Pen plotters/20240504 OSP Party

This is a page that will be used to facilitate the presentation at the 2024 05 04 pen plotting party at OSP in Brussels!

• brainstorm pad

Pen Holders and Alignment Tools

For a dedicated page on this topic, see Pen_plotters/Pen_Hacking

There are 'real' pens, meant for pen plotting. These tend to work nicely, are very friendly to use, and often provide nice results. However, they are limited in color selection and pen texture. Therefore, one might consider using their own pens. These pens need to be loaded in a holder. One can modify a 'real pen' for this purpose, or alternatively 3D print a holder.

An example of pen hacking:

A broken pen (right)	Take a toothpick	Push the toothpick
Push harder with the toothpic	Keep pushing	You might need help from a knife

Not all pens allow for their intestants to me removed so easily, in which case a knife is required.

You can also 3D print custom holders. This is a reliable way of obtaining a large number of holders, which has the benefit of being able to have one holder per pen, so that you don't have to align them each time you switch pens.

• This is a GitHub repo with many stl files. The one I have tried did not work for me, however (too slim for the pen specified, or not aligned properly).
• We have modelled new ones (specifically for stabillo 68 / 88 pens), the stl files for which can be found here on Gitea.

Vertical alignment rig with 'real' pen (left) and custom pen holder (right)

When using a custom pen, it is crucial to align it properly heigh wise. This can be done by hand, by comparing a pen in a custom holder side by side with a 'real' pen. To make this process more reliable and less tedious, we have also modelled a rig for veritcal alignment. These files can be found here on Gitea