A simple skeletal 3D printable pen designed around the ‘Fisher Space Pen’ refill cartridge—including two cap designs, one that clips to a short stack of paper and another designed to clip onto any ‘Moleskine’ type sketchbook.
This an older project I dusted off and polished up to work without building supports; the PenPrint’s ergonomics aren’t the best, but as a digital artifact and 3D printed object, it’s only a few iterations away…
I want to point out that this design was purposely built around the ‘Fisher Space Pen’ cartridge; a forgotten artifact of US space exploration that expresses ingenuity, functionality and craft in its all-metal gas pressurized construction. And can still be found in most office supply stores for about $6—the same price per pen NASA paid back in 1967.
The ‘Fisher Space Pen’ cartridge felt like an appropriate core for a pen printed from PLA (corn-starch), which is in itself a commentary on the myriad of plastic (petroleum-based) disposable pens that flood office supply store aisles. By giving PenPrint this special refill cartridge, my goal was to elevate the traditional “plastic” pen. As a printable object, my hope is that the user sees how this object challenges the idea of ‘disposable’…even if only in pen form.
Want to make your own PrintPen? Find everything you need at Thingiverse.
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!
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Adafruit IoT Monthly — AI Teddybear, Designing Accessible IoT Products, and more!
I never imagined this to be possible. Creating things are rather easy these days because of the 3D printing machines. I’d like to have a go with those pens if they are as good as any pen in the market or even better.
I never imagined this to be possible. Creating things are rather easy these days because of the 3D printing machines. I’d like to have a go with those pens if they are as good as any pen in the market or even better.