[Jagsdd]

Hello everyone, early last year I became intrigued in the idea of CNC machining, I am looking to start building my own CNC machine in the near future. I am looking to employ my machine for unorthodox purposes. The design would be based on the openbuilds OX cnc router. Instead of mounting a router or spindle I will attach a pen in order to create drawings. I am comfortable with the design and build of the machine itself however I have no idea on how to achieve what I want. I would like to be able to use photos that I have taken using my camera and then manipulate them through various pieces of software and eventually end up with g-code. the CNC drawing machine would understand this code and be able to draw the image in high detail onto paper/card. I know that there is software available to make halftone images which can be routed into wood but this is not what im looking for. does anyone have any idea on how I could create detailed drawing with shading etc. from a photo image using a CNC machine. Thank you in advance

[ger21]

Why do you basically want to build your own printer, when it's cheaper and easier to buy one?

[Jagsdd]

there are some appreciable differences between this pen plotter style system and a printer, I would eventually turn it into a router system however I want to start off doing this kind of thing. Initially I might go for a system that is not as expensive as an OX because all it needs to do is hold a pen. I would use it to create art like drawings from photos ive taken. A printer would not be able to produce the results im looking for. Unfortunately I have no idea on how to get from a photo to g-code

[jfong]

Try https://www.picengrave.com

I've always wanted to convert my old HP pen plotter to gcode. It's big heavy and built like a tank. I never use it anymore since it requires an isa interface card and windows95/DOS.

[Jim Dawson]

Never having tried it, I'm going to go out on a limb here. It seems to me that any software that can create a halftone image routed into wood could do the same thing with a pen. It's just a matter of line density, and ''cutting depth'' The cutting depth with a pen would be near zero, and I am assuming you would have the pen in a spring loaded holder to keep the depth consistent and compensate for minor variations in material thickness.

I have made line drawings of tool paths in my milling machine using a pen in a tool holder, but never tried to create a picture. Might have to try that one day.

[Jim Dawson]

Unfortunately I have no idea on how to get from a photo to g-code

First you need the convert the image to a vector format. Most convenient vector format is a DXF file

Here is a free online vectorizer Online image vectorizer

Then you would use a CAM program to convert to G-code. CamBam is my favorite , simple and cheap. Free download and 40 use free trial CamBam CNC Software - Downloads

With these, it would give you a good place to start to see if you can get the results you want.

[Jagsdd]

The picengrave website is useful in that it shows roughly the level of detail i am looking for, essentially a photo realistic drawing. The difference would be that instead of a laser burning wood to create the image I would use a pen on paper. Nevertheless the laser idea is cool and worth looking into

[Jagsdd]

Hi I dabbled a little with this approach earlier today (converting to vector first) I will have to spend more time experimenting before I can comment on the results, thanks for the help so far, I will try your suggested method tomorrow with the software you have recommended

[Jagsdd]

Never having tried it, I'm going to go out on a limb here. It seems to me that any software that can create a halftone image routed into wood could do the same thing with a pen. It's just a matter of line density, and ''cutting depth'' The cutting depth with a pen would be near zero, and I am assuming you would have the pen in a spring loaded holder to keep the depth consistent and compensate for minor variations in material thickness.

This is exactly the method I was going to use to mount the pen

[jfong]

Originally picengrave made images using v-bit end mill cutter and the laser stuff was added later. End mills are still supported.

The laser portion uses a PWM (0-255) signal to vary the intensity of the beam. Higher the pwm the darker the engrave line. You could take the PWM signal to vary a RC type servo to vary the angle of a pen. This could be a way to make darker/lighter lines with the right pen. You would need to feed the pwm signal to a arduino for servo control.

I'm just thinking out loud, probably a much simpler way.

[Jagsdd]

Hello everyone, sorry for the long hiatus I have been a little busy lately. I have found a good example of the kind of effect I'm looking for. A man called Mike Lyon has programmed a cnc machine to draw images with a pen. If you check out one of his videos called "Cambodia 3 32 x 61 inch pen and ink drawing with CNC machine" on youtube then you will have a good idea of the result im looking for. I was wondering if I would really need custom programming for this or if the effect could be emulated by using a few different software applications to collectively produce the result. Again sorry for being inactive for so long, and thank you for all the help