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  #11  
Old 01-31-2017, 11:06 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rmks2000 View Post
Congratulations on building the plotter. It is quite an accomplishment. I thought of doing the same with an old printer a four or five years but never got the time to do it and eventually junked the printer.
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Originally Posted by Kugelfang View Post
Very cool! Re-purposing obsolete printers never even crossed my mind. Hmmm...

--jeff
So far I only have about 45 USD in it. I don't for see spending much more. I replaced the dc motors in the printer with some really cheap stepper motors I ordered from amazon. It was $12 USD for 5 motors and little controller boards. The arduino was $15 USD. The kit with the breadboard, jumper wires, and servo motor was about $10 USD. I bought a couple of ac to dc power transformers from a thrift store for $1 usd. That's about it. Well, the swivel knife will be about $6 usd. So it is a very cheap plotter
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  #12  
Old 02-06-2017, 09:14 AM
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Ran into a snag. I'll post some pictures later today, but I seem to have a problem that is either my paper not feeding evenly, or the software I modified was not modified correctly Which is probably the case, because I am definitely not a software engineer!
I believe it's my math conversion though. The error seems to multiply the farther down the page as it prints.
Oh well. I will keep puttering around...
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  #13  
Old 02-20-2017, 10:28 AM
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Frankenstein's Plotter

It's alive!!!!
Finally! Had some time to make the plotter a little bit better. I am attaching some photos of the build with an image of my first successful, full scale print from one of my pdo files.
Everything on this plotter is re-used or re-cycled from two old printers, one was free, the other I bought for $5 usd. The only non-junk parts are the pulleys, timing belts, little steppers, stepper control boards and the Arduino. Even the laptop was pulled from the recycle bin. There were three, in various states of disrepair. I took the hard drive from one, the cooling fan from another and replaced them in yet a third. I installed Ubuntu, and, Viola!" a free laptop.
I used the PDO Tools software from imcold and edited the SVG a bit in inkscape.
Once again, my next step will be to get that drag cutter installed and see how much pressure those little stepper motors can withstand.
Attached Thumbnails
Home-made Plotter/Cutter-plotter1.jpg   Home-made Plotter/Cutter-plotter2.jpg   Home-made Plotter/Cutter-plotter3.jpg   Home-made Plotter/Cutter-plotter4.jpg   Home-made Plotter/Cutter-plotter5.jpg  

Home-made Plotter/Cutter-plotter6.jpg   Home-made Plotter/Cutter-plotter8.jpg   Home-made Plotter/Cutter-plotter9.jpg  
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  #14  
Old 02-21-2017, 12:33 PM
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Thumbs down Blade Failed...

My blade experiment failed. The little motors I used stall out when I put enough pressure on the blade to make an actual cut. My next option is a small Dremel type roto-tool with a pointed cutting bit....Maybe, just maybe...
Or buy more powerful motors. Which is an option depending on far I want to take this. Lol!
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  #15  
Old 02-21-2017, 09:28 PM
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Now is the time to start the mouse trap idea...
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  #16  
Old 02-22-2017, 08:48 AM
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Originally Posted by THE DC View Post
Now is the time to start the mouse trap idea...
Lol, yeah.
I bought two threaded rods and some nuts this morning. Only $5...but man, I gotta break out of this project. It's getting too time consuming. I am now far beyond the point of making an aid for my paper models. I could have built 3 figures by now Not to mention, if I included time in the cost, I probably could have purchased a Cricut or Silhouette by now. I seem to be shooting myself in the foot.
I'll exorcise this demon soon. (Not complaining, just making some humorous observations of my own behaviors )
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  #17  
Old 02-25-2017, 08:20 PM
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Talking Frankenstein's Monster on Frankenstein's Plotter

After some tightening up on my plotter, I am finally able to get some decently accurate plots! Here are a couple of videos of it in action...



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Home-made Plotter/Cutter-frankstipple.jpg  
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  #18  
Old 02-26-2017, 04:39 AM
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Awesome and inspiring project!
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  #19  
Old 02-26-2017, 08:29 PM
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Originally Posted by Revell-Fan View Post
Awesome and inspiring project!
Thanks! Started plotting out more Bride of Frankenstein parts sheets tonight! Also, the cutter failed because the cheap swivel blade I used does not swivel around the point of the blade. Although it is a small blade, it swivels around the center of the width of the blade, not the tip. The internets have provided some ideas to make my own from regular blades. I'm going to give that a whirl...
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  #20  
Old 07-10-2018, 08:05 PM
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Sorry to revive this thread, but I made a larger, hanging version of a plotter. I call it the bigasswallpotter. It should be able to plot up to about 36 X48 inches. I hope to be able to plot some designs on cardboard sheets and make some large scale creations! Imagine a half scale Gort! (or maybe even larger!)
Here you can see it running some test patterns.
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