How to build a CNC plotter?

[geekynerd]

i am planning on building a cnc plotter as my audrino project and i am a beginner. can you guys help me out and give me some tips on how to build it. what should i buy. i am going to buy t dvd drives and 3 motors for all three axis moment and thats it i have a audrino uno board. idk what to do for the frame. and this is my first hardware project so give me some beginner tips

 

[Baluncore]

By "plotter" do you mean something to draw lines on a page, or maybe to cut stencils?
How big will you make it?
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/355675496503

 

[geekynerd]

not for laser engraving its for like drawing. And a fun project nothing serious and it need to fit a a4 sheet so thats the size and honestly i dont have idea i am just learning so can you guys help me out

 

[berkeman]

not for laser engraving its for like drawing.

If you are making 2-D drawings, why do you need 3-axis motor movement? If you need to just lift the pen in the 3rd dimension, you can use a simple solenoid to do that instead of a 3rd motor.

 

[geekynerd]

If you are making 2-D drawings, why do you need 3-axis motor movement? If you need to just lift the pen in the 3rd dimension, you can use a simple solenoid to do that instead of a 3rd motor.

yea idk i thought for the lift of the pen i need a motor. as i said i am new to this hardware project any idea on frame of the machine

 

[Baluncore]

any idea on frame of the machine

Look at what is available for sale on the internet.
That will give you some idea of the requirements.

 

[berkeman]

So for an x-y plotter, you have two main ways to move the pen. The first uses a moving x-arm and a way to move the pen along that arm to give you movement in the y direction:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotter

(BTW, that Wikipedia article has a lot of useful information about plotters, so be sure to read it through.)

The second way is to have the pen move in the x-direction along a fixed arm, and use the y-motor and a gritwheel to move the paper in the y-direction:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...cKEwig3KaUmaeSAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQJA&opi=89978449

Getting the gritwheel part to work is not easy, so you may want to stick with the first technique instead. It took HP a lot of work and some patents to get the gritwheel paper movement to work and be consistent. (I worked at HP when they were doing that development, but I was not on that team.)

 

[geekynerd]

moving the paper is crazy and for the controller i am going to use the audrino uno is that good can it handle and for the frame like what should i do i understand the mechanism but what material should i use or is there any readymade arm avilable in the market

 

[berkeman]

i am going to buy t dvd drives and 3 motors

What's a "t dvd drive"? And what kind of motors/encoders are you getting? Stepper motors with end-stop detection, or servo motors?