3D pens are great, especially for kids to get out their creativity. I was one of the first backers for the original 3Doodler on kickstarter years ago, so when I saw they had shifted to really low temp filament and focused on kids, I had to get our little one into the 3D scene. I bought the 3Doodler 3D, which has no motor and is hand-cranked. If you use old filament, it can get clogged and stop working. Since you can’t make it any hotter, you’re kind of stuck. Due to the feeding mechanism, you can force the plastic through by hand to some extent, but it eventually clogged irreparably after about a year. You cannot open this one to fix it without destroying it because it is ultrasonically welded together.
So after destroying the hand-cranked version, I got motorized pen version called the 3Doodler Start. This is a big upgrade on manually cranking as you can get more intricate results with what you are making. However almost immediately after opening the 3Doodler Start pen, it stopped working. We had used some freshly bought, but apparently expired filament sticks from the local hobby store. Luckily this model is MUCH easier to take apart and put back together. Here’s how to do that!