The Wall Plotter

Let's see how it goes...

Brain storming

I wanted to make my mom a printer that will help her draw out clothing patterns big enough on one sheet of paper.(I had to run to the printers to print out 30 pages of broken up image and then had to puzzle them back together for her to use)
So to make a plotter that is big enough to print on large area, I needed a printer that did not have size constraints (or at least something that is more free) so I decided to go for a vertical printer.

The printer examples that I could find online were plotters that have stepper motors on the top corners of an area, controlling a gondola in the center.

Initial Idea

There were many great examples and instructable tutorials available online,
So I wanted to make one that was a bit different.(notice the Niel style sketch of my excellent idea)

My new vertical plotter (or polargraph, they say) will have the motors inside of the gondola so that the installment and storage will be easier

Materials

Stepper Motor

NEMA 17 most common.

Arduino Uno

for GRBL Programming

Stepper Shield

A COMPLETE hardware for CNC Motion (gives you all kinds of options for a machine with spindle rpm included)

A4988 Stepper Driver

2 needed comes with heatsink to prevent overheating.

Stepper pulley teeth

attach to your motors to be able to control the gondola

Stepper belt

long enough for the size of your print

Power Supply

12V power supply. You can recycle on easily from an old Laptop power supply.

USB A-B Cable

A long one is good depending on where you will be fixing your arduino and the place of your computer

Connection


Fix the Shield on your Arduino Uno, and A4988 drivers on to X, and Y.

You can get more in-depth directions and explanations from this video in this link.

Design


I was just going to print everything at once with the 3D printer, but it was too big for our 3D printers.
So I had to find a different option


Image Gallery