No, I didn't cut the pineapple pieces in the champagne glass with the cutting plotter, but rather the logo on my T-shirt. Yes, I upgraded my pen plotter to a cutting plotter! For a first test I designed the CNC logo. My simple plotter setup made of iron-on plotter film was able to cut it out cleanly almost straight away. I think that's a reason to toast!
As always when entering new territory, there was a learning curve to go through: drag knife, tangential knife, oscillating tangential knife.
Sparkling wine promotes blood circulation and (hopefully) helps you remember the new terms better!
I have now ordered the following parts for the expansion to the cutting plotter:
1 piece drag knife holder for 43mm spindle holder
1 piece spindle holder 43mm
1 piece small Z-axis for craft purposes (China)
as well as
1 assortment of flex plotter film for ironing on (various colors)
1 pack of 6 cotton T-shirts (white)
While I'm waiting for the parts, I'm looking for affordable software that can do the necessary path correction for the drag knife. I was finally pleased to find out that the free vector drawing program INKSCAPE, which I have been using regularly for a long time, already has this function on board!
WOW! All necessary parts have now been installed. The laser has also found a place on the Z axis. Focusing can now be done conveniently at the push of a button instead of the previously fiddly turning of the lens! Once I got into the renovation fever, I also replaced some mechanical parts with ones with larger dimensions in order to make the CNC machine (or should I say, the CNC machine model?) a little more torsion-resistant. You never know what the little machine will do in the future!