I fooled around with work offsets and have come to the conclusion that the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. My concern is that even if I get it aligned up once, when I remove it and reinstall it later, I’ll have to repeat at least part of the process… It’s time consuming and difficult to align it and then all the work to modify the gcode to takes time as well. If I was trying to mass produce the same multi-color banner over and over, then maybe… but I tend to do one offs. Fun experiment nevertheless. So a good single pen mount with easily swappable pens seems a better idea.
What about using my pen mounts mounted on a central shaft. That would let you have a few mm play in each “pen tip zero”.
Super cool to see in action by the way!
I think using 3d printed parts would work better in general. Another option to tilting the assembly is to make a guide/track of some sort that causes the pen to drop down as it’s turned into position and raise again as it’s turned out. That way the pens can remain vertical and that would solve a lot of the geometry issues.
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I agree that one big 3d printed carousel would probably work best. You could design the bottom part exactly right so that the sharpies are identical distances. It would also help garuntee that the top is parallel to the bottom. It would also make it lighter for the stepper to spin.
I have one more idea to try over the next week. Since the pens are really snug, maybe the top platform can be eliminated entirely and since the stepper is not very tall, it can be placed under the bottom platform, like so…
The entire platform of the original design seems pretty stiff so removing the top platform, bolts, and lowering the mass will only improve things.
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I want to do this and include a drag knife so I can make stickers in one go…
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I think if instead of slots in the base, you put in bolt holes for mounting 3d printed pen holders, you can make a dragknife holder that puts the blade edge where it needs to be. I’d do that but my 3d printing skills are too poor.
That would make a great mrrf demonstration… Just sayin’
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