Extruder Mounted Pen Holder for Original Prusa MK3 by hypercoffeedude

Last crawled date: 2 years, 12 months ago

Want to play around with 2D pen plotting? This is a simple attachment that fits on the front of your Original Prusa Mk3's extruder and allows you to attach a pen quickly with no screws.
You will need:
1x - Large Binder Clip
1x - Printed Pen Mount
2x - Zip Ties
Step 1: Attach the frame to the extruder (mind the wires on the bottom)
Be sure the opening is at the top, and the zip tie mounts to your right.
Step 2: Attach the binder clip to the top. This should be plenty to hold it tight.
Step 3: Place zip ties in the front hole, they should slide out the other side easily, if they do not, check that your holes are clear. They should be placed so the zip band comes through the hole and back towards you to your left. The head of the tie should rest against the opening. Insert your pen or marker into the loop and loosely tighten the zip ties. While tightening, try to put the force on the zip tie itself and not the frame. You'll want to have this a little loose in order to set it's position.
Step 4: If you want to set your PEN DOWN height to 10 mm, manually move your Z-Axis to 10mm and drop the pen to the bed. Fully tighten your zip ties and raise your Z-Axis so your pen no longer touches. 15 mm is a good number.
Step 5: Find some software, and a method to get your g-code to your printer, have fun!
Smaller binder clips can be used to hold your paper to the bed, but be aware of clearances before running any gcode.
EXAMPLE START GCODE:
G0 Z30 ; Set PEN (z-axis) up high to avoid collisions
G28 X Y ; Home X & Y (this should leave X/Y in a predictable spot)
G28 Z ; Home Z (Do this after X/Y so you know the pen won't hit the bed.)
G0 Z15 ; Set PEN (z-axis) at PEN UP height (15 mm)
G92 X29 Y-53 ; SET PEN TOOL X/Y Offset THIS PROBABLY ISN'T 100% CORRECT
EXAMPLE END GCODE:
G0 Z15 ; Raise Pen
M84 ; disable motors