Sean Walsh's "Plotter"
another view       view movie (868k)
 

The Amazing Plotter

    The machine has movement in three different axes:  A pulley and belt arrangement moves the pen in a forward/back motion.  The belt is attached to the gantry support.  A linear-track mechanism salvaged from a dot-matrix printer allows left/right movement, and a scavanged floppy disk drive mechanism was used to create the up/down movement of the pen.
    Secure a piece of paper to the clips provided for this purpose, enter your text into the computer control software, and the plotter does the rest.