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Sharpie Attachment Idea

Discussion in 'Phlatprinter 3 Attachments' started by scraighamilton, Jan 7, 2011.

  1. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Hey guyz. If you missed our unplanned live show tonight, we wanted to let you know that we are including one of scraighamiltons awesome Phlatprinter 3 Sharpie attachments with each of your pressure roller packages :doubleup: This is a token of our appreciation for your patience and understanding as we worked through the creation of the new drive rollers.

    Check out this youtube video we made of us using coloring the graphics of the Queen of Spades playing card
     
  2. 3DMON

    3DMON Moderator Staff Member

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    That detail is awesome!
     
  3. ewo

    ewo Moderator Staff Member

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    I love it . :p
    Look at that detail . :good:
     
  4. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    :dance3: I have to tell you guyz this attachment is super fun and I find myself using it more then the cutter right now :D
    Mark and Trish
     
  5. Flashsolutions

    Flashsolutions Active Member

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    I have been cutting out balsa parts for a group build of the e-QSC at my club for the past week or so and have not had time to catch up on all the activity here lately. I think I am finally getting tired of cutting things at least for a little while.

    I wanted to finish this project before I replace my rollers since I don't want to change calibration mid stream with a whole bunch of parts already cut.

    Can't wait to get the new rollers in and try some more artwork driven Sharpie marking like this.

    That Queen of Spades is really awesome, not to mention how fast the machine is running! I hope you will show us how you processed the gcode for this one, in particular, how you did the pocketing and separation of the colors. I had to resort to using Cambam for pocketing but would love to be able to do this in Sketchup alone.

    Also, I had put shrink tubing over my pressure rollers and the ink transfers to it as is printing, so I had to put balsa shims along the edges, but I see you did not have that issue when using the bare rollers which is interesting. I gotta try that. Sounds like with the new precision ground pressure rollers, we won't need any covering which is great!

    Nice work Mark!
     
  6. TigerPilot

    TigerPilot Well-Known Member

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    Mark, if you explained how you did it I must have missed it. What program did you use and did you scan the card first?
     
  7. kram242

    kram242 Administrator Staff Member

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    Hey guys :)
    The card was a vector image I found on the 3D ware house. It has to be a vector and not just an image placed on a face. If I wanted to make one from scratch one way I may have done it, I would have brought into inkscape and converted the vectors to a dxf by their colors. I would then import the vectors into Sketchup and clean them up to get faces for them. From there hers what I did. I then selected each color I planed to make pocket code for and using the bottom left corner of the safe cutting area at zero as my registration dot I was able to copy each color to its on area also copying the registration dot to make sure later I could realign everything back up.
    They way I made the pocket code for the card was to export each of the 3 colors as separate dxf files and bring it into a program called artcam, but I think that any cam that can pocket and export back out as a dxf, should be able to do it just as well.
    i made the pocket to step over 3/64 .04687 after measuring a new sharpie marker line I found this to be the best amount so far. I then exported each color back out of artcam as a dxf and back into Sketchup. From there I was able to line up my registration dot at zero on the safe cutting area and make up a centerline cut at 25% depth. Once that was done I could export the cnc file for marking that color. I did this for the three colors in the order that I wanted any overlap or bleed. So the yellow was first then the red and the last was black. I did black last to make sure it covered any bleed as the final color.
    I am using poster board because it allows the marker to dry before it hits the rollers. I think with depron we may have to add a little spacer to lift the pressure rollers from the foam. We could use a thin walled tube 4 of them cut to maybe an inch in length and slid on the pressure rollers. They could stay out of the way until you needed them and then you could slide them onto the edges of the foam to ensure the pressure rollers don't touch the foam. it may work?
    It sure sounds like a lot of work when I read it back but it really was not that bad. :)
    Thanks again
    hope this helps
    Mark and Trish
    p.s. I am going to create a section just for sharpie art so that we can start posting in there, and I will add my files there. :good:
     
  8. Crash

    Crash Moderator Staff Member

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    Reading this this morning has made my entire day! I would love to have some pictures of completed projects for my website, Larry!

    (Sorry for the hijack)
     
  9. Flashsolutions

    Flashsolutions Active Member

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    No problem Crash. Again, sorry for the interruptions... I have cut out 10 kits and no one brought a camera Sunday, but we will have photos next Sunday as they group completes the wing assembly and then I will start a new thread on the subject.

    One of the members jumped the gun and completed a mid wing version a few weeks ago and it looks awesome!

    John is building a version that let's just say will be "interesting". So I think within the new few weeks, about 12 or 13 new planes will be born.

    Cutting Balsa was a task I could never do with any repeatability with my MK1.5 but the Phlatprinter has done the job with perfection. I broke three 1/32" bits in the process and finally gave up and went to a 1/16" bit.

    I am looking forward to being able to color some foam planes with the Sharpie Marker attachment, but I want to get the new rollers installed first even though I have the machine cutting perfectly now.

    With Spring coming upon us, finding time to take it all in will be a challenge.


     

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