Pen holder for 3018 PRO CNC

thingiverse

Having recently acquired a SainSmart 3018 PRO CNC, I was eager to explore its potential beyond producing massive piles of sawdust and splinters. One of my sideline hobbies is restoring old telegraph keys, which often feature intricate gold-painted artwork that's challenging for me to replicate by hand. So, I thought, why not have the CNC draw it? I decided to create a pen holder attachment that would quickly and easily attach to the exterior dimensions of the spindle holder, securely holding a paint pen with an 11mm diameter. The pen I used for this project was a "MARVY Deco Color" Extra Fine Liquid Gold. The spindle is removable from the CNC, but I wanted to avoid wearing out the clamping hardware by constantly removing it each time I needed to use it as a paint pen plotter. That's why I designed something that slips over the clamping mechanism. View my photos to see how it works. The holder uses M2.5 hardware, but you can choose whatever suits your needs, including 2-sided tape for added stability. In fact, I used a thin piece of 2-sided tape on the barrel of the pen to keep it from sliding up in the holder while setting the Z height on the CNC. If you have trouble with the screw holding the pen in place, you can use a binder clip. You can see this attachment in action during a test run on a plain piece of paper in the video posted to my Facebook group page "Rob's Hobbies on Etsy." Here's a link if you'd rather not search for it: https://www.facebook.com/RobsHobbiesOnEtsy/videos/224354802173164/ If you found this helpful, please consider donating what you think it's worth to my paypal.me. Your contribution will help cover the time I spent designing this attachment. Thanks, and enjoy!