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Fountain pens August 27, 2021 05:40PM |
I've spent lockdown combining my hobbies of 3d printing and fountain pens and I'm pretty pleased with the results.
The pen is made up of seven 3d-printed parts, each made from a plastic selected for its properties matching the functional requirements of each part, with a small amount of lead ballast in the grip and in the body. The ballast is eccentrically located so that the pen is less likely to roll off a flat surface. (It’s not a perfect roll-stop, but better than nothing.) The surfaces of the pen are ‘straight off the printer’ apart from the ends of the cap and body, which have been sanded and polished.
The body, grip and cap outers are all made of Polyalchemy Elixir PLA chosen entirely for appearance. The body liner is Xtron3D Marble, selected for its high hardness. The section inner and cap liner are made of a slightly softer PLA, Aurarum PPLA, so that the threads will deform to a perfect fit rather than wear when they are used.
Only the section inner is made in the conventional 3d printer manner (i.e. 3d model [OpenSCAD] then slicer [Simplify 3D]). The other parts are all made using G-code files that are made by software that I wrote in LiveCode and are printed with a single wall, “vase mode”. The single wall components are far too weak to stand alone—particularly given the relatively poor inter-layer adhesion property of Polyalchemy Elixir—but they are reinforced by being made into an epoxy-filled sandwich with their respective liner parts.
That unusual approach to 3d-printed construction means that I gain freedom of design and am easily able to achieve the intricate surface structure that gives the pens its sparkly glistening shine.
The pen is made up of seven 3d-printed parts, each made from a plastic selected for its properties matching the functional requirements of each part, with a small amount of lead ballast in the grip and in the body. The ballast is eccentrically located so that the pen is less likely to roll off a flat surface. (It’s not a perfect roll-stop, but better than nothing.) The surfaces of the pen are ‘straight off the printer’ apart from the ends of the cap and body, which have been sanded and polished.
The body, grip and cap outers are all made of Polyalchemy Elixir PLA chosen entirely for appearance. The body liner is Xtron3D Marble, selected for its high hardness. The section inner and cap liner are made of a slightly softer PLA, Aurarum PPLA, so that the threads will deform to a perfect fit rather than wear when they are used.
Only the section inner is made in the conventional 3d printer manner (i.e. 3d model [OpenSCAD] then slicer [Simplify 3D]). The other parts are all made using G-code files that are made by software that I wrote in LiveCode and are printed with a single wall, “vase mode”. The single wall components are far too weak to stand alone—particularly given the relatively poor inter-layer adhesion property of Polyalchemy Elixir—but they are reinforced by being made into an epoxy-filled sandwich with their respective liner parts.
That unusual approach to 3d-printed construction means that I gain freedom of design and am easily able to achieve the intricate surface structure that gives the pens its sparkly glistening shine.
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Re: Fountain pens August 27, 2021 05:48PM |
... looks awesome! - congrats! 
How is stability and tactile finish compared to common pens?
Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]
Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]
How is stability and tactile finish compared to common pens?
Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]
Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]
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