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The world's first 3D printing pen: Yours for just $75

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The 3Doodler, 3D printing pen

Come September, if everything goes to plan, the world's first 3D printing pen will go on sale for $75. The pen, called the 3Doodler, essentially allows you to lift your flat sketches off the paper — or, if you wish, to actually draw in three dimensions.

3Doodler is a Kickstarter project, and in under 24 hours it has obtained more than $500,000 in pledges — significantly more than its $30,000 target. As you can see in the video below, the inventors have already created an impressive prototype — and now it's time to bring the 3Doodler to market. The target price is $75 for a September 2013 release. The inventors say they have already located a Chinese manufacturer who is capable of meeting these targets. The final device should 24mm (1in) thick and weigh less than 200g, with an external power brick that accepts 110-240V.

In essence, 3Doodler is a standard 3D printer, but your hand controls the print head instead of a bunch of computer-controlled motors. (See: What is 3D printing?) Inside the 3Doodler is a filament feeder (which accepts ABS or PLA plastic), a heating element, and an extruder — and that's about it. The melted plastic comes out of the extruder and very quickly sets. As far as we can tell, the plastic oozes out of the extruder at a set rate — so depending on whether you want a thin (weak and flexible) or thick (strong and rigid) line, you move the 3Doodler quickly or slowly. For strength and flexibility, you just go back and forth over the same section, building up a web of plastic tendrils (like in the Eiffel Tower above).

Judging by the massive support for 3Doodler on Kickstarter, it's safe to assume that people are really excited at the concept of a freehand 3D printer. It's not hard to see why, though, if you were a child who dreamt of drawing sketches that literally jump off the paper. The actual reality of freehand 3D printing might be a little more complex than most users bargain for, but to that end the inventors have teamed up up with professional artists to provide 3Doodler backers with templates/stencils that you can simply fill in. The Kickstarter page also seems to lack any evidence that 3Doodler is capable of drawing straight lines, but hopefully it's just a matter of using a ruler.

A collection of 3Doodler objects

Moving forward, this could be a very exciting stepping stone for inventors and hobbyists alike. While 3D printers have revolutionized rapid prototyping tool, the 3Doodler is even faster; it adds a whole new dimension (!) to back-of-the-napkin brainstorming. To begin with, I suspect it will be quite hard to create meaningful sketches with a 3Doodler, but in time — and with a whole range of usability tweaks and add-on accessories that I'm sure will follow — the 3D printing pen might become as ubiquitous as the 2D Bic ballpoint. (See: 3D printing: a replicator and teleporter in every home.)

Now read: 3D printing with metal: The final frontier of additive manufacturing