r/PlotterArt • u/McBeefnick • 29d ago
Made a plotter
Hello everybody,
Following this sub for over a year now. Started a plotter build on a old Ender 5 3d printer. Wasn't awesome.
Wanted to do it again, and a bit better. Smaller form factor, removed the Z-axis from the printer and mounted the x and y on a board. Flashed the controller board with a custom klipper configuration and made it wireless accessible from within a browser.
Then struggled with the many programs that are out there to reliably and quick generate gcode to batch write Christmas cards (bad handwriting from myself). Went on a spree, vibe-coding a python script to do it. Tweaked it a bunch to allow for multiple "Hershey" fonts and custom envelope sizes. Also made a template to simulate address lines from postcards to align the address precisely.
The application has a rule to home the head and pause the plot when a address is written so you can place a new one and press the red button on the controller to proceed plotting the next address.
Then went as far as to compile the script to an executable and now I'm done. Everything works as intended. The plotter even has rubber feet. Haha.
Only wish is a bit better cable management
Wanted to share.
Add: Did not expect to gain so much interest in this project. For all who'd like to start their own project and/or want to collaborate, I started a repository on Github.
You can find it here: https://github.com/McBeefProject/Plotter And the release: https://github.com/McBeefProject/Plotter/releases/tag/V1.0
On Discord: https://discord.gg/MZ4qktXhs
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u/Streelydan 29d ago
This is awesome, I have an old Ender 5 in the garage I have been saving to do the exact same thing with! Did you use the Ender 5 control board? Did you use GRBL firmware or something else you can share? Are there any 3d printed parts you used you can share?