Pen plotter adapter for Replicator Dual

thingiverse

Pen adapter to fit the carriage of a Replicator Dual (or clone) in place of the extruders. Can take 2 pens or pencils for ditto drawing. Post-Printing Instructions Fit a pen or pencil into the holder using one of the spare bolts that came with the Replicator. It should protrude about the same amount as the extruder head does (about 27mm on my machine). Remove the extruder heads and replace them with the pen adapter, securing the adapter using the same bolts. Make sure the vertical wall will make contact with the X-axis endstop to prevent the stepper motor over running. Level the build plate again to ensure the pen doesn't scratch the build plate. Instead of checking that the paper slides between the pen and the plate just make sure it's leaving a good mark. To create gcode to print from, you can import an SVG file into Blender, extrude the curves to 0.1mm, then export to STL and slice using a 0.1mm layer height. Or, use the Inkscape > OpenSCAD extension to do something similar. You can also generate your own gcode; eg "G1 X0 Y0" to move to 0mm, 0mm (the center of the build platform), "G1 Z2" to lift the pen 2mm off the page, "G1 Z0" to press it into the paper. You can vary the pen pressure by controlling the Z height to create shading - the example photograph was made using this method. SVGs plotted in pencil and ballpoint pen JPEG plotted with pencil pressure varying according to pixel brightness