Use It As A Plotter?

speedre9

speedre9

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Just how can I use my gantry as a pen plotter?
How to set the Z to drag the pen tip, and can I use a felt tip pen?
Anybody know how to do this??
 
Make a spring loaded pen holder, that will take up the minor variations in the surface. I felt tip should work fine. Maybe experiment with some different pens.
 
O.K. What about Z setting, do I just make it at a phantom material height of "0", or +0.005" ?
That's the thing that vexes me.
 
Set your Z zero to the table. Then in the G-code set the Z ''cutting'' height to 0. An engraving profile would work well for drawings I would think. If your paper is normal thickness of about 0.003, that would give about the right amount of pressure. I had a thought about pens, there some ceramic tip markers that might work well. I really think the key is a lightly spring loaded pen.
 
speedre9 said:
O.K. What about Z setting, do I just make it at a phantom material height of "0", or +0.005" ?
That's the thing that vexes me.
Click to expand...
If it is spring loaded, you will want to set slightly negative. Use a light spring.

See some of the recent You Tube videos from NYC CNC. He has been working on a very similar project. He is currently building his Mark II version.
 
:) Good thread! I did this with my engraver setup for the air pencil. Nothing elaborate. More or less chucked up a piece of led pencil and drew what I planned to engrace. The spring part is probably the part you'll mess w/ most. I did to get the Engraver happy? But I'm such a newb.

If you come up w/ something on your own and easy to make I'd be very interested. Another toy for the shelf when I need it! thanks for posting.
CG .
 
Thanks guys, I'm thinking up a not to difficult holder soon.
 
speedre9 said:
Just how can I use my gantry as a pen plotter?
How to set the Z to drag the pen tip, and can I use a felt tip pen?
Anybody know how to do this??
Click to expand...

You could use an AIRPEL air cylinder to provide low & variable down pressure as well as retraction. They have a glass cylinder wall and have very low stiction. I believe they are made by AIRPOT. They use low pressure & like clean air.

EDIT: I just searched ebay & found many airpel cylinders ranging from $5.00 and up. A small reglator, a valve & some tubing would complete the component needs.
 
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