Behold! World's smallest 3D-printer pen Lix artists into shape – literally A London-based startup has unveiled the world's smallest 3D-printing pen – smaller than a posh fountain pen. A year ago we reported on 3Doodler, another British 3D pen that is now available in Maplin for £99.99. The newcomer unveiled yesterday, Lix, is actually pen-sized, weighs just 40g, and raised £100,000 on Kickstarter in …
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The first production models are expected to be delivered in October. It's hard to imagine a home with kids not having a 3D pen before too long
How long before those little darlings find out that they can have a great laugh filling up things that should not be filled with these devices. For example, locks. Suddenly filling the keyhole with Araldite etc is so uncool.
A wood lathe with bushing mounted centers is generally considered to be the only piece of manufacturing equipment that can be used to create an identical version of itself and retain 100% of the accuracy and precision of the original (if you want to be fancy you can turn the bushings and centers out of soft metal like bronze instead of lignum vitae, but whatever) It's a very old thinking exercise for students and apprentices in applied manufacturing.
That little nugget of information is important because it's still valid. Even the big multi-turret compound axis CNC Centers we have here aren't single machines. They are groups of individual machines communicating with one another and working toward a common goal (hence the 'Center' designation). Should 3D printers one day be able to truly reproduce themselves it will mark a huge shift in manufacturing. It's pretty damn cool.
Sorry to sound cynical over such a cool gadget but exactly what would this be useful for, except some 3D doodling. The filaments are too thin and weak to make anything useful and you need a very steady hand to make anything that looks good. I think even kids would get bored with this pretty quickly (like the old etch-a-sketches) as it is so limited and slow. It's basically a boy's toy for geeks.
I disagree. My artist parents would love this; it takes the sketch from 2D on the page to 3D in the air. OK I understand they will be brittle, but imagine being able to capture the result and turn it into a virtual model too, for later reproduction using a more "conventional" 3D printing technology.
If only these were available NOW - my birthday present purchases for them would be sorted.
Maybe the reason why a few people here are having problems thinking of reasons for wanting this is because this is a tech site and, as you say, it is the artists in the world who could make use of this.
My mother would have been enthralled by this. For example, making costume headdresses for dance recitals: those took ages to make out of wire, compared to the time it took to draw the template on paper. Plus the ability to get a wider range of colours out of plastic filament.
Not so sure about kids though. I can quite easily imagine these things being relegated to serious artists, or at least crafty adults. Rather like how most kids are given those cheap $2 water color trays that come with a 50 cent brush whereas serious artists will spend $5 minimum on each color and no less than $10 on each brush (and will have several brushes as opposed to the one that kids are expected to make do with).
Yes. If you have a robot arm, you can do way better than a dinky little pen running off a rechargeable battery. Depending on the size of the arm, you could fit at least one, and possibly several, extruder heads as used in your average 3D-printer. A wired power source means more power available to the extruder(s), and for an unlimited time, meaning a higher feed rate and filled-out parts instead of something resembling shaped chicken wire.
Yes. But not with such fine control and delicate lines. Kind of important with artistic tools.
People have been doing pyrography for centuries too. But a nice wire tipped pyro pen is a very different tool to the end of a poker shoved in a fire until it is glowing red. Still just scorching wood though.
There is nothing new under the sun, so demanding it be otherwise is futile.
I'm a jeweler, and if it can be modified to use jeweler's wax, it would seem to be quite fun for making casting models - or I could plate the doodles with metal for durability and looks. I can also see architects having a go to either work out some design considerations or to give a client a rough sketch that even the most 3D challenged could make out. And that's just off the top of my head. How about chemists modelling proteins? Or crafters making something like ornaments? think of it sort of like the drape-and-pin method some clothing designers (still?) use to work out new designs.
This is so cool! I want one too. But still, 3D printer is my favourite machine for now. I’ve created amazing stuff out of this. Some are 3D printer parts, tools and household items. Next week if my schedule permits, I’ll start working with my prototype shoes using rubber-like filaments from 3D2print. Anyone here has a 3D printer at home?
This is so cool! I want one too. But still, 3D printer is my favourite machine for now. I’ve created amazing stuff out of this. Some are 3D printer parts, tools and household items. Next week if my schedule permits, I’ll start working with my prototype shoes using rubber-like filaments from 3D2print. Anyone here has a 3D printer at home?
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