Made by: @codelife / @programmer6

Dual CNC machine - pen plotting and laser engraving.

Project Status:

Total Design Hours:

CAD:

Respository link:

BOM:

Project Overview

This project is a DIY multi-functional CNC machine capable of both pen plotting and laser engraving.

You can swap between a pen holder (for precision drawing) and a laser module (for engraving and light cutting. Thus, getting the benift of both.

Research: 2 Hour - 20th May 2025

Spent about two hours researching how laser engravers and pen holders actually work. Brain dump of what learn/ reseached: - Stepper motors and belts or screws to control the X and Y axes - Running special firmware that interprets G-code - Instructions that tell the machine exactly where to move and when to turn the laser on or lift the pen. - pen holder -you need a mechanism to raise and lower the pen so it only touches the paper when it’s supposed to draw - This will need ot be able to easily swapped with a laser engraver, a laser diode is mounted instead of the pen

- Learned a bit about programes such as Inkscape with plugins, LightBurn, or LaserGRBL