3D printing and Shopbot on the cheep! check this out!

[myxpykalix]

This is a handheld 3D printing pen. If you could make a holder and mount this to a shopbot?? This is pretty neat, check it out:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1351910088/3doodler-the-worlds-first-3d-printing-pen?ref=NewsFeb2113&utm_campaign=Feb21&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

[phil_o]

This is pretty cool. I have a pen plotter (Sharpie holder) attachment that I have used on my Shopbot. I don't see why this 3D Doodler wouldn't work too.

Phil

[Xray]

Looks to be basically an advanced glue gun. Didn't see a price on the thing, I suspect it would be well over what I'd be willing to pay.
It looks like your finger has to depress a button as you are "writing" to maintain flow, that would be a problem on CNC, as would speed control, which would have to be spot on to produce anything else but a mess. Plus, hard to see how you'd do anything else but basic 2D with this, and then you'll have flat blobs of plastic in the general shape of something.

[dana_swift]

Doug- the way Kickstarter works, you decide what its worth to you to be in on the ground floor of a product. The person setting up the offer shows why you should believe they can deliver a product, then sets up a series of contribution levels, each one offering a different level of payback.

Every kickstarter project is different, in the case of the 3D doodle pen, all the offerings up to the $75 level have been sold. The offer indicates for that money you will receive one pen and "two bags of mixed color plastic" to try with it. No mention is made as to how big a bag is. Is that a trashbag or a microscopic sample bag?

The offer also tells when they expect development to be complete. That is just an estimate of course. With advanced participation levels you get involved earlier, and often get more of a voice in the final product.

With kickstarter, you have to get onto a good idea early if you want the lower prices (and are willing to accept a lower reward). Its a fascinating site, and shows individual ingenuity in this country is running at full tilt. I get the same feeling from the SB community.

I find myself amazed at how good and bad the ideas are. Some of them start industries, worthy of being on top of. Being in the vanguard of a kickstarter project may be a way to get stock in an industry at its ground floor. That is something you might want to ask before sending in money if you are interested in a project. For $10000 I wouldn't settle for being the proud owner of a doodle pen. But it might be something to consider if you owned a portion of the doodle pin market.

And yes, a hot glue gun is a similar concept. How did the inventors of the hot glue gun miss the opportunity to invent the 3D printer? Who knows.. everything is clear in hindsight. Like giving up at WD-39.

Sigh

D

[myxpykalix]

Dana is right on his analysis and in this instance they were asking for 30k and are now over 1 million, so you'd be way down the line. It's a good concept for kickstarter however....

How many of us invested in SketchChair and look what we got for that?:mad:

[CNYDWW]

I've adapted a pneumatic engraving pen and a holder that replaces the router on our shopbots at work. I've used it to rough up the surface of finished wooden pieces for engraving along with patina'ed steel etc. for different projects. In this case, i'd rather build an extruder that would slip in the router mount.

Regards
Randy

[Xray]

Thanks for the explanation D, never heard of kickstart before.
I commend innovation and am [usually] not quick to criticize concepts, I just don't see this gizmo having a valid application with CNC.
Indeed, its whole concept & major selling point is just the opposite - Hand done vs CNC. Really tough to see it succeeding at either unless it is priced well under $100.
Even then, I think it would be a novelty within a clique ,,, A 3D printers attraction, as CNC, is its ability to create precise objects and parts, can't see how anyone can get serious about a hand doodler.
They are putting forth the concept of printing out patterns to build up makeshift 3D objects, perhaps that idea has merit, time will tell.

[dana_swift]

Doug, I think the idea of the device is appealing to people who pick up a pencil and paper to sketch out designs. Now they can sketch out product, or a pattern to cast product from directly.

Some of us go to a cad program to "think" out our ideas. Others are more tactile. I think the pen inventor recognized the other half of the market was not being served. I wish em the best! Its not a product for me, but my respect for their creativity is absolute.

The idea of applying it to CNC I think came from Jack, I didn't see any mention of it on their writeup. There are plenty of CNC 3D printers out there on kickstarter, some of them are awesome. The makerbot family of products has become very successful.

:)

[chiloquinruss]

One use I can see would be to use it the same WE all use wood putty! Imagine having a three hour CNC 3d print job finish and you notice a little blemish in the middle of the project. Might be nice to have an 'electric' putty knife to fix up the job! Just a thought. Russ

[rb99]

One use I can see would be to use it the same WE all use wood putty! Imagine having a three hour CNC 3d print job finish and you notice a little blemish in the middle of the project. Might be nice to have an 'electric' putty knife to fix up the job! Just a thought. Russ


Hot glue gun?

[Xray]

Absolutely Dana, I commend any innovation, and wish them success.
Looks they they did well on pre sales, if they can keep the price point down to a reasonable level, they just might take off.
Only brought up the CNC angle because this is a CNC forum, but true, no one implied its use with CNC ,,, And most guys here I'm sure, including myself, are interested in all sorts of gadgets.

I went on a kick some months back where I was pretty seriously going to get a printer, and the makerbot was one I was considering.
I talked myself out of it after hearing about many problems with clogged injectors, and realizing that, for an outlay of $1,500 or so, I'd wouldn't be able to do much more than create little kids toys.
But its inevitable I will get one some day, incurable gadget fiend that I am. I'd like to see the technology advance and the price drop a bit before I make a move.
I did end up with an egg bot, pretty neat little machine which is capable of creating some mind bending graphics on eggs, golf balls ect

http://egg-bot.com/

[WoodMarvels.com]

FormLabs.com also got its start on KickStarter and that's the 3D printer I'm going to get but waiting for version 2.0 to come out... I'm sure the first model works great and all but I'd prefer to get a 3D printer with all the kinks worked-out of it based on user feedback. We'll see if I can wait that long!

Jon