Plotter cutter blade mount for 3D printer or CNC

cults3d

This is a universal mount for Roland-compatible plotter blade holders, ideal for cutting paper and vinyl. The spring is crafted from high-quality plastic, specifically ABS. I am utilizing this with a basic blade holder. You may need to adjust measurements for another. The mount is designed to be securely fastened with four M3 screws to an auxiliary tool clip that attaches to your 3D printer's print-head or CNC. I utilized this tool clip on my MakerGear M2 -- if you design your own tool clip, pay attention to screw hole positions. The design features a strip that secures the blade holder firmly in place with two M3 screws and a cap (perhaps a little too snug). I used a cut-down adhesive Cricut cutting mat, clipped to the MakerGear's print bed with some makeshift clips. For software, I employ a combination of Inkscape's HPGL export together with my own gcodeplot Python script package, which is designed to work seamlessly with gcode-based 3D printers. One likely can make this function with the gcodetools extension for Inkscape, but I haven't been able to figure it out. Software Instructions Determine the corner XY coordinates of your cutting area by attaching the cutter and moving your printhead using your preferred control software. Ensure the printhead can move freely around the cutting area without the attachments bumping anything. Attach your adhesive cutting mat to your print bed. Move the printhead down carefully so the blade just makes contact with the cutting mat. Return the printhead. Place paper or vinyl on the cutting mat. Convert your Inkscape file to paths. (Select All, Object | Object to Path). Set the page size to match your cutting area size. Use Save As... HP Graphics Language File in Inkscape to create an hpgl file. Ensure you use the second tab to set overcut and the distance of the tip of the cutting blade from the swivel point. Create a gcode file using: python gcodeplot.py --area=x1,y1,x2,y2 filename.hpgl > filename.gcode where x1,y1,x2,y2 are the corner coordinates (in millimeters) of the cutting area. Send your gcode file to your 3D printer using your preferred print utility. If you prefer, you can just send it directly with gcodeplot.py rather than saving the gcode to a file, if you have pyserial installed (pip install pyserial): python gcodeplot.py --area=x1,y1,x2,y2 --send=portname filename.hpgl (e.g., on my Windows laptop, portname was COM3). gcodeplot.py can also be used to adjust the exact blade z-positioning before printing. To do that, use: python gcodeplot.py --area=x1,y1,x2,y2 --pause-at-start --send=portname filename.hpgl The script will initialize your device, and then give you a commandline where you can send some simple commands before drawing starts. For instance, z11.3 moves the head to the 11.3mm position. You can also do incremental moves with z+increment. Thus, to move the head down by half a millimeter, do z+-0.5. You can also move to a safe height above the work with:zsafe and to the pre-defined work-surface with:zwork. Finally, once you've figured out where you want the print head to be for safe work, do:work=z and resume your work with:c