I have been away for awhile, made a couple of pens by request, but not real active due to other interests but I have always had pen turning on my mind.
Recently I have been working with a couple of 3d printers and have had the idea of printing pen blanks. I did not want to do it with just one color because that may not make anything special so I have been working with the Mosaic Palette, a filament splicer that will let you print up to 4 colors with a single extruder printer.
I used 2 colors on this example and printed the blank like a solid piece of plastic. I make it in a hex shape to facilitate the turning process. I turned it down just like any other blank and used the CA finish. I like the way it came out, though I need to work on fine tuning the printing process.
I know they will never be as pretty as the wood turned pens, but I think there is a lot of potential for customizing with simple graphic design, lettering, etc. Maybe not, but I am going to pursue this further.
Thanks for looking.
Recently I have been working with a couple of 3d printers and have had the idea of printing pen blanks. I did not want to do it with just one color because that may not make anything special so I have been working with the Mosaic Palette, a filament splicer that will let you print up to 4 colors with a single extruder printer.
I used 2 colors on this example and printed the blank like a solid piece of plastic. I make it in a hex shape to facilitate the turning process. I turned it down just like any other blank and used the CA finish. I like the way it came out, though I need to work on fine tuning the printing process.
I know they will never be as pretty as the wood turned pens, but I think there is a lot of potential for customizing with simple graphic design, lettering, etc. Maybe not, but I am going to pursue this further.
Thanks for looking.
