3D Printer to Plotter

This is my modification to my broken 3D printer (the extruder was defective in many places). It is very simple to do and the perfect afternoon upgrade for any maker. Once you get a hang of the process you can have an awesome drawing, design, plot, or anything you can think of in under 20 minutes! Lets get Started!

This is a completely free upgrade (besides the cost of the pen/printer ;). For this you will need:

• Your 3D Printer
• The Internet
• A pen/marker
• A 3D printed piece to hold the pen. Here is the link to the one I designed: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4759883
• Inkscape download here: https://inkscape.org/release/inkscape-1.0.2/
• A slicer I use Slic3r which can be found here: https://slic3r.org/download/
• Tinkercad (you need to have an account to begin) :https://www.tinkercad.com
• And Finally, a software, USB, or SD card (however you connect to your printer to print)

Before we can get to the software we need to make a few edits to out 3D printer. First, I recommend cutting some paper to the size of your bed and attach it (I use clips that came with the so you wont get any ink on your bed). In the supplies list I have a file for a pen holder that fits the Geeetech Prusa i3 pro W but if you don't have that printer or do not want to completely replace there are many other designs on Thingiverse that are universal or you could design your own for a custom fit! So, once you have your piece attach it to your 3D printer. For mine, I simply hot glued it to the metal carriage and it seems to be working well. Once it is secure attach the pen having a result something like the picture.

Now that we have the pen attached, we can calibrate the pen to the right Z-height. First off move the z-axis up to 0.2mm in height. Next manually move the x-axis carriage across the bed to see if you need to raise or lower the bed on the four corners. If you have automatic bed leveling just make sure it is even all the way across. You will want to have a good amount of force on the paper but not to the point that it rips. It should be like the picture above. Once you are able to have even force all parts of the bed you can move onto the software portion of this Instructable.

A rather simple step is to find the image or draw the design you plan to plot. In the image I recommend finding more of an outline image or words, for simplicity's sake when printing the first few designs. Once you find the image you would like, download it and move on over to the next step!

Now that you have the Image you need to convert the png or jpg image to an svg file along with removing the backround and improving the quality. First import your image into Inkscape (File>Open>select your image). Next, go to the top bar and go to (Path>Trace Bitmap). Now click update in the new box that appeared and then click on your image you uploaded. You now have two copies on top of each other so click and drag the top on away. Next take the original image (looks more pixilated when zoomed in and has no backsound) and delete it by selecting it and click backspace. Now, We have the image we need so we will export it as a (plain Svg File>Save as> in the dropdown select Plain Svg and save).

Now we have a corrected, flat Image that needs to be extended and converted to an STL to slice. So, in Tinkercad create a new design (big new design button on designs page) and import (the big import button on the top right of the page) the new svg file into Tinkercad. Here it will most likely be very big so resize the design to the size needed. Also, make the height to 0.2mm so it will only print one layer. Finally, export the design as an STL (the button next to import).

Now that we have an STL file of the Image, which is corrected as well, we can now use a slicer to convert the STL to G-code. To import (in Slic3r) click the add STL button on the top left and select the STL file. Now once this us open we must adjust the settings (click settings then click on all of the options so you have all of the settings). This is a crucial part to making it work so make sure you have all of the same settings dialed in before you export the G-code (see images for the settings). I used the standard settings and tweaked from there. Once all of the settings are the same, click the export G-code button on the right side of the screen and save wherever you desire.

Congratulations! You just went through the process of correctly converting an image to G-code for your 3D printer to read. Now all you have to do is take the USB, wired connection, or wireless connection to you printer and print that G-Code we just created. A tip is to make sure that your pen is in the open position and you have paper on your bed (you will thank me later;). Let me know of any questions or if you made it in the comments and keep on making!