Hknssn
Creator, inventor and slightly insane
Mechanical drawing machine
Introduction
This machine was inspired by an old 18th century machine called Automaton that could draw and write.
(video of an Automaton machines https://youtu.be/OehTO9l1Hp8)
The machine work by having 3 small arms/levers that rest on CAM rings in order to read information.
The arms/levers then transfer the information to the left arm, right arm and the up/down function to get a synchronized movement of the pen. (see image below)
To get the shape of the CAM rings was a bit tricky.
First i needed to convert the image that i wanted the machine to draw into cnc/gcode.(basically a list of coordinates that i cnc machine use to cut)
Then i had made a python program that could read the cnc/gcode and convert it into the 3 rings.
The program couldn't create 3d cad file directly so it generated 3 excel files with a list of X/Y coordinates of each shape.
Those X/Y coordinates could then be imported in to my CAD software so i could create 3d model from them.
Most parts of the machine is 3d printed or cnc cut aluminium plates. But it also have a couple off-the-shelf bearings, gears, gearracks, steel axels etc.
Below is some images of how it looks inside.
Video from the early testing phase.
