Micro-Rider : a lightweight platform to draw/cut on large surfaces.

thingiverse

This "micro-rider" is a lightweight/high dimension/low depth drawing machine. It's inspired by the Low Rider and Foam Ripper, and is designed to use a Needle Cutter working head, but should also work with a laser or vinyl cutter. For now, it uses two Nema 17 stepper motors (X and Y) on GT2 belts, and one servo for the Z axis, but will be probably be updated to use a BYJ48 stepper for the Z axis. The structural parts are either standard Off The Shelf (metric), or 3D printed. The tubes are 10mm Outer Diameter steel tube, the X transmission rod is a plain 5mm rod. For the moving parts, it uses many (32 ?) 693ZZ bearings ( https://www.aliexpress.com/item/30pcs-Lot-693ZZ-693-ZZ-3x8x4mm-Mini-Ball-Bearing-Miniature-Bearing-Deep-Groove-Ball-Bearing-Brand/32722303155.html) and 5 plastic covered wheels (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/20pcs-R-Model-5x23x7-5mm-Plastic-Coated-Pulley-Tire-Wheel-Arc-Ball-Bearing/32611831713.html) (one cut to retrieve the 695ZZ 5mm ID bearing) . I used a RAMPS stack for the electronics (Marlin), but I suppose one could use an arduino CNC shield with GRBL as well since it only uses 3 axes and far less Input outputs than a 3D printer... Unless specified, I don't use retaining nuts, and "self tap" the screws into their holes. Depending on your Printer's tolérances, the holes can be either undersized (and you need to drill them again at correct compatible diameter) or oversized which could need and update to the STL files.... Unless otherwise stated, screws are M3 and moslty self-tap in place. **Updates :** - 27/09/2018 : removed the Clamp, updated and separated in its own Thing https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3123755 ) - 25/09/2018 : Updated XMotorPlate, YMotorHolder to better take into account the Nema17 profile, and clamp