Writing Postcards with a 3D Printer | Hacker News Reader

Writing Postcards with a 3D Printer

severinbucher.com

48 pointstypesafeJ20 comments

Very nice! I used the same trick to make a PCB by making the printer use a marker to draw on the parts that I didn't want to etch:

https://www.stavros.io/posts/make-pcbs-at-home/

If this appeals to you, also check out the Plotter Art subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/PlotterArt/

While I love the curiosity and creativity that has recently emerged around digital pen plotting, many people may not realize this was the workhorse technology for producing technical drawings for several decades in the late 20th century.[0]

Large format pen plotters with up to 8 separate pens were available for different line weights. Color was mostly avoided because the reproduction process of the time was still centered around diazotype[1], or monochromatic ammonium blue printing.

[0]https://piratefsh.github.io/2019/01/07/computer-art-history-...

[1]https://drawingmatter.org/a-blueprint-is-blue/

And they were quick about it too [0]. I mean, not that quick, much slower than today's printers, but much faster than nearly all of the 3D printer conversions or pen plotter kits you can get now.

My HP-7470A is from 1982 and does not have stepper motors, but DC motors and rotary encoders doing closed loop servo control. They move the lightweight paper itself instead of a heavy gantry.

Worth noting that this HP sold printers and atomic clocks, unlike today's HP which sells cheaper printers and subscriptions to them.

0 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXQKj4WJQIc

Growing up my father had a Calcomp plotter for CAD drawings. I think it could handle 36 inch wide paper and had a 6 or 8 pen carousel. The neat part was it had a little air table strip that kept the paper hovering at the edges allowing the page to be rapidly fed back and forth without dragging on the plotter bed. That table had a blower that produced a hum that for a while was a staple background sound to the home computer/drafting/office my father setup.

A year or so ago I was setting up my small router table/mill and I mounted a Sharpie holder to it and made some line art. Quite slow due to the leadscrew pitch of the mill but it worked well [1].

Like the OP I used svg2gcode and others. The original pen holder I printed worked but I ended up modifying the design and adding a bronze bushing to hold alignment better and a mount for a microswitch so that the pen holder also functioned as a probe to set the Z position. [2]

In order to be able to change pens I made a little "half crosshair arrow" that I would run the gcode for on each pen change and verify the overlap was the same since it is difficult to align the pens exactly on change.

All of this was done using V2 Smoothieware as the firmware.

[1] https://youtu.be/nJI-yXbHHJA?si=F9bXftj7UEXyuRxa https://youtu.be/ZSP37Kgp7Tc?si=Mn_IKjU9t9zmaOml

[2] https://youtu.be/f89cgUS89bU?si=T45TQMXLwW4MyoI0

Not a 3D printer but really cool video by Stuff Made Here explaining how he tried to make 'realistic' handwritten forgeries with a pen plotter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQO2XTP7QDw

I've also used 3d printer to straight up print on top of a greeting card (the print was 1 layer).

The print might not fare that well though the post system, though, so maybe it wouldn't be suitable for postcards. But it can be a nice touch.

So does this mean if you give it a swivel knife it can also be a vinyl cutter?

CNC is CNC, if you can put an attachment on it, it'll probably work. If you replace the hotend with a router and make the extrusion wires turn the router on and off, you have a CNC router. If you use a swivel knife, you have a vinyl cutter

Only in theory. A 3D printer doesn't need to sustain lateral forces - a router does. It might not be built for this.

Yes, actually Bambulab (I know currently controversial) has just released a new printer (A2L) that actually has the cutter and pen functionality. You just clip it onto the printer head and it works. (This is not meant as an advert for them, not affiliated in any way. It's addons that other manufacturers will also add to their printers)

The article is cool, and it is fun to build a custom version - just sharing a little more info on this.

They've had this feature out of the box on a few Bambu models for quite a while now. It was part of the H2 series, and the A2L is them expanding it to the cheaper models.

The printers come with software to lay out text/drawings, line up the paper with the overhead camera, and run the job. And it comes with a tacky plate to hold the paper in place while drawing. It's all pretty slick - no need to mess with custom g-code or anything. You use the same process whether you are drawing, using a drag knife, or laser cutting.

What has bambu been upto? Lol I got their printer, hadnt used it for months and printed something this weekend but haven't followed the news on them.

open source license violations/takedowns of legitimate open source forks, and other anti consumer practices. casual users likely unaffected, unless you're philosophically offended (rightfully, imo)

Great idea!!

I've had a post card based business idea for ages. Can anyone recommend a printer that prints quality postcards? I'm looking for something in the sub $2,000 range. I pulled that number out of thin air so I have no idea of that's a too much or too little.

Dye sublimation printers

Thank you. Appreciated!

The Z-axis homing problem could be solved by adding a "pause" command (gcode M0, I reckon) at the very start.

The printer calibrates, pauses, you attach the pen, press continue, and it'll do the plot without zeroing the Z-axis again.

About 15 years ago I used to have a Silhouette cutter printer. You could get a cutting blade and it would cut shapes out of paper and card. I remember putting a pen in there and using it to write with it on paper. It was cool.

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