lulz, you are right

the point i am trying to make is that the controller is the most difficult part. if you can gank it from somewhere, it shouldnt be too difficult or too expensive to make a moderately sized pcb

Here’s the project description, circuits and source code:
http://sensi.org/~svo/motori
It’s a WIP, subject to change without notice ;)

This is completely true. Also, if you machine the plotter frame out of cast iron and fit it with ballslides and use ballscrews instead of belts to move the head, you could mount a heavy duty milling head on it and cut stainless steel.

Only at that point, it wouldn’t be a simple, lightweight, inexpensive plotter, would it?

yes you can, you will have to do some work

you just have to make it strong enough to take the weight and vibration

you can get very accurate linear bearings and rails from any industrial supply company…and much more powerful drives for the increased weight

and its not like you cant slow it down a bit if you are overshooting because of the momentum

Or if you are ADHD and cant wait, get the blue iron on etch resist pages and etch it yourself before your bawls sugar and guarana buzz wears off.

I have no idea why you guys are so intent on making etching PCB’s to be a rube goldberg thing.

There seems to be confusion about plotter accuracy. I can’t measure it to be +/- 0.5mm exactly, it’s much higher actually and I can draw a PCB many times over the same place and it will reproduce it exactly right every time. This is the good part, but…

all pens that I tried produce lines that are at least thicker than 0.5mm, and this is a serious limitation for a PCB layout, spacing between traces and pads has to be wider than usual. The ink also tends to spread a little bit unevenly on copper, so the result is not comparable with a traditional laser printer/UV photoresist method. It can work for simplier designs though. SOIC is ok, 0.8mm TQFP is ok.

You can’t hang a dremel on a plotter gantry. Plotters are not rigid enough.