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Aug 14, 2023Pen Plotter Is About As Simple As It Can Get
Sure, we see quite a few plotters and other motion machines, but the one from [DAZ Projects] has the virtual of looking dead simple. The Arduino and CNC shield are old hat, of course. But some 3D printed pulleys and a very simple-looking core XY arrangement looks like this could be a pretty quick build.
You might ask; if you have a 3D printer, why you wouldn’t just mount a pen on it and call it a day? Well, you could do that, of course, but what fun is that? Besides, that will tie up your printer, too. You can see a video of the project, below.
The build looks inexpensive using just a few bearings and motors. Most of it looks like things you probably have hanging around such as strings and rubber bands with some scrap lumber. We enjoyed how the play in the motion mechanism allowed an RC servo to easily lift the whole pen off the sheet. Of course, the pen or the servo horn slides across the paper, so we don’t think you could easily hang a laser module to make an engraver, although we don’t doubt you could figure something out.
We can tell [DAZ] likes to make motion-based projects. We also thought this reminded us of a whiteboard plotter we saw recently.