Building the Machine That Draws

I started this blog to document the results of my creative experiments with plotters. I also needed a place where I could showcase some of my pictures.

Over time, I’ve tried out various models, all of which I built myself, and I’ve gathered a good deal of experience along the way. Since commercially available devices like the iDraw, AxiDraw, or Bantam plotter are beyond my budget, I build them myself. However, this often means I spend more time assembling, wiring, and testing than actually plotting. That’s still a problem at the moment, but hopefully, it will change in the future.

On my journey to a functioning plotter, I’ve learned a lot about various components and software, which I also want to cover in this blog. On the hardware side, I’ve worked with aluminum profiles, stepper and servo motors, initiators, light barriers, the Arduino, and its corresponding CNC Shield. Unfortunately, I also had to deal extensively with the topic of EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility).

On the software side, my journey began with the Arduino development environment and GRBL, which I run on the Arduino. After that, I focused on software that feeds G-code to GRBL. I started with the Universal G-Code Sender and later switched to cncjs. To generate the art, I initially worked with „Drawing Bot Version 3″—an excellent tool that I also want to report on here. Later, I turned to JavaScript, specifically p5.js. I have since acquired a basic knowledge of JavaScript.

I want to describe all of these topics and experiences in this blog.

I have a small room in the basement where I tinker with my plotters and create my artwork. It now houses two finished machines and a whole lot of unfinished projects.Since I have a demanding job, my progress comes in bursts. As a result, there will likely be longer quiet periods here from time to time. To be more time-efficient, I like to use AI tools—especially for turning my rough texts into something more readable. Since German is my native language, I also often have my posts translated into English by an AI.