Endless Plotter

Update: I've since posted my second iteration - a cartesian plotter that improves on this version in many ways – please check it out here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4037180 or check the full project write-up at: http://andrewsleigh.com/plotter/

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I was inspired to start this project when I saw this plotter featured on Hackaday. As well as being nicely finished, it has a clever design that moves the pen in one axis, and the paper in the other, much like a commercial plotter or inkjet printer.

This has a couple of nice benefits:

• It has a more compact footprint (when not in use) – it's only as big as its x-axis.
• It can, in theory, plot an endlessly large (in the y-axis) piece of artwork.

I made a version of this plotter, adapting the original 3D files and had some success with it in practice, but I eventually decided this format was too compromised for me – I couldn't get the paper to feed back and forth reliably. So I switched to a more traditional 'Cartesian' format for version 2 (files coming soon), where the y-axis is carried on top of the x-axis, and the plotter sits on top of the paper.

However, I've shared my 3D files here for others to use if interested. Most of the parts have been redesigned from scratch, except for the pen carriage, which is pretty close to the original design by Ufficio Progetti Perduti

I've included STL files for the key parts, and an editable Fusion 360 archive of the whole assembly.