3D Printed Pen Blanks

[crokett]

I'm not sure if this should go here or in Blank Making. I see 3D Printed pen blanks online. Has anyone tried one? How well does PLA finish? I was thinking of trying to print some. I could see possibilities such as printing one with a spiral web pattern or the like and then casting resin to fill it in, or honeycomb, or whatever. How well would polyresin or epoxy resin stick to it?

 

[Kenny Durrant]

I'm not a 3D printer guy but my buddy is. He printed up some honeycomb tubes for me. I told him the ID and OD I needed and he did the rest. I put the tube in the mesh and did a tube in cast. You can't tell the plastic resin from the urethane resin. If you have the ability to 3D print the shystge limit with what you can do.

 

[Woodchipper]

My grandson bought a 3D printer. Hmmm.

 

[bsshog40]

I 3d printed a duck call insert recently, mainly just to see how it turned out. Looked good but has a rough finish. I tried a little hand sanding but seemed to be too much work to try and get a good finish. You may have better luck being able to do it on a lathe. Also I would print with 100% fill so it's not so brittle. My insert is pretty stout with 100% fill. Don't know how they are with resin.

 

[Edgar]

I'm not a 3D printer guy but my buddy is. He printed up some honeycomb tubes for me. I told him the ID and OD I needed and he did the rest. I put the tube in the mesh and did a tube in cast. You can't tell the plastic resin from the urethane resin. If you have the ability to 3D print the shystge limit with what you can do.

That blank would look great on a Honeybee kit!

 

[leehljp]

A recent thread that may relate to this thread inquiry: https://www.penturners.org/threads/honeycomb-blank-coming-apart.178355/

 

[JohnU]

The problem I find with PLA cast prints is after a few days you can feel the difference between materials, like the resin settles or the print expands. There is a "bump" between them. Also, some resins don't bond real well to it. I found resin printers to work better for casting but are much messier to use and make and require curing after printing. I'm not saying they can't be done well, I'm just mentioning some issues I've seen with them. The plus side Is they do open up a new level of creativity. A good CA finish helps with smoothing out the finished surface but it's still not perfectly smooth.

 

[Kenny Durrant]

Ok once again I'm not a computer or 3D printer guy. Thanks for the scare John U. After reading his post I got up to check the pen pictured above. After wiping off the dust it's still smooth as the day I finished it. Any blanks that are solid resin I don't use a CA coating. I just sand and polish. Back to John post I do know that the honeycomb was made with a resin printer not a filament one. Thanks for the added information.

 

[mark james]

I'm not a 3D printer guy but my buddy is. He printed up some honeycomb tubes for me. I told him the ID and OD I needed and he did the rest. I put the tube in the mesh and did a tube in cast. You can't tell the plastic resin from the urethane resin. If you have the ability to 3D print the shystge limit with what you can do.

I'm a wood blank guy... But boy does that look nice! I admire that technology.

 

[Drewby108]

PLA has the expansion/contraction issues John mentioned, but I wonder how ABS or PetG would do. That requires a decent fume hood to print, though. ABS smoothing with acetone gas eliminates the print lines and makes it a homogenous piece of plastic. Might be worth fixing my printer to try.

 

[crokett]

I'm a newbie to 3D printing. I'll do some more checking on what PLA can do. I'm more interested in printing honeycomb or spirals or something with voids and then adding casting resin similar to Kenny's post.

 

[Redshed]

as a 3d printer guy myself, I have to ask what orientation did he use? do you know how he did it?

 

[Kenny Durrant]

Redshed if your asking me how, I don't have a clue? He's inspects parts for a machine shop and writes a lot of programs. He's the one that enjoys that kind of stuff so I just ask if he can do it.