As soon as I saw that PrusaPrinters was running a quick contest to design a pen, I knew exactly what I would design if I entered it. The design would be a pen with a mm ruler, a gauge for several sizes of metric nuts and bolts, a 4mm bit holder and finally a pen :D I thought that a pen like that would be useful for folks who do a lot of printing or designing things to 3D print. I didn't think I would be able to get it designed though, before the deadline for entry.
But then I had some free time this afternoon, and thought I would take a swing at it. Unfortunately what seems simple usually (for me) evolves into something not so simple, and so a project I though would take an hour took multiple hours - and I have still yet to print and test it. I am pretty happy with the sliced model though, and once my Ender3 is freed up tomorrow I will try and print it. If it all checks out, the design will be uploaded to PrusaPrinters and entered in their contest for some filament. It is designed to use a simple pen insert which I pulled out of a BIC pen.
I took some of the inspiration for this from another handy tool I use pretty often, which is a remix of this thing. If you need to sort a lot of nuts and bolts, that is a great tool and makes the process easier than just guessing.
But then I had some free time this afternoon, and thought I would take a swing at it. Unfortunately what seems simple usually (for me) evolves into something not so simple, and so a project I though would take an hour took multiple hours - and I have still yet to print and test it. I am pretty happy with the sliced model though, and once my Ender3 is freed up tomorrow I will try and print it. If it all checks out, the design will be uploaded to PrusaPrinters and entered in their contest for some filament. It is designed to use a simple pen insert which I pulled out of a BIC pen.
I took some of the inspiration for this from another handy tool I use pretty often, which is a remix of this thing. If you need to sort a lot of nuts and bolts, that is a great tool and makes the process easier than just guessing.
UPDATE 2/4/2022 - I did a pretty comprehensive redesign of the pen after testing it. I thought I would not like the triangular profile but since it is rounded off and tapers, it was not a problem. I extended the profile (and the ruler) the full length of the pen, and added a magnet to the cap, and have another version with a 10x5x1 magnet that can be glued to the body of the pen (however I don't have these magnets so it will remain an untested remix once I post this). The pen is also a bit thicker but still normal sized and should be comfortable to write with.
Getting the fit to work with the pen refill and the 4mm bit was probably the most difficult part of this design. I printed a half dozen test parts to get it just right - and I hope it will work similarly for other printers. Getting tolerances right is a big pain with FDM since not everyone's printer/slicer behaves the same, and when dealing with very small close fitting parts it makes it a bit of a balancing act to try to make things work. My printers are not perfect so that adds to the headaches. I try to calibrate things when running test prints like these though, to limit the problems. In any case I hope it will work as well for other folks as it did for me. I am running a final test print now and will post it with some pics probably later today or tomorrow, once those are done.
Getting the fit to work with the pen refill and the 4mm bit was probably the most difficult part of this design. I printed a half dozen test parts to get it just right - and I hope it will work similarly for other printers. Getting tolerances right is a big pain with FDM since not everyone's printer/slicer behaves the same, and when dealing with very small close fitting parts it makes it a bit of a balancing act to try to make things work. My printers are not perfect so that adds to the headaches. I try to calibrate things when running test prints like these though, to limit the problems. In any case I hope it will work as well for other folks as it did for me. I am running a final test print now and will post it with some pics probably later today or tomorrow, once those are done.
Update 2/5/2022 - It's posted on Prusa Printers and entered in their Pens and Pencils Contest!
https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/129703-multi-function-pen-with-a-metric-ruler-nut-and-scr
https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/129703-multi-function-pen-with-a-metric-ruler-nut-and-scr
Update 2/6/2022 - I made a minor change to the design to allow the pen refill to be installed easier. It's not a big deal but I felt like it took too much force to install the pen refill and so the updated model (updated on PrusaPrinters), has a modification to add a slight chamfer to the hole, and it was very slightly widened overall. I printed another one using the new model and it works perfectly so that should be it for changes.
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