u/Elovium

Hi everyone,

I'm Paul, and for the past year I've been designing a pen specifically for metal additive manufacturing.

Instead of trying to recreate a traditionally machined pen, I wanted to design something that actually takes advantage of what metal 3D printing makes possible. The body is fully 3D printed in titanium, allowing for shapes that would be extremely difficult—or in some cases impossible—to machine conventionally.

The biggest surprise wasn't designing it though—it was everything that came afterwards.

Getting the tolerances right for moving parts, threads, and the magnetic mechanism took a lot of trial and error. And post-processing has probably been the biggest challenge of the entire project. Titanium comes out of the printer with a very rough surface, so every prototype has required a lot of manual finishing and polishing.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

If you've worked with metal additive manufacturing before:

What post-processing methods have worked best for you? Have you found good ways to improve internal surfaces that are difficult to reach? Is there anything you would approach differently?

Thanks for taking a look!

Hi everyone,

I'm Paul, and about a year ago I started designing my own titanium pen. Some of you might even remember a few of my earlier posts here.

Looking back, those early prototypes weren't where I wanted them to be. Instead of continuing with that design, I decided to start over and redesign almost everything from scratch.

Over the past year I've been developing a completely new magnetic mechanism, rethinking the internal construction, and designing the body specifically for additive manufacturing. My goal is to create shapes and structures that would be very difficult—or simply impossible—to manufacture using traditional machining.

The current prototype features:

• 3D printed titanium body
• Custom magnetic mechanism
• Ebony wood inlay
• Weight under 20 g

It's still very much a work in progress, and I'm sure there are plenty of things that can be improved.

I'd really appreciate your feedback:

• What do you like?
• What would you change?
• Are there any features you'd love to see in a machined pen?

I'll continue sharing updates here as the design evolves. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Thanks for taking a look!

— Paul