Robotic Drawing Part 2

Over the weekend, I ended up buying a secondhand 3D printer. After setting it up, I began fiddling with the print head to see where I can possibly attach a pen to it. 

I ended up using a chip clip, and one half of a compass to act as my makeshift penholder, to the printhead using one of the pre-existing screws attaching the printhead to the x-axis motor.

Printing using a different model from the ones we’ve used in class was a bit of a challenge. Though the gcode was the same, I ran into a few problems. Primarily, my file wasn’t centered even though it looked like it was when looking at it on Pronterface. I did manage to center my drawing after numerous trials, but I still need to find a more permanent fix for that. 

Another problem I ran into, which I’m assuming is either from the bed not being level or the angle of the pen, is that the ink in the middle of my drawing becomes too light. At first, I thought it was my pen running out of ink, but after both swapping out the pen and manually testing the initial pen, the drawing still doesn’t have enough ink towards the center. 

But other than that, the gcode worked perfectly, and the drawing came out pretty much how I wanted it to (aside from the ink part). I did decide to run the file twice to see if it would darken the areas in the middle, but unfortunately, it only does minor improvements. :(