So we now have a 3D Pen

[Kyanbu The Legend]

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smar...ou-draw-in-3d/


a 3D pen that draws in the air

Yesterday, start-up company Wobble Works was looking for $30,000 to help fund the manufacture of a pen that lets you draw in three dimensions using malleable melted plastic. In just a day, the company found itself with more than $600,000 dollars from interested donors. In a Kickstarter campaign, now far more than fully funded, the company laid out their new device.




Reminiscent of a hot glue gun, the pen melts and extrudes plastic. New Scientist:


The pen’s key component is a tiny fan that cools the plastic as it leaves the nib. “This makes it solidify very quickly,” says company spokesman Daniel Cowen. Intricate “drawings” of a peacock and the Eiffel Tower in the launch video show how well it works.

TechCrunch’s John Biggs shows off his creation using the plastic-extruding pen:



The device is an interplay of two different crafting media—the mighty pen and the increasingly-ubiquitous idea of 3D printing. Technology Review:


3-D printing has always been about empowering smaller artisans, about taking what is traditionally the realm of major manufacturers, and bringing some of that power closer to the creators.he journey of 3-D printing, in many ways, has been bringing technology that’s traditionally been too expensive for individuals or even small businesses, and making that (or similar) technology available to the little guys.

… The 3Doodler is far cheaper and easier to use, and though less capable in some ways, it has the curious effect of leapfrogging the technology that it’s descended from… As a result, many people may be introduced to a “3-D printing pen” before they even know what a 3-D printer is to begin with.


Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smar...#ixzz2LYFMzRxy

I thought this was a pretty neat thing. Would love to play around with it someday.

It's stuff like this that makes me love being born in this time period. Dispite everything else wrong with it.

[Doc ock rokc]

That's really cool actually. I wonder what type of plastic it is using....I have been REALLY interested in 3d printing for the longest time however I never thought of a 3d Pen.

Wait does that mean we are 4d creatures now?

[Melfice]

Only if we accept the fourth dimension as being time.
But then we'd be talking about a 4D Pen as well, since the plastic is subject to time as much as we are.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

calling it now: 3D dick doodles.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Well of course, it's only a matter of time.

[tacticslion]

So, nothing new, then, in humanity's history.

(Wikipedia article, NSFW images, presumably, depending on your workplace.)

Weirdly, given the internet's obsession over such things and tendency to analyze itself, I could only find a single "article" on this... which is actually only a thread.

Anyway, /derail.

Anyway, this seems like it could be really nifty. Is the plastic going to be biodegradable, one would hope? It's unlikely, I admit, but it'd be nice.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Yeah, it's not like it can't be done. It all comes down to rather or not they'll actually make it eco friendly.