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What Are Some 3D Pen Ideas? Get Your Creativity Going!

With 3D printers, you can print three-dimensional parts; with a 3D pen, you can draw them.

This is not just a hobbyist tool or an artist’s medium (although it is excellent in both roles). 3D pens can be incredibly useful.

What are some 3D pen ideas? With your 3D pen, you can make useful items like game pieces, coasters, phone and tablet tripods, and educational aids. 3D pens can be used for artistic creations, like sculptures, jewelry, clothing accessories, and decorations, and can also be used as plastic welders for repairs around the home.

Drawing a three-dimensional object with a pen is a wild concept, and perhaps you have a million ideas surging through your head about what you could do with this technology.

However, if you are looking for a few helpful suggestions, you’ll find them in this article.

If you haven’t yet purchased a 3D pen, this one with adjustable speed is a terrific option.

It not only allows you to regulate the flow speed of the filament, but it also features a temperature control so you can work with various filament types at ideal, recommended temperatures.

MYNT3D Professional Printing 3D Pen with OLED Display
  • Watch imagination come to life with the Professional 3D Pen
  • Adjustable feed lets you regulate speed & flow for optimal control of material while you're drawing

3D Pen Ideas: Useful Items

Game Pieces

It is frustrating to lose a game piece. It may even be something as simple as a checkers button, but the fact that it’s gone means you can’t play the game.

Sure, you could use a number of random objects in its place, but being able to replace it with a look-a-like is the first-prize solution. 

With a 3D pen and a little practice, this is entirely possible. The following video demonstrates how you can use a 3D pen to draw game pieces.

It’s not just for replacing lost game pieces, however. A 3D pen opens up a whole new avenue for you if you are an avid RPG-er.

You can use it to draw figures and props. The finishes are not likely to be as smooth as if you had purchased or even 3D printed these items, but you will have fun in the process.

Furthermore, you could hone your craft until you excel!

Coasters

Coasters are one of those items that you don’t think about until you need them, but when you need them, you need them.

You could go out and buy some coasters, or you can make yourself a unique set using your 3D pen. For example, this video shows how to create geometric coasters.

Tripod for a Phone or Tablet

So much of our lives are spent on our mobile phones and tablets.

This does include recreational things like social media or streaming movies and series, but these days, we also use these devices for work and studying. 

Holding your phone or tablet for the duration of a meeting, a lecture, or a great RomCom is tedious.

Propping the expensive electronic devices on books, shelves, and other random objects can get a little dangerous. 

This is why stands and tripods are made. But you, with your smart 3D pen, don’t have to buy one.

You can use a 3D pen to draw a tripod or stand for your mobile phone (see instructional video here) or tablet (view demonstration here). 

Learning and Education Aids

Learning and educational aids like 3D molecular models or even just non-square 3D shapes can get really expensive, especially considering what they are and what they are made of.

Instead of spending money on these, why not try drawing them with your 3D pen? 

As a science or biology educator, you can take visual learning to a whole new level. 

If you are demonstrating how molecules bind together, you can make the individual molecules and then use the 3D pen to stick the two molecules together in the correct manner. 

Alternatively, you can demonstrate human anatomy by drawing a human hand in stages. When you are teaching on the skeleton, you can draw the bones.

Then as you progress through the soft tissue, vascular system, nervous system, and skin, you can add to the model until you have an anatomical hand! 

3D Pen Ideas: Artistic Creations

Sculptures

Sculpting with 3D pens has great potential as an art form. For example, here is a video of a man who created a 3D sculpture of his cat.

It’s fascinating to watch how this particular artist approaches the post-processing as well because 3D pens don’t tend to produce smooth finishes on the items. 

Jewelry

Whether you are a hobbyist jewelry maker or you run your own small jewelry business, then a 3D pen might be the perfect addition to your tool kit. 

Necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings, and pendants all can be created using the 3D pen. 

Clothing Accessories

Fashion designer Patrick Tai demonstrates the 3D pen has a far wider scope of application than you would think possible.

He designed and created a dress using only a 3D pen. You can see the dress here.

Another fashion designer, Eden Saadon, created a line of lacy black clothing accessories with a 3D pen.

Some of these pieces are only plastic; others have the plastic appliqued onto gauzy material. The results are stunning and sophisticated.

In the following video, you can watch someone actually make a dress with a 3D pen! This same person also made a pair of shoes with a 3D pen.

Decorations

You can make endless decorations with your 3D pen. There are Christmas decorations, Halloween decorations (think of the amazing spider webs you could achieve with a 3D pen), candle holders, bauble lights, mandalas, etc. 

You can also give your existing decorations a new flair by drawing new patterns on old vases, plant pots, and knick-knack boxes. 

3D Pen Ideas: Repairs

3D pens are a brilliant addition to any household repair kit. 

If your scissor handles broke, you can ‘weld’ the pieces together with the plastic from a 3D pen. You can do the same if the arm or nose piece of your eyeglasses breaks. 

You can mend or create new zipper toggles if the old one breaks.

Repair the bottom of your dishwasher’s cutlery tray with a 3D pen so that your knives, forks, and spoons don’t keep sliding out.

Plastic piping and casings can be repaired, reinforced, or even replaced with the products of a 3D pen. 

The possibilities of household repairs are nigh on endless with a 3D pen.

Yes, glue can stick parts back together, but a 3D pen can be used to fabricate missing pieces and build up parts.

Another use for 3D pens is to repair or apply finishing touches to imperfections on 3D-printed items.  

What Can’t Be Made With a 3D Pen?

Anything that requires complex geometries or items that need to be exact replicas of each other cannot be made with 3D pens.

Furthermore, load-bearing structures and parts cannot be made with 3D pens. The joins are not as secure as 3D-printed joins, and so their structural integrity is lower.

If you want an item, object, or part with a smooth finish, then the 3D pen is not the best option.

You may be able to achieve the finish you desire but only after much tooling and post-processing. 

Large items are hard to make with 3D pens because of the time and structural support required to make these items viable.

How Much Filament Does a 3D Pen Use?

The amount of filament that a 3D pen uses is very much dependent on the size of the object you are building, the complexity of the design, and the skill of the person handling the pen.

Larger and more complex items will require more filament, and the more mistakes made during the build, the more filament is wasted and the faster it is finished. 

What’s great about 3D pens, though, is that there is very little uncontrollable waste. So, the amount of filament you put into the pen is the amount you have to work with.

Can You Use 3D Printer Filament in a 3D Pen?

You can sometimes use 3D printer filament in a 3D pen, but not always.

The filaments are typically made from the same materials for printers and pens, but the filament sizes may be an issue.

Some pens use filament that is the same thickness as printer filament; others do not. 

Additionally, you have to be careful with the composite filaments.

A printer nozzle might be able to handle the abrasive nature of a stone, wood, or metal composite, but a pen nozzle is likely to be damaged.  

Conclusion

3D pens can be used to create a number of useful objects, such as tripods or educational aids.

Although these same items can be made with 3D printers, the 3D pens are less expensive. 

The human element of 3D pens can be a disadvantage when looking at precision and uniformity, but it is a bonus when it comes to artistic expression.

3D pends can be used for anything creative, from clothing to sculpting. 

Furthermore, 3D pens make an excellent DIY repair tool, acting as a plastic welder.

You can also use the pen as an accessory tool for 3D printing for finishing touches and repairs of printed parts.  

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J44EcQN_BU
https://learn.the3doodler.com/blog/kids_3d_pen_christmas_crafts/
https://learn.the3doodler.com/blog/diy-doodle-your-camera/

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