MAKE: “Bam” on the lulzbot forums shared an interesting project recently. He printed a small mount for his extruder that allows it to hold a pen, essentially turning his 3D printer into a standard plotter, or 2D printer. A few custom settings in the software package Cura allowed the gcode necessary to keep drawing on the paper to be created quite easily.
14 comments:
This is an interesting idea as it makes very thin plastics to be printed which could be made in to decals, or stickers, or whatever someone can think of. It is also an odd thought as most people already have 2D printers. It seems slightly counterproductive to make a 3D printer into a 2D printer but I enjoy the inventiveness of the creator. 3D printing is a field where people are making new improvements and creativity that it is hard to keep up with everything. I am excited to see what comes next in the printing world.
It seems like a wacky and pretty useless idea, as turning a 3D Printer back into a 2D printer seems counter-productive. But as the article points out, the creativity of artists and other working to change machines in this way can lead to new innovations and uses that would never have been considered. Obviously this needs finessing (hair elastics to hold the pen in place?) but it could develop into something new. I am looking forward to what this inspires.
This method is a very beautiful way to "print" something. It reminds me of signature machines. I first heard of them when my Mom told me when she interned for a senator in Washington she would have to go to the signature machine, which would sign papers by controlling a pen in a similar way. While the theatrical uses of this method are limited, unless you wanted to mass create a prop, it could make a nice art piece. I'm not sure what it would like though.
The first thing that came to my mind when I was reading this article is not using a pen, but a pencil. I feel like that would be the only, actually useful, use for this modification of a 3D printer. Being able to print an exact pencil sketch for something could be helpful in fields like design and drafting and it is definitely something that would not be possible with a regular ink jet printer. As with all the previous comments, can't wait to see what's next.
This is an interesting adaptation of existing technology to perform a new function, even if that function isn't really very useful. That being said, this is the kind of project that is just fun to watch progress and see the results of. People just having fun and innovating is always good to see. Admittedly being able to watch something being plotted is pretty entertaining. Not all technology needs to have an obvious world-bettering function, this one certainly doesn't, but seeing people make existing technology or hardware do things you never thought about doing with them is where innovation can come from. Makers just do cool things.
Philip brings up an excellent point and something that I've always thought of. Innovating and creating just for the sake of doing so is more than enough. People might see something like this as useless, and it might be, but it is taking something that was originally meant for something else and re-purposing it. Just the act of thinking outside the box and creating something new is sometimes all it takes to lead to something big, something that might create a real difference.
I know people think it's silly, but this is really cool! Practically speaking this wouldn't be that great, but in terms of making really cool looking things, this is a great new medium, just like painting, drawing etc... is used. This also reminds the reader of how complicated 3D printing can be at first. If you think you can just put a pen on 3D printer and hit go, you are mistaken. Hopefully this process will get easier in the near future, allowing more people to try out this new medium.
This is so dumb. Completely defeating the purpose of having the 3D printer. Want to know how to get the same effect? Photoshop and a color printer. This seems like another example of vintage for the sake of being vintage. Or being so overwhelmed by the process that you doing realize there is an easier way to get to the product. I can also only imagine that this takes forever to print, and for that matter program. It would be much easier to just design a photoshop filter that would accomplish this same effect.
It's definitely fun to watch this print in the style of a plotter. However, I find this most practical and useful for demonstrating how a 3D printer will build up layers and how each layer is like a continuous line. It's a pleasant experience to watch a 3D printer make something out of nothing, but often times people will have a hard time understanding exactly how the structure works and what a shell is versus what the fill is, this simple adaption will turn the parts of 3D printing into a quick, cheap visual.
Although he just tried it for fun I think the idea of being able to use a 3D-Printer as both a standard 3D printer and a plotter in one could make them much more desirable and functional for the slightly more average consumer or artist. If this functionality was incorporated directly into a cost effective 3D printer the machine would be much more worthwhile to own and sought after as it would have dual functionality making it more than a niche machine but as a overall super printer. For any designer or artist the opportunity to have both a highly functional 3D printer and a plotter seems like a double win. It would be especially useful for large design groups and institutions if this could be implemented for 3D printers with large printing beds, as you could purchase a 3D-printer and a large plotter for the price of one.
This little printer hack is the seed of a great idea that I hope gets implemented in 3D-printers as they develop more and become more and more accessible to the common consumer.
We were actually just talking about something similar to this the other day in PTM. Actually, we were discussing the possibility of placing a sharpie into the collect of the CNC router and having it 'cut' a 2d profile with it. The end result would be, obviously, the ability to draw with precision across a surface equal to a standard 4x8 sheet of material.
Then the conversation turned into what this process would be useful for, the same question that could be asked of using a 3 printer to draw in 2d.
Really, the benefit of the cnc router is the size. If for some reason the theatre has a CNC router but no large format plotter, the using the router to plot design plans or even cartoon large things for the paints department would be useful, But the only reason I see the 3d printer being used as a 2d printer is if the place of business did not already have an inkjet printer of their own. Which is kind of hard to believe, if they have a 3d printer already.
This is an interesting idea, though it’s a pretty sad use for an expensive piece of gear, and does something that we’ve had technology to do for about 25 years now.
All that being said, I’ve wanted to try this with our CNC router as a super fast layout tool. We could put a sharpie in the collet, spin the spindle at 100rpm (if it goes that low), and between the spinning and the fast movement, the Sharpie would stay pretty sharp and we could lay things out faster than we could cut them with the machine. I’m not sure exactly what the use of this would be yet, but I think we could find some uses for a 4x8 Plywood Plotter.
From a marketing standpoint this doesn't make much sense. it would be like taking a car and making it into a wagon, why would you spend the extra money to get something you either don't need or that can be printed professionally. I worked with my Dad in advertising as his graphic artist and found that it was much easier to send jobs like this to a printer or to printers specifically made to do this job. I think the way for this to work would be to make an all in one printer. something that would be the upgrade after our current 2d printers need to be replaced.
My question is why anyone would want to turn a 3D printer into a 2D printer! I've never used a 3D printer before, but from my understanding there are very specific uses for them. By taking a very expensive piece of equipment and using it to do the job of another piece of equipment. 2D printers are very readily available to the general public, and are very easy and cheap to use. It just surprises me that anyone would want to do this. But then again, it could just be me and my lack of knowledge on the topic at hand.
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