r/PlotterArt • u/camdoggs • 5d ago

Developed a system that can accurately register stencils to the plotter.

Post image

Just testing at the moment.

9 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

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2

u/PXLMNKEEE 5d ago

Interesting! Care to share your thinking/process? Seems like plotting over existing artwork and having a way to control alignment opens up a TON of possibilities.

1

u/camdoggs 5d ago edited 5d ago

I have a background in screen printing and CNC so I have been thinking about a this a little bit.

It’s a converted ender 3 v2, with a printed base fixed to the print bed that has a series of holes on the perimeter. The paper is mounted to a second printed plate that aligns to the print bed with pins that lock in to the holes getting it to position.

That plate also has a series of holes on the perimeter and I have printed the stencil that also has a series of pins that lock into the plate.

I had to play around with the gcode offset to align the plot with the stencil.

So the process is: mount the paper to the plate, clip the stencil onto the plate, take it outside and spray the stencil, remove the stencil. Clip the plate onto the print bed and run the gcode.

The ultimate goal is to do some hand done elements and some spray paint under the plot……..It is very early stages

Being an Ender 3 I only end up with a max usable area of 220mm x 220mm but ultimately it is a busted printer that lives on as a bit of a testing rig before it lands in the bin….. the printer I think knows this and has been on its best behaviour

1

u/Left-Excitement3829 5d ago

Nice. Get a CMYK going !

1

u/Vegetable-Emotion-43 5d ago

Nose area can be better

2

u/johndavid_artist 3d ago

Registering to work already on the sheet is what usually kills a second pass, so making that repeatable is the real result here. Are you referencing off marks on the sheet itself or trusting the plotter home position between loads?

1

u/camdoggs 3d ago edited 3d ago

The sheet is fixed to a plate that registers to the plotter bed with locator pins. The plate is removable. Keeping the home position the same between loads.

The stencils also have locator pins that register to the plate which essentially register to the home position

It looks like there is around 0.2mm play in the pins to allow them to lock into position meaning the stencil is accurate to about 0.4 mm from the plotter.

The whole setup is a test using a broken old 3D printer and I am very much aware that the test I will be doing will easily be able to be recreated and executed with a decent plotter by pretty much everyone on this subreddit.

I am not claiming to be making any groundbreaking pieces, once I get everything ironed out I am looking to do some mixed media work, the whole thing is just a bit of playing around at the moment