In theory, if I were to take a hot glue gun and adapt a CNC-machined nozzle with a heat-sink on it to replace the existing glue-gun nozzle, then I could do what a 3D printer pen does in wax instead of plastic…but would I call the result a 3D print? No. It would be a one-of-a-kind wax sculpture. If I built-up some Krazy® Glue on a baking sheet layer-by-layer and crafted a little object, could I call that a 3D print? No. It would be glue art. This is not to take-away from the cool-factor of 3D printer pens—they are indeed nifty, and could be very useful for modifying actual 3D-printed parts. But with that thought, I would like to nominate a new name for 3D printer pens: Plastic-extruding Pens, or, “PeP”…pretty catchy, right?

Several months ago, the world was presented with the “3Doodler”—at the time, a conceptual analog device proclaimed to be the world’s first 3D printing pen. After achieving much notoriety, esteem and extensive international press coverage, the small Boston-based upstart behind the project, WobbleWorks LLC, shattered its now comparatively-modest $30,000 fundraising goal to make the device become a reality. The company ultimately earned upwards of two-million dollars in its three-month kickstarter campaign—making it one of the most successful tech fundraisers that the site has seen to date.