Hi!
I've daydreamed about getting a cutter plotter without actually planning on really getting one. Too expensive and shelfspace-consuming for something that I'm not going to actually use that often.
Then I remembered that I could "just" mount a dragknife on my Ender-3 pro to do the job (maybe get one of these fancy quick-toolhead-changing systems as an excuse to tinker with CANbus, or something ;).
After a bit of online search, I found that I'm hardly not the first one with that idea. I've found a few videos, posts on reddit and files on thingiverse/printables, but nothing too in-depth. So I wanted to ask y'all if you know any resources to check out on this. Some github-pages style homepage of someone would be ideal, but I'm not too hopeful that there's something out there if I haven't found it yet.
Things I think I've found out:
- Roland Cutting Plotter Vinyl Cutters are apparently the way to go. With 45° for vinyl.
- I can use gcodetools to create gcode from svgs. The exact details aren't clear to me, though. Probably gonna have to create a klipper macro for this.
- I can simply attach a cutter to my toolhead, or use something like the BTT hermit crab for a more fancy approach
Things I'm still not sure how to do:
- If I'm using a BL-Touch - how should I handle z-homing? Can Klipper use BL-Touch for z-homing with an endstop-failsafe? Should I just monitor the print by hand?
- Is there a comprehensive guide on the materials?
Do you have any experience on that topic?
I did it with my ender 3, using a printed bracket to hold the knife. It's a hassle to use and I barely use it because it's such a pita. I managed to make a few nice cutouts though so it's definitely possible. I just wouldn't recommend it.
Sheesh. Did you get a different plotter or just didn't plot anything anymore?
I just didn't plot anything anymore tbh. I originally wanted to make stencils for electro-etching but I realized that I don't really have that much of use for it.
Yeah, it's more of a tool for an artistic purpose.
However, my T-shirts are rapidly declining in structural integrity and I'm over all that nerd shit. I wanna make a crow Design and put it on a shirt.