3D printers for the home haven’t quite taken off the way everyone expected them to, but the technology is finding some new life in an ever-growing variety of 3D printing pens.
These pens take the mechanics of a 3D printer and boil them down to a hand-held device that, essentially, lets you draw in mid-air. The super-heated plastic (or, in some cases UV-light activated gel) hardens instantly, letting creative people make, with lots and lots of practice, remarkable 3D objects.
That latest addition to this mini market is 3Doodler Start, a kids-version of the sleek 3Doodler 3D printing pen first introduced in 2013 and got and that got a significant update in 2015.
Both 3Doodler and the new 3Doodler Start, both from WobbleWorks, Inc., work similarly to the svelte LIX 3D printing pen. They all draw in filament through a port on the back end of the pen and internal motors drive the plastic forward through the heated nozzle.
The new $49 3Doodler Start, which will ship with a USB charger and two packets of plastic mix packs, is shorter and fatter than the original. Weighing just under a quarter of a pound, 3Doodler Start's 5.4-in. by 1.4-inch. green body is shaped a bit like a pickle, which ostensibly makes it easier for littler hands to grip it.
It works pretty much like a 3D printer, extruding specialized plastic through a heated tip. However, WobbleWorks, contends that there are no hot spots on the pen to burn little fingers.
Company representatives told Mashable it engineered a new kind of biodegradable plastic for the pen (to be fair, a lot of PLA is already made out of corn).
Creating amazing designs with a 3D printing pen isn’t that easy for adults or children (the set is marketed to 8-to-14-years-olds), so 3Doodler is also supplying a collection of Doodler Blocks, basically stencils, online.
The rechargeable 3Doodler Start should work 45 minutes on a charge, but can also run while tethered to a power-supply via the micro-USB port.
I did get to try out the new 3Doodler Start. Despite being a lot thicker than other 3D printing pens I’ve tried, its lightweight and ergonomic design made it comfortable to hold and easy to use. I turned it on, let the device warm up for less than a minute, clicked the main button once and the melted plastic spit out smoothly. I even I made some lame attempts at creating 3D printed arts. When I clicked the button again, the motor stopped and the plastic ceased flowing. I did notice, though that the front end of the 3Doodler pen felt a bit hot. That may be, though, because I was trying a prototype.
Preorders kicked off Tuesday and the final product doesn’t ship until May.