven at 170°C for ten minutes. Because of the low temperature and short time, the clay wasn't really affected, and could be re-used several times.
This is a great idea. I recently had to bind a PETG 3D print to a command strip hook and went with the ol' torch + cyanoacrylic glue technique, but this would've been more elegant haha
I think a milliner or silk flower iron with knife and wedge shaped tips and temp control would be an interesting way to smooth the material. Soldering irons are generally too hot even at the lowest temps.
Read up on using PETG as support interface. A lot cleaner break offs. Also check more walls vs higher infill. 100% infill isn't necessarily stronger than increasing walls for example.
I use the same type of pen, you can adjust the speed using the top buttons, that is handy when you only want a small amount, and can adjust it to work at your speed then. I often join PLA prints using the ABS setting, making it more of a welder, and get a strong bond too. Works for flexible TPU too.
Hey Adam, using a wood burner or a soldering iron set to 60 degrees ( celsius) can help melt and refine the surface. Fill with the 3d pen, iron it out. :) have you given it a try ? Have great day Sir !
I recommend this bust one with adjustable heat setting because plastics are kinda of sensive to heat. heat it up to much it becomes brittle or burns.
I have a phrozen brand vibrating cutter, and it will melt and smooth out my 3d pen added plastic to blend into the surrounding very nicely. Just turn it on and put the side of the blade on it, the blade vibrating will heat it up and melt it slightly, but enough that you can smooth it out. I also use my variable temp soldering iron as well for larger or less visible jobs. Works faster, but not nearly as precise in my experience.
These are invaluable tools for Cosplaying. I have 3 pens in my farm, one for Ultra Low Temperature PCL, I keep one on PLA settings and another on ABS Settings. More often than not, the prints are going to be sanded smooth and/or repainted, so the pen "sloppiness" is nothing to worry about. There are some great artists who use a pen specifically and their work is really cool!
I got one of those cheap 3D pens from Aliexpress and I found a great use for it in retro console modding and stuff like that, like a ZX81 with a piece cut out of the back for something, and I placed some tape as the external surface level and filled it in with the 3D pen, then some sanding after removing the tape and it came up really good, or in the C64 Mini, adding a USB hub board inside with one of the ports on the back for external use, and I used the pen to build up some screw posts for the new board to screw to. For things like creating stuff from scratch it's really just a toy, but for some things, it is definitely a useful tool to have in the box.
Hey Adam, try loading in PETG for supports. It doesn't bond to PLA and works great for a super smooth finish on intaglio surfaces. In Bambu Slicer, switch interface to PETG, Z distance to 0, and spacing on interface to 0. Make sure to calibrate the PETG before doing this to get the smoothest surface.
If you use yout bambu lab X1C with the AMS, you can load in a spool of PETG to use as support interface material. Use the traditional support type (non organic/tree), set interface distance to 0, and set support interface material to PETG. This leaves perfect surface finish on overhangs, steep angles and curved surfaces. PETG releases extremely easily from PLA and ABS prints, and can be printed in a far large temperature range than what is stated on the box. You can also use PLA as support material for PETG.
This does however add a bit more time to the print, and you must make sure to set the PLA/ABS as pure white, and the PETG/support material as pure black. The update the flushing volumes. This is to ensure thang the PETG gets sufficiently flushed away, as it otherwise ruins layer adhesion.
I recently bought a 3D pen, and it’s really good at welding parts together, though the surface finish is not very nice, and you should probably add a small chamfer to the edges you intend to join. The bad surface finish can be fixed with a scalpel and some sandpaper. The joints are far stronger than superglue
I've been 3D printing for about five years and like you, I tried a 3D printing pen and found it useless, I had a lot more success with a MODIFI3D PRO hot iron with interchangeable nibs
These are great for gluing two pieces of the same plastic together. Some types of filaments just hate normal glue. These pens work great.
Hey Adam, another tool to look into is a plastic welding kit for surface repair.
It looks like a soldering iron with a flat head. It can be a huge help with fixing prints or welding multi-part prints together, and should work really well when combined with that pen. The pen can do the job of filling in the spaces you want with filament, and then the welder can be used after the filament has cooled to smooth it out and help fill in gaps that the pen may not have filled well. It should help make cleaning up the parts easier as well so you don't have to do as much sanding.
Best of luck with your future printing projects!
I use my 3D pen sometimes to connect two printed parts. I don't like to contaminate my prints with glue and that way I don't have to. Also i don't have to find glue that works for a specific filament type and no waiting for glue to dry.
I also used it once to fix a limit switch on my first 3d printer, because I was not able to print the replacement part. I wanted to replace it afterwards with a newly printed part, but ended up to keep it like that until i rebuilt the whole 3d printer a year later.
i use my 3d printing pen the most for fixing parts together, hold 2 parts together and go over the seem with the 3d pen and it will melt them together it awesome, if you design the parts yourself you can incorperate a litle V-shaped groove where the parts meet and the 3d pen filament will melt into and then you can basicly melt them together without much of a visual defect or sanding afterwards
Instead of sanding, have you tried a soldering iron?
I also find that an add on chisel tip works best. It doesn't get too hot but it lets you get a smoother finish before sanding. 👌
Ironing is not a Bambu Lab exclusive. Their slicer is a re-skinned version of Prusa Slicer. Any FDM printer supporting custom gcode can use the ironing function with Prusa Slicer.
I highly recommend the heated textured plate from Bambu Labs.
Prints fall off and no glue clean up needed!
Also, a soldering iron to fix prints.
I've had a bit of success with a pen much like that, not only giving prints touching up, filling those crevices and not quite fitting parts, but also repairing commercial plastic. 80's joysticks, old camcorders with brittle plastic. Quite lovely.
You may want to look into a "plastic welder" for ironing out crap 3d printed surfaces. I just got the harbor freight one which is a soldering Iron with a flat triangle at the end.
If I need to fill a hole in a print I take a foot of filament and light the end until it holds a flame then drip the plastic where I need it.
I have a 3D pen to go along with my 3D printer based workshop. I was just thinking yesterday....I'd bet Adam would love one of these.
Little tip from a fellow 3d print nerd - Pyrography tools work well. Just use the lowest heat settings or if you want to go even nerdier reduce the voltage to prevent it getting too hot.
I've been doing this for some 3d prints with not so great support finishes and yeah it's great, hell I even got mine for like 9 dollars new. Though instead of using a knife, I use a sharp wood chisel and hold it close to the tip so I reduce the chance of hurting myself with it, this way I really am sort of sculpting away the excess from what I fill with the 3D pen and really leaves a smooth finish that way, sometimes I don't even need to sand, it depends, you can also use a soldering iron with dedicated tips for woodburning. Another thing I used it for was filling some chipped out ivory keys from a really old organ I've been fixing up, it really is a useful tool, it kinda felt like doing dental fillings.
One idea I have for ergonomics is maybe have something like a pedal that controls both the speed and the feeding action, similar to how sewing machines are operated, I think thats very doable (as makers ourselves at least) and these pens would be even greater if they came with something like that
Have you tried using a "carving jack" multi-tool for print touch ups? It's like a little swiss army knife but with all kinds of chisel/whittling blade shapes so you can quickly switch to whatever you need to get into all the weird corners/surfaces with stray filament spaghetti.
@@TestSpaceMonkey not at all, thanks for the tip🔥
I'd love to see if this pen can also fix old/degraded plastics, like toys or games consoles etc.. mainly internal supports and where screws fasten into tend to break
Hello Adam,Greetings from Switzerland! I wanted to express my heartfelt thanks for your brilliant TH-cam contributions. As a model builder, I consider you the "Gyro Gearloose of model making." Your creativity is inspiring and constantly brings a smile to my face - just like Gyro's wacky inventions!Best regards, Patrick
As someone with 8 yrs experience printing and having my own On-demand service, those pens will likely be useful only for repairing holes, maybe filling gaps on assemblies, gashes, imperfections etc Nothing where you can expect quality or usefulness.
Supports, bridges, overhangs etc will all get better as you learn how to use the right settings. (top layers, gap, infill for support) Experience will show you how it best works for your workflow.
This would be useful for some repairs for sure. I got a temp adjustable soldering iron last week, and it is amazing for repairs, and re-laminating the filament back together, like on the inside of the trailer neck in the video. I had a part I made this morning where a tab didn't get fully printed, and this thing would have been perfect for trying to finish the tab off.
For me, models that have a tough time printing nice, i will cut them up in to various parts in the slicer so more pieces print flat on the bed for a nicer result. Then i use my 3D pen to “weld” the parts into their final shape. I tried to clean up the parts like Adam did and got the same issue where i was looking at a lot of sanding which is not easy with PLA. So using the pen as a welder to put the now “nicely printed” pieces back together, i get really great results. A lot less sanding and its strong as hell. Like a weld, the PLA melts into the part creating a perfect bond
They do actually work really well. The 3d pens have multiple speed setting and when I need to fill seams I generally use it on the second slowest setting and gives a lot more control with the flow of the filament. Slow it down, works better
Without trying to sound rude..I wouldn't say this is the best use case for a 3D print pen, it adds alot of additional steps. (building up, sanding down, smoothing, etc.)
Typically people in the hobby prefer to use a flat ended soldering iron to smooth out the rough finish on such a small part. Especially on a piece where tolerances really matter.
Altering the print orientation could also make for a cleaner print requiring less supports.
For large prints, like a helmet, this method of using a 3D pen is great for joining parts though.
Hope this is helpful info! :)
you can get really clean bottom surfaces on the Bambu printer if you leverage their support material for PLA. what I recommend is using it only for the support interface (meaning it only uses the support material between the model and the support structure. this makes your spool of support material last a long time since it's only a tiny bit that's used. for the support material, you can use cheap leftover filament, but what I recommend is to use the same material for the support structure as you're printing the model with, so you can print both without an extra filament swap each layer. that means if you only have one spot that needs support, it will print in the one filament until you get to that layer, then switch to the support material, then print it, then switch back, and the rest will just be the normal filament, and you can do this with absolutely minimal increase in print time. but the support material is a hotter plastic, so it won't bond with the PLA you print with, so when you go to remove the support material later, it pops off cleanly and often leaves a fairly nice looking surface. it won't look as good as the bottom when printed on a smooth PEI sheet, or the top after ironing, but it can look pretty dang good. good enough to call a production finish in my opinion. give it a shot! oh and for people wanting to save money, people have successfully used PETG for the support interface material when printing PLA and it seems to work about as well, so I think their support material must be ASA or PC or something similar
my go to for cleaning prints is a soldering iron to flatten and smooth. then a dremel to clean up the marks left by the iron
the soldering iron is also great for welding printed parts together
for the ladder part you need to print it flat and have support for the bit after 45° incline. Building custom supports with cad will leave you with part that need no extra work
@tested I highly recommend PETG if you want a great all-around material. It's stringy, but it's stronger, has a better working temperature range, and exhibits higher dimensional stability.
The implementation and application clearly has room to grow, but I'd never even considered something like this. Having seen it, the concept seems so simple and obviously powerful now.
I've been 3D printing for about 14 years... whenever the RapMan came out. Anyway, the pens are good for welding two printed parts together.
If you want to smooth an FDM print, even one as bad as that part, get some UV reactive resin (like what's used in 3D printers. Mix it with some talc or baby powder. You can get Bondo like consistency. It sands like butter and eliminates layer lines in one or two coats.
Some of these 3D pens have attachments meant for smoothing out your prints. The one I picked up years back had some additional attachments meant to do that in its nozzle size pack
i bought one from temu that even had a speed control which made it so much easier to use if it was a small area. and its great for joining pieces together if you had to split a model to fit the build plate.
I was waiting for the ER run watching the razor blade part. I use a 3d pen for touch ups sometimes but i use pla just like solder with a triangle flat tip soldering iron. Flows like solder and doesn't stick to the tip. Works great for rounding wheels or barrels.
i use a soldering iron to smooth the applied plastic by the pen, additionally i use it a a TIG welder to combine 3d prints.
3d pens are great for "weld repairing" parts even without filament loaded into the pen.
They are even better for "re filling" parts that had to be cut back to fit, when you have to cut away the outer layers revealing the infill layers. A very handy tool in any makers tool kit.
Once you are adept at using them they are fantastic for adding pipe work detailing for models.
The ironing can be done with any printer. It's a slicer setting.
I know cura has it and i assume( i should never i know) others have it to!
As a fan I love this. I have 2 much 3d printing experience and this brings me so much joy watching you discover new ways to enjoy this hobby.
You can use a 3D printing pen like a welder for making multi piece designs. Or use a contrasting color to fill debossed text.
They are also great for welding parts together. Also try a soldering iron to smooth prints.
I have found it useful for welding prints together and now I even design for it when ever I have 2 parts that fit together rather then glue or screw them together I just weld it with a bead of plastic.
if u are using the ams..use petg as a support against pla..or the other way around..they dont fuse together ..it can really sit on the part to get smooth part when removing the support
On the subject of filaments, when you move from PLA I highly suggest moving to ASA. When properly dried and in a warm, draftless enclosure it prints very similar to PLA. PETG is great for certain parts and projects, but if you need something a bit more rigid and able to hold up in the heat (without breaking the bank) ASA is the way to go. Just make sure to use glue stick or something to act as a barrier between the build sheet and filament.
Couldn't help it but say I love how you say "how beautifully it pops off" then the organic support breaks in a different place. That is a nice way to fix a 3d print, hadn't even crossed my mind. 6:06 I would suggest keeping the pen vertically to the surface rather than the angle of a welder, so the filament has less cooling effect from the surrounding air and reduce overfill as well. 6:40 I've been taught to cut toward air not meat and you've got me nervous. 10:50 I agree about the tip length. Perhaps if made out of an insulating material, it could have been longer. That could also allow for a 90° tip. Question about the pen: Does it have variable speed or is it an all or nothing? If it was variable, then you could slow down as the passes get quicker (less layer cooling time)
Hot wire foam cutters also work on some soft plastics, and can be used to trim or even sculpt.
These end up being kind of a niche tool, but there's a couple of ways in which these are really handy. You can use them when you need to make a plastic loop around something in situ, to either bind two things together, or form a sort of movable chain-link connection. It makes something that's basically solid plastic when it's done, and a several centimetre wide wrap of PLA/ABS can make a very secure and strong bond.
The other use I found handy was for blades and chisels, especially ones with unusual shapes. You can just draw one side of a sheath right onto the tool, pop it off, draw the other side, bond them with the pen, and you have a perfect custom sheath for absolutely any sharp edge. You can even just add loops to hang them on in a couple of seconds with the pen.
I used mine to make a perfect sheath for my spoon carving hook knife. It protects the knife edge, stops anything getting cut, and even protects the shape of the blade, as the solid plastic remains in exactly the same shape.
Also to improve prints, and to reduce supports needed, make sure your hotend has dual cooling and use 'bridge' mode.
Many printers only have one filament cooling fan, this cools one side of the filament down faster than the other.
Dual cooling, via two fans, or by printing a vent that allows a single fans flow to be split in two will definitely improve print quality and as I said, allow less supports. My Ender 3 Max which comes with dual cooling fans can bridge like a champ. Has no problems printing 90 degree overhangs with no supports over short distances.
I've wondered if there is a 3D pen that can be controlled with a foot pedal (like a TIG welder). I could think of scenarios where I would rather control the on/off this way, or even the dispense speed with a pedal. It would also allow the controls to be removed from the pen and streamline the pen body potentially giving a better view of the dispense tip.
I was thinking the same here. The pen I have is too "smart", and really would be helped with variable pedal control and a simple temperature knob.
You never cease to amaze me in how honest you are in your being a basic human being, LMAO "Who doesn't like picking scabs?" I'm really enjoying the 3D printing journey and all the elements that can be added into it. LOL Not that close up! honestly @12:00 i would probably file first then sand lightly knowing the plastic will heat up and flow if sanded to an extreme. But I am nothing in the world of the plastics of 3D printing, it's all foreign to me.
I bought one of these pens a few years ago. It has come in handy for many things, especially to repair a print that cracked. I didn't want to spend another day and a half printing so I just repaired the crack with the pen.
Filling holes like on the ladder, iron out filament with a wood burning tool. Also great in combination with the 3d pen to extrude a small dot into place
aside from the soldering iron and the mynt3d which can print high temp stuff a useful tool to have if you want to bend and shape plastic around other bits you dont is the hot air soldering station / gun, it has some small nozzles which put a very controllable spot of heat where you need if for bending purposes
I bought a similar 3D printing pen last year to attempt the same thing, but it never works out. I've learned it better to get a soldering iron with flat tip to iron out those areas instead.
what ive used to smooth out PLA prints is one of those pine 64 portable soldering irons and a old soldering tip. that along with this to fill in the spots that need it and the iron to smooth it out/fine fill would be a charm.
I’ve noticed that if you raise some prints up and build a support base then print on top of the supports it can greatly increase print quality
HEY ADAM!! To use this method effectively you might want to try a flat end on a soldering iron to manually iron on a smooth finish and better blend the new plastic. Love the channel ❤
Great to know that things work, I have seen it online but doubted it's capabilities but thanks for the demo so now I do. I do wish there was a super small attachment to do a 90 degree angle. Might not be possible
Every once in a while I'll get lucky if the issue is somewhere where I can disable my extruder's stepper motor and it's a SOVOL SV06, which has a wheel so I can turn it but a lot of times that isn't possible.
Was watching another video the other day and they mentioned using a very quick run over with a blow torch for string, minor imperfections and it removes any adhesive if used. The great thing is if you have to sand, which always makes the color more matte looking, if you hit it with a blow torch it will get its color back like it was just printed. Funny how obvious some things are but not until they are pointed out regarding post processing for 3D printing.
Adam is SO normal. Best line I think I've ever heard in a podcast, "If you like pickin' scabs...and who doesn't..."
Right when Radio Shack was going out of business, they got some of the first generation of these pens in. It was only on/off forward and reverse. I made one of the ones the manager gave me run on a battery pack I made, and i still have one that I just used last week. I figured that since I had an anycubic kobra max coming in the mail, I'd see what videos were out there, and sure enough, Adam had the same printer. I was going to make a warm box for the filament under the machine, and he had a whole video about doing the same thing! Thank you for making my plans seem more sane. I'll be doing something similar and appreciate the footwork already being done. 😆
I swear, all of us have some kind of hive mind going. Thanks for the helpful videos, folks. I can't wait to print something giant. 🤙🏽
You can also use a wood burner to smooth out prints had support materials to what you need to smooth and then smoosh it flat with the wood burner I say wood burner and not shouldering iron is because there are more attachments for a wood burner
You can make the tip longer by milling back some of the protective coating
Oh, Adam, you are in for a whole new world with PETG. If you want to print functional stuff that doesn't get exposed to heat, I'm not sure there's anything better. Also, and this may just be me, I find PETG to be a much more delightful plastic to handle in terms of how it feels in my hands. I don't think I've printed anything in PLA since I started with PETG.
There are some TH-camrs out there that do some STUNNING work with those 3D pens.
If you want to hide layer lines EASILY - try Bambu Lab PLA-CF. Its infused with carbon fiber, which hides layer lines, and also increases certain mechanical properties, while decreasing overall weight. Treat it just like PLA when you print - EZPZ. Also, wet sanding PLA makes a world of difference on the finish.
Would it work to use the support filament and a soldering iron to smooth over?
This would be so cool to use to fix print issues. One of my helmet prints is missing some corners because of warping on the print bed, so I could use this to repair that and fill gaps. Definitely buying this.
What would be really cool is if there were a pen like this that instead ironed filament at the surface level to smooth layer lines with heat.
a 3D pen is amazing next to an ordinary printer. I have used it a lot to repair or fill in other prints. but to smooth it out, next to already mentioned soldering iron on of course a low temp setting ( I use somewhere between 180 and 220 C) you could also use "dichloromethane". this desolves PLA just like acetone does with other plastics
I recently grabbed a couple different 3D pens to mess aronud with. So far the best use has been repairing a c-hub on one of my ancient Tamiya RC cars. Using one of these pens, a soldering iron, and a jeweller's file I reconstructed about half the c-hub and it's been holding up to me thrashing this 30 year old car around at well over 50km/h.
I use a temp controlled soldering iron for smoothing out 3D parts and adding material.