Ideas for CNC machines - make it simple

Description

After creating CNC routers composed of commonly available materials in previous HackadayPrize entries, I'd like to give you more ideas of how to create own computer controlled machines, address weak points in mechanics or electronics and do some coding to control your hardware.

What ideas? Well, I don't know yet. I simply trust my inspiration and hope the Hackaday community will leave comments every now and then. So follow this project and read the log entries to see what's going on, here...

Project Logs

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DIY direct granules extruder, simple construction
Norbert Heinz • 06/29/2019 at 08:07 • 0 comments

I have added a DIY direct granules extruder to one of my 3D printers:
The print head is as simple as I could think of, but maybe I can do it even simpler...
Next question to answer is how to get the right sort of granules from the right sort of plastics.
All infos on my pages:
https://homofaciens.de/technics-machines-3D-printer-Granule-Extruder_en.htm
Matrix plotting with a 3D printer
Norbert Heinz • 05/17/2019 at 15:45 • 0 comments

A couple of more parts turned my plotter into a dot matrix printer. It's for sure no replacement for an inkjet, but another educational tool that visualizes the difference between vector and bitmap graphics. I am utilizing the filament extruder to speed up the movement of the pen.
More on my pages:
https://homofaciens.de/technics-machines-3D-printer-Zonestar-Printer_en.htm
Turning a 3D printer into a plotter with automatic pen changer
Norbert Heinz • 05/04/2019 at 14:59 • 0 comments

I have turned a 3D printer into a plotter with automatic pen changer:
Up to four colours are picked automatically during plots. I have written a command line program in C to access the plotter through USB and a Perl script to convert Scalable Vector Graphics into Gcode commands. More on my pages:
https://homofaciens.de/technics-machines-3D-printer-Zonestar-Plotter_en.htm