Anet A8 and Tronxy p802ma Pen Holder PCB Plotter

thingiverse

I sold my old pen plotter, as I no longer needed it to plot anything. So, I created a pen holder for my 3D printer from scratch. It is a remix of one design from the Hypercube but I made it entirely on my own. You will need to thread your x-axis holder before and insert longer M4 bolts through. This attaches to the rear of the carriage, so it won't affect your printing abilities. It's designed for linear motion on the z-axis, which means you get perfect plots with 0.2mm resolution. I've included a rough-cut SCAD file in case anyone needs it, but it's a mess. Sorry, I didn't have time to clean it up or comment on it. Features: Spring-loaded so pen pressure depends on z height when plotting Includes set screw located in mount so that pen can be retracted and held up above extruder nozzles. This allows you to switch between 2D and 3D printing without uninstalling the entire pen/mount. Hardware Needed: For X-carriage Mount: --M4 threaded mounts all the way through --2 x M4 *35mm bolt --2 x M4 *25mm bolt For Linear Rail: --2 x M3 *70mm bolts (I used some old Xbox 360 case screws I had laying around and shown in pics.) --2 x compression springs (5mm ID by 20mm height). These go on the linear rails above the mount plate. This means you get even pressure down so pen is always touching the PCB --I also used two other extension springs to hold the two rails in place as I had them laying around and because I didn't have nuts but you can use nuts For Pen Holder: --1 x M3 nut screws (approx 20mm) Pen: --Any Staedler or Stabilo OHP pen works a treat Software: I used Eagle to create the boards I used Geoffd123's fantastic script to convert HPGL from Eagle into Gcode. You will need to determine the bed and pen heights as this will change depending on your setup. Alternatively, you can use hp2xx direct from the shell but you will need to add start codes etc manually. https://github.com/geoffd123/Hpgl2Gcode Other Notes: --Only home your device at z=17mm or higher else you run the risk that the pen holder clips the support. No big deal but annoying if it does. I changed my default start Gcode to move to 17mm first before doing this. --I glued a cut pen cap (with the end cut off) to the end of the pen holder to make it even more stiff but this will depend on the resolution you need. Simply cut the end off and glue to the mount. works a treat to improve wobble at end.