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just ran across this knife for one of those paper cutting plotters people use for scrap-booking ...
http://www.amazon.com/Silhouette-SILH-B ... 4PESQD2BAR

mount one on your printer for cutting paper !
now you have a whole new use for your "toy"


I thinking it would mount in my pen/tool holder really nice.
http://www.tricklaser.com/Pen-Tool-hold ... RM-PTH.htm

Another cool use for the Deltas. It would be interesting to see how you would generate the GCode for cutting paper.

Theoretically the same process you use to use pen in the holder should work identical it would just think a pen is drawing Instead a knife is drawing. Very cool idea ill have to give it a shot sometime
Ian

wildideas1 wrote:Theoretically the same process you use to use pen in the holder should work identical it would just think a pen is drawing Instead a knife is drawing. Very cool idea ill have to give it a shot sometime
Ian

yes, but ... what's the process for a pen ?

enggmaug wrote:

wildideas1 wrote:Theoretically the same process you use to use pen in the holder should work identical it would just think a pen is drawing Instead a knife is drawing. Very cool idea ill have to give it a shot sometime
Ian

yes, but ... what's the process for a pen ?

You could create your graphics and text with inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/en/) then export as .svg file to load into http://www.makercam.com to generate gcode for cutting with MAX.
inkscape also has a filter for exporting gcode that may work.
start & end gcode would probably have to be manually edited to work with MAX, but that should be no biggie.


so many projects, so little time... the lament of many a maker.

Sorry, I didn't see it any where, but is that just a micro sized swivel knife?

I am wondering if it is a swivel knife for a reason...

There are two kinds that I am aware of. "Theta" and Follower. (I made up the theta name based on the math it uses)

The Follower type is like the kind you would buy at an art store and is used for cutting things like Frisket/Mask by hand. A fancy Xacto if you will. The blade point follows behind the the axis or handle. With this type, I think you would get a lot of backlash.

the other type "Theta" is the kind I use at work. This type, the firmware calculates the Theta movement (Stepper driven angle derived from the tangential motion of the Cartesian X,Y movement) To do this on a 3D printer that isn't already set up to figure that out, you would need to rewrite a chunk of the firmware. Essentially, it is adding another axis to the mix

Here is what I have at work. I have looked into rebuilding the controller, as this one is exceptionally dated. But I don't think my coding skills are up to the task of multi coordinate positioning. Probably would be better to just add a powerful enough laser.... it would be simpler.
[img]http://www.neurascenic.com/show/RostockMax/Swivel.JPG[/img]
[img]http://www.neurascenic.com/show/Rostock ... _Table.JPG[/img]

Hi guys, I'm a newb here. Just ordered my Rostock Max v2 this week. I used to work in a trophy shop and used a vinyl cutter so I thought I would contribute my knowledge....

The cutter we used was very similar to the one Brian posted. The blade has such a small diameter that the back lash from the swivel action is almost negligible and we could cut very fine details with it. We used it to cut self adhesive vinyl film for making banners and vinyl iron-on film for graphics on clothing. One thing to note is that the process is very sensitive to pressure -if you don't have enough pressure you won't cut all the way through, if you have too much you dull the blade really quick. For cutting paper on glass with a Delta you can probably get away with a little too much pressure. However, if there's no force feedback (like I said, I'm a newb so I don't know if there's a way to get force feedback) then the positioning will be critical and the bed would need to be carefully leveled. Or, maybe you could cut on a Delrin or PTFE surface to provide some give in the process.

Bryan G.

I don't know how precisely uniform the thickness of these things are, but they're designed to use as cutting boards for X-acto blades, and work well - I used one a lot back in my model railroading days. They have a tough but easily-cuttable surface that's under slight compression, so cuts close right back up again. Might make a good substrate for cutting paper or vinyl against, as the blade could penetrate slightly more or less without problems. (Still, a spring-loaded blade would probably be a good idea.)

http://www.micromark.com/Cutting-Pad-8- ... ,6801.html

The cutting mat would be better purchased on amazon. I got a 3'x2' one for about $27.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00251 ... d_i=507846