3DPrinting

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3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

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Has anyone used a 3D pen on PLA prints? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 6 hours ago by [email protected] to c/3dprinting

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I designed a part that has compartments for small neodymium magnets. The compartments open up on the side of the part, but ideally the entire part should look smooth and featureless, and the epoxy I use is not the same color as the PLA. Also, I'd like to be able to fish out the magnets later, and epoxy is a bit too final for my taste.

So I'm thinking of dropping a small dollop of melted PLA into the openings to seal them, then file / polish them smooth. It would be sticky enough to hold the magnets in place yet easy to pop off with something pointy or sharp if need be.

And to do that cleanly, I figured I'd get me one of those cheap freehand 3D pens as a kind of precision "glue gun" for PLA. And it occurs to me that I might also be able to use it to "weld" small parts together, and hand-write things on parts with a different color filament.

I'm not much of an artist so I have no use for a 3D pen as an artsy tool. But it seems like a useful thing to have alongside a 3D printer, and they're not that expensive - even the more expensive Mynt3D 3D Pen Pro, which is the one I'm eyeing.

Does anybody know if those 3D pens can be used for small manual reworks / assembly of PLA parts?

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[–] Everto 5 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I've used a cheap 3D pen to weld smaller prints together. Works pretty well. You have to be quick because once the filament starts to cool it doesn't bind well. It also doesn't look that pretty, but I only use it in areas that aren't visible in the finished product. If you're planning on sanding it after I think you'd be fine.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I was planning on doing the same kind of thing as real metal welds - you know, beveling the edges and filling up the bevel right-left-right-left if it's very deep. I wasn't really planning on using the molten PLA as glue to assemble parts solidly.