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Show"N"Tell ( What you have made with your CNC machine.) / PEN HOLDER FOR MILL DRAWING
« on: September 22, 2010, 10:04:55 PM »
A user wrote me and asked what he could make such that he could draw to paper the gcode for an image using his mill.
Here are pictures of my pen holder that I use.
A holding plate to mount the holder to the mill was made and an extended handle was added for fine manual adjustment of the pen to the paper.
The ball point pen was modified using the original parts. Just reversed the pen in the holder and changed how it was held in the pen body.
There is a 1/4" of spring travel so it's very easy to just bring the quill down and then manualy adjust the pen tip into the paper some .005" to .010" or so. Works great and frankly travels quite accurately.You don't have to worry about Z backlash but make sure you allow a proper Z change in the gcode to lift the pen tip away from the paper.
BTW, purchase a few extra pen refills or pens. Not fancy, but for a couple of buck's, it does the trick.
RICH
Here are pictures of my pen holder that I use.
A holding plate to mount the holder to the mill was made and an extended handle was added for fine manual adjustment of the pen to the paper.
The ball point pen was modified using the original parts. Just reversed the pen in the holder and changed how it was held in the pen body.
There is a 1/4" of spring travel so it's very easy to just bring the quill down and then manualy adjust the pen tip into the paper some .005" to .010" or so. Works great and frankly travels quite accurately.You don't have to worry about Z backlash but make sure you allow a proper Z change in the gcode to lift the pen tip away from the paper.
BTW, purchase a few extra pen refills or pens. Not fancy, but for a couple of buck's, it does the trick.
RICH