3Doodler Introduces 'Foot Pedal', New Nozzles, 12 new plastics & More

So much for the 3Doodler 3D printing pen only being able to provide a generic 3D printing experience. Now the company has just announced their new foot pedal, which allows users to control the flow of filament via their foot, rather than having to constantly press the button on the pen. This lets them hold the pen in all different angles to create more interesting looks with their prints.

Also, the company has announced 12 new colors of plastic available for the pen, as well as 6 new nozzles for the pen's tip. This will allow for extruding in different shapes and sizes. Also the DoodleStand has been announced which holds the pen while in use. Read more about all these new features coming to the 3Doodler at http://3dprint.com/13441/3doodler-pedal-nozzles-colors/

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Well, that looks like a nice little addition. I'm guessing that at least a few people had hacked this together before 3Doodler adopted it as an official upgrade. I think as time goes on more and more serious artists will start picking up the 3D pen as a tool for their toolbox. It will be a loooong time though before people in general look at it as more than just a glorified hot glue gun.

I made a foot pedal for the 3Doodler. Finding a foot pedal that was just a simple switch was hard, but after that, it was just a matter of wiring a cable adapter.

As it is, while artists have been using 3Doodlers and similar as a tool, it's hard to do because it doesn't have the fine controls like an airbrush or other nice artist's tool. It has two speeds, both are pretty fast, and it has to stop often to warm up. I was thinking of making a "station" - like a solder station but for plastic filament, but I lost the energy and interest to do so. The foot pedal was going to offer infinitely variable speed control (not just a simple switch), with adjustable temperature & adjustable fan speed, feed filament off of a spool, etc. As yet, no one has done it that I've seen. I'd like to finish it, but I don't bother because it means sacrificing other projects I'm more interested in. DIY of it is pretty simple, I think, but making a batch of nice quality machines that can reliably run for long stretches would be the tough part.