I was thinking of buying a 3d pen to do post processing and small part attachment for contract print jobs, like a hot glue gun just for 3d prints, anyone using it this way? any recommendations of brand for quality and ease of use?
Speaking from direct experience with only one manufacturer, I can’t say that my opinion will be as valuable as others’ who might have used more than one. The 3Doodler is likely to be considered the “grandfather” of the 3d pen and there are now three models, but five total, counting discontinued version.
Version one was pretty good, per my wife (the artist) and not without flaws.
Version two apparently wasn’t all that good, as the local library now has a set of them collecting dust. I found that version two requires more patience than version one as the feed speed appears to be slower than that of version one.
Version two point one has apparently had some flaws corrected, and even though I have one, it is still in the box for lack of need by my wife (the artist) so I cannot address the improvements. 3Doodler offered a substantial discount to v2 owners to upgrade to v2.1.
No experience with the way-too-expensive Pro version or the child’s version, which purports to be lower temperatures and possibly harder to burn oneself.
On a more practical note, I’ve used the ABS filament in v1 to weld broken parts of another ABS piece. The weld was not structural, more of a containment repair to surround a metal rod, but it’s been holding up nicely. I expect the PLA welds would work reasonably well, but it’s also likely to be unsightly unless carefully incorporated into the design. I can see that method working well, as people are creating complete pieces of art.
There are low-priced knock-offs on the market. You pays your money and you takes your chances. “You pays your money and you takes your choice.”― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
@Fred_U Thanks for the description, I have never even seen one in use. I am thinking of spot welding things like small parts, latest job has me gluing in 10 small windows on keepsake boxes, box is t-glase and window is PLA just want to make little PLA capture blobs internally very quickly for things like that. Worth the cost of a quality unit if it makes post processing faster and uses the same consumables as the printing to streamline the supply chain. gonna research it a bit more and try one out hoping it speeds up workflow and eliminates a material need.
Oh, yeah, I forgot one aspect about the 3Doodler line of products. They “require” that you purchase their proprietary filament sticks at an incredible mark-up. I found that one can use spooled filament, but it requires constant attention to keep the curved stuff feeding properly in the straight feed chamber.
If you find one that states it can use ordinary filament and you like the other aspects, you’d come out ahead on labor and costs.
For the purpose you describe, I think you’ll do well with even an inexpensive model, assuming no severely negative user reviews.
You may be better off using friction welding with a short length of filament in a dremel:
I have a dremel rotary tool and my 3mm filament fits perfectly. It sure does get hot and it appeared to melt into the base pieces when I performed a test. Unfortunately it wasn’t very strong. That means I did something incorrectly or it was unsuitable for the test I performed. I’ve had good luck with a soldering iron and scrap filament, but the 3d pen beats that for level of control.
I’ve used a pen for adding filler to PLA. It works but it’s messy… What you can do is fill cracks or voids and then use some other technique like a file to get the surface back to flush, much like grinding down a weld bead.
@Paul_Gross did that, its ok but not as clean or as reliable as I need to sell finished products that are entirely 3d printed as a product feature. I find white T-Glase at least just sort of shreds before it melts from the surface friction. Its also really loud and I can’t hear Japanology or Time Team reruns on Youtube while doing that! Which is crucial to my workflow!
I want something that I can melt the same filament used in the print to secure parts together, might have to do a bit of modding but the end goal of just a second or two to spot weld parts on hidden attaching points and a recyclable object with no chemical contaminants from glues seems worth pursuing.
Thanks everyone great responses I have a better picture forming of how to get to that goal.
I got this one. Works great with abs. I just save the ends of the spools to use for welding and patching.