I recently purchased the Aoyue Ritocco 3D sculpting stylus that was seen in the EEVBlog mail bag.
The Ritocco is intended to be a temperature controlled hot tool for melting the plastic on 3D printed items or any plastic that melts at less than around 400C. The tool comes with four shaped tip cartridges that contain the ceramic heating element. They are similar in principle to other integral heater tip cartridges used for soldering. Such a tool can be useful for tidying up 3D prints, but also for other tasks involving melting of plastic. Plastic 'staking' comes to mind or even cutting open battery cases. Fumes are a concern however ! Operation in a well ventilated space is recommended.
The first Ritocco I received was faulty. There was a serious issue with it overheating the tip cartridge. One tip cartridge disassembled itself with a loud POP! and acrid smell. Not a good start ! I was gifted a second Ritocco unit by a client for testing and comment. I have tested the new unit and had no issues with it overheating so the first unit was likely a, hopefully, rare dud. It should not have overheated to the point of dismantling its cartridge though. There appears no overheat protection within the cartridges.
The handpiece itself is, quite frankly, a nasty cheap plasticky affair that does not inspire confidence in this tools longevity. It will need to be treated with great care if it is to last. The tip cartridges are similarly cheap in feel and appearance. They are not as robust looking or finely finished as, say, PACE tip cartridges, but then they cost less so no surprises there.
Does the Ritocco work ? In a word, yes. It does what it claims..... it has a temperature regulated tip that melts plastic. Is it closed loop temperature regulated ? Hmmmm we shall see
The tool and its various shaped tips are capable of cutting, boring, smoothing and shaping plastics such as ABS and PLA. Three modes, ABS and PLA and custom are available. Both ABS and PLA offer a set temperature for such a material plus a temperature trim of plus or minus 10C for fine tuning. The Custom mode permits a tip temperature of between 100C and 400C to be set. More than enough range for plastics and it could even be used for soldering ! In fact, upon checking the coating on the tips, I found them to be tinned with a thin coating of what appeared to be solder. It certainly melted at 400C !
The tip cartridges are a combination of Stainless Steel tube, high temperature plastic insulation, a ceramic heater and a copper tip of various shapes to suit differing tasks. The contacts on the rear of the cartridge are just two Stainless steel rings set into the plastic insulation. As stated the tip cartridges are nothing special on the quality front, but they appear functional.
Upon investigating the internal parts of the Ritocco, I was not surprised to find very little on the PCB. The major component is a microcontroller and this drives the small, LCD display and Power MOSFET for the heater cartridge. That's is basically it. Nothing very exciting. I suspect the unit is basically a simple PWM driven ceramic heater, with no feedback, that is driven by the microcontroller according to a preset 'calibration' table. Calibration of the tip temperature is possible via a menu option. The microcontroller just provides a tiny LCD display on which to see a temperature indication that is aligned to the calibration table. This is all theory of course, but the drive to the heater cartridge is just two contacts.
I will add pictures of the unit and it's internal parts tomorrow. But to round off this post, would I personally pay £100 for this 3D Sculpting tool that is basically a cheap cartridge type soldering iron ? ...... NOPE. The quality of the product just does not seem to match the UK retail price. Maybe £40, but not £100. I believe the unit is cheaper in the USA and some have been discounted down to $59 but the retailer charges $60 postage to the UK !
Is there a cheaper alternative to the Ritocco tool ?
Yes, you could use your temperature controlled soldering iron if you can set the appropriate temperatures for plastic and find a suitably shaped tip. Or there is the much cheaper Adapted Chinese USB soldering iron, the name of which temporarily eludes me, but it costs around £22 in the UK and offers similar performance to the Ritocco but has only two temperature settings.
Pictures to follow
Fraser
Additional note:
The Ricotto unit that destroyed its tip cartridge through overheating was immediately accepted back for a full refund by the supplier and he stated that this is the first such occurrence they have seen with the product. They would investigate it further. He also stated that they have had no other units fail in the field. I have no reason to disbelieve him as his company is respectable.