Pen Plotter

This summer, I designed and built a cantilever pen plotter. The commercial offerings are unfortunately quite expensive - a new AxiDraw goes for $1300 CAD, and even Chinese models are around $800 CAD. I considered a CoreXY design or modifying one of my older 3D printers, but ultimately decided on a custom design to allow for specialized use cases like drawing into my engineering notebook. From the start, my intention was to build a 'tank' - durable and repairable. I used 2040 extrusions for the frame, MGN12H rails for the X and Y axes, LDO steppers, and a DFRobot metal gear servo for a quiet and durable pen lift actuator. For control, I started with GRBL Hal, but ultimately switched to LightBurn for the increased feature set and user experience.

I am very pleased with how the plotter turned out; it is incredibly accurate and quiet. I have been using Uniball Signo 207 pens and the line width is the limiting factor for accuracy from my tests. Using the materials I had on hand (including a Voron Monolith gantry upgrade kit), I was able to build the plotter for $336 CAD, which is a fraction of the cost of commercial offerings. Even if I had to built my plotter from scratch, the cost would still be around $500 CAD, which is still a great deal for a custom-built plotter.

Some remaining upgrades include a metal interstage to improve stiffness, updated cable management, and a minimum constraint design pen holder to facilitate multicolour plotting. It's a true joy to watch this little guy dance across the page.