Downgrading a 3D Printer to Two Dimensions

Paper printers have long been a source of frustration and humor in the tech world. Despite several decades of development, printers still have a reputation for being finicky and unreliable. The famous paper jam scene in Office Space is as relevant today as it was 24 years ago. Because we live in an increasingly digital world, many people feel that it is unnecessary to own a printer in the first place, so they can avoid those hassles. But even those people need to print something every now and then. If they happen to own a 3D printer, Henry Marshall demonstrates how to downgrade it to two dimensions.

Most paper printers are either inkjet or laser. Inkjet printers simply move a print head back and forth across the paper, spraying ink as they go. Laser printers shine a laser beam onto a spinning metaldrum, which builds up a static charge and collects toner that then transfers onto the paper with heat.

Marshall's creation doesn't work like either of those. Instead, it is a pen plotter. They used to be somewhat common in certain professions, such as drafting, for printing very large technical drawings. They work by moving a pen around on motorized axes. They have some niche uses today, but aren't very popular. However, a 3D printer has all of the hardware necessary to act as a pen plotter and that made it perfect for this project. Marshall just needed to attach a pen to the extruder carriage using 3D-printed parts and generate the proper g-code for the printer to follow.

But there was one additional challenge: printing multiple pages. Without any additional hardware, Marshall would have had to load a new print job after every page or carefully monitor the printer to swap out paper at exactly the right moment. To circumvent thatwork, he built an Arduino-based alarm system. When the printer finishes a page, it moves over and presses a button, then waits. That button tells the Arduino to blare an alarm. Marshall can then walk over, switch out the paper, and resume the print job.

In theory, Marshall can now use his 3D printer to print an infinite number of 2D pages — at least up to the maximum file size that the printer allows. And this downgrade will work on most 3D printers if you want to do some plotting yourself.