alt Hacker NewsWriting Postcards with a 3D Printer
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If this appeals to you, also check out the Plotter Art subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/PlotterArt/
While I love the curiosity and creativity that has recently emerged around digital pen plotting, many people may not realize this was the workhorse technology for producing technical drawings for several decades in the late 20th century.[0]
Large format pen plotters with up to 8 separate pens were available for different line weights. Color was mostly avoided because the reproduction process of the time was still centered around diazotype[1], or monochromatic ammonium blue printing.
[0]https://piratefsh.github.io/2019/01/07/computer-art-history-...
So does this mean if you give it a swivel knife it can also be a vinyl cutter?
Great idea!!
I've had a post card based business idea for ages. Can anyone recommend a printer that prints quality postcards? I'm looking for something in the sub $2,000 range. I pulled that number out of thin air so I have no idea of that's a too much or too little.
I've also used 3d printer to straight up print on top of a greeting card (the print was 1 layer).
The print might not fare that well though the post system, though, so maybe it wouldn't be suitable for postcards. But it can be a nice touch.
About 15 years ago I used to have a Silhouette cutter printer. You could get a cutting blade and it would cut shapes out of paper and card. I remember putting a pen in there and using it to write with it on paper. It was cool.
Very nice! I used the same trick to make a PCB by making the printer use a marker to draw on the parts that I didn't want to etch:
The Z-axis homing problem could be solved by adding a "pause" command (gcode M0, I reckon) at the very start.
The printer calibrates, pauses, you attach the pen, press continue, and it'll do the plot without zeroing the Z-axis again.
Not a 3D printer but really cool video by Stuff Made Here explaining how he tried to make 'realistic' handwritten forgeries with a pen plotter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQO2XTP7QDw
A year or so ago I was setting up my small router table/mill and I mounted a Sharpie holder to it and made some line art. Quite slow due to the leadscrew pitch of the mill but it worked well [1].
Like the OP I used svg2gcode and others. The original pen holder I printed worked but I ended up modifying the design and adding a bronze bushing to hold alignment better and a mount for a microswitch so that the pen holder also functioned as a probe to set the Z position. [2]
In order to be able to change pens I made a little "half crosshair arrow" that I would run the gcode for on each pen change and verify the overlap was the same since it is difficult to align the pens exactly on change.
All of this was done using V2 Smoothieware as the firmware.
[1] https://youtu.be/nJI-yXbHHJA?si=F9bXftj7UEXyuRxa https://youtu.be/ZSP37Kgp7Tc?si=Mn_IKjU9t9zmaOml
[2] https://youtu.be/f89cgUS89bU?si=T45TQMXLwW4MyoI0