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 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.
IME these multipurpose machines (especially the DIY ones) just end up causing frustration because they end up doing none of their tasks well.
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?
