Page 273 - CNC Robotics

Examples

This chapter on examples was the most fun to w rite! Nothing
compares to having a new too l to get your imagination worki ng.
Every new tool inspires the act of creation, and a home-built CNC
machin e is no exceptio n! In my opinion, a too l yo u built fro m
scratch has an appea l un like any store-bought tool. It's just a
w hole lot of fun to make things. So that's w hat I've been doing
since comp leting this project-think ing of numerou s uses for my
new too l. The uses I offe r as examples are certa inly not the only
fu nctions this machine can perform, though . I'm sure you 'll have
man y more uses and proj ects for your machine. The rest of this
chapter is divided into sections based on the tool I have mounted
on the z- ax is of my CNC machine. The sections w ill deta il how the
machine can be used as a plotter, with a rou ter or DremeltooJ. as
well as w ith an engravi ng tool.

Plotter

As a plotter, this machine can write on almost any surface and
becau se of the large working area, it can perform printing job s that
a standard sized printer cannot. The first plotting job for which I
used the machine was a stained glass pattern I created some time
ago but hadn 't been able to reproduce on a single, large piece of
paper. The pattern, inspi red by a Frank Lloyd Wright design,
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