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 thought about it for a bit, looked up some parts, did some research, and ended up buying a Silhouette Cameo for about $200 instead.
Worth it!
I went down that road first building a plotter attachment then trying to attach a knife on an ender 3. Kinda got it to run by simply extruding svgs into a 1 layer body that i could then “print” with a standard slicer. In the end i build myself a laser, and let me tell you, everything before was a huge waste of time :) the laser cuts like a beast, much faster and cleaner. Would not recomment using a knife in a laserworld.
Standard Vinyl that contains PVC should never be heated with a Laser. It will create corrosive chlorine gas.
Any advanced Vinyl like PVB, PVA or any variant that does not contain chlorine can be cut with diode co2 and fiber without issues.
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’ve never done a cutter but I mounted a pen to my printer to make into an plotter
You pretty much just have to make a carriage that can hold whatever the thing is and then dial in z depth. I would imagine the hard part for a cutter is getting enough force to cut but not so much that you mangle shit, but that’s probably just experimenting a bit. You’ll need some kind of cutting mat to put on the bed I would think
I knew someone that had a cricut and that was just a xy cutter that used a few different tool heads. It had one that looked like an exacto knife and one that looked like a pizza cutter but I don’t know what their functions were, I think vinyl vs fabric?
IME these multipurpose machines (especially the DIY ones) just end up causing frustration because they end up doing none of their tasks well.
