When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndicate partners may earn a commission.

Creator Jón Schone recently presented a sleek new design that connects his first love for 3D printing – and hot glue guns. Earlier this week, on Schone’s YouTube channel “Proper Printing,” we watched the maker conceptualize, iterate, and successfully build “a hot glue 3D printer.”

The work, as presented, gives viewers a pleasant ride with a few false dawns. But the project comes together brilliantly in the end. Its glue stick magazine drop-feed system probably deserves its own video.

“Isn’t a 3D printer just a hot glue gun attached to a motion controller?” Schone asked at the start of his video. Probably the most correct but unsatisfactory answer is “yes and no”. A key difference is that 3D printers use specially formulated filament, not hot glue sticks.

But Schone thought the low-tech glue gun could benefit the world of 3D printers. He noted that the mainstream 3D printers cannot print with soft materials without the expense of a pellet loader. Also, modern 3D printers are terrible at handling very fragile materials that cannot be coiled. A glue gun-style print head fed with sticks, bits or particles could help expand 3D printing options (wax material is likely next on the short list to test).

Hot glue guns also have some intrinsic appeal. Schone pointed out that there is already a wide range of glue formulations, colors, etc., which is of great appeal to creative makers. Hot glue guns can also be picked up for very little money (such as this one for $5.95 at Amazon) for experimentation, refinement, etc. Proper Printing decided to base their project on a Dremel hot glue gun to offer professional performance at an affordable price.

One of the first and most important steps in creating a practical hot glue gun 3D printer was to peel off the Dremel glue gun, remove the 230V heating element and replace it with a safer and more controllable 24V 3D printer style element . One necessary modification was to heat the nozzle to 165 degrees Celsius, matching the typical temperatures of a glue gun.

Schone then worked through several iterations of the extruder, focusing on reliable results for 3D printing. “Heat creep” was another big obstacle that the manufacturer successfully conquered.

Image 1 of 5

Image 2 of 5

Image 3 of 5

Image 4 of 5

Image 5 of 5

Continuously feeding the glue stick to the printhead seemed less of a challenge for Schone’s skill set. The manufacturer seems to relish the design of a magazine feed system, which has put a new stick in a funnel-shaped container to maintain a continuous supply of glue in delightfully Rube Goldberg fashion.

After several false dawns in which Schone claims he’s “good to go,” the printer is seen hitting its stride only in the final minutes of this gripping 24-minute episode. Enjoying success with his exquisite 3D hot glue gun printer, Schone is now free to change things up. I already mentioned that they may try to use wax material in the near future. The manufacturer has also thought about mixing hot glue with regular prints on filament media – using the glue for filling, support and more.