Have you ever stepped back and thought about how much further advanced our society would be right now, had 3D printing technology been introduced 200 years ago? Of course this would have been impossible, as many of the components that make up today’s desktop 3D printers were not even invented yet back then. However, it seems as though within the past 5 years or so, we have seen some really incredible and innovative new products come about thanks to 3D printing technology. 3D printing allows for rapid prototyping, not just by large firms, but by individual inventors who previously would not have had the means to try to bring an idea into reality. Without a doubt, 3D printing has and will continue to spur innovation, as now everyone has the ability to bring their ideas to life.
For one Hong Kong resident, named Daniel Yu, 3D printing was a way for him to step beyond his current profession as a guitar teacher, and create a device unlike anything we have seen before. Yu has owned a 3D printer for about 2 years now, something not very common at all in Hong Kong. After several months of simply downloading and printing objects from Thingiverse, Yu got tired of the process and gave up using his printer for about 6 months. However, he later decided that in order to have fun with the 3D printing process he would need to create his very own design, so that is exactly what he did.
“I wanted to make something that fit my needs,” Yu tells 3DPrint.com. “I wanted to make a unique pen, a phone stand and a hex key, but these things are already readily available online. Then I found that most 3D printable models of tools we find on the internet are single-use only. Therefore I tried to make a tool that can do everything I wanted.”
Using 123D Design, Yu set out to design his new pen and then fabricate it on his own 3D printer. It’s not a question of what this pen can do, but rather “what can’t it do?” Below you will see a list of different things this amazing 3D printed object accomplish.
- Take off the cover and it becomes a ballpoint pen.
- Bend it at its middle joint and it becomes a smartphone stand.
- Bend it at the middle joint and spread open the legs and it becomes another type of smartphone stand.
- Take off the cover of the pen as well as the internal pen structure and it becomes a hex key, allowing you to insert virtually any hex tools you wish.
- Bend one of the legs, and it become a toy gun.
Yu is rather pleased with his design and he tells us that he doesn’t have any plans to iterate upon it in the future. However, he has made the design files available for others to download for free and iterate upon via Thingiverse.
What do you think about this unique 3D printed pen? Have you 3D printed one yourself? Discuss in the 3D printed pen forum thread on 3DPB.com.
