Beall Pen Wizard

[pdl61]

The Beall Tool Company


I have a Beall pen wizard that I want to convert to cnc. I just plan on making intricate designs in my pens. I will use mostly wood and acrylic pen blanks. No big projects, just small stuff.

Any ideals on where to start? I have done some reading but really need a good starting point for information. Is there a good book to start with learning?

[doorknob]

It looks like you have some choices to make as far as which of the motions you intend to CNC (the cutter depth adjustment, the linear travel of the cutter, and the cutter oscillation).

Not motorizing the cutter oscillation would make your project similar to a 2-axis mini lathe CNC conversion (although the scale of the parts that you would be using would be somewhat smaller than normal).

Adding in the oscillation (which would require synchronization between the linear travel rate and the oscillation rate) would seem to have a lot in common with CNC lathe conversions that use an indexing mechanism on the spindle (for use in programmable threading operations). Or you might also find some commonality with some 4th axis rotary table machining setups.

So, I think that you might find that studying various CNC lathe conversions would be helpful.

I can't point to a specific introductory-level book or article, though. But between the build threads on this forum and the documentation that is available for CNC lathe conversion kits (for example, from CNCFusion), you might get some useful background.

As far as software to control the operation of the unit, you might find that it is necessary to "roll your own" rather than relying on an off-the-shelf CAM program and motion control software. I suspect that you could handle all of the control tasks with something like an Arduino microcontroller board, with some small stepper motors along with stepper motor driver electronics along the lines of the EasyDriver described at EasyDriver Stepper Motor Driver - SparkFun Electronics and at Easy Driver stepper motor driver

[pdl61]

What is cutter oscillation?

[pdl61]

When you say "small stepper motors" can you give me any advice?

[doorknob]

Originally Posted by pdl61 What is cutter oscillation?

That is my description of the back and forth motion of the cutter that results in wavy lines being engraved on the pen body. It is apparently activated through a mechanism on the end of the pen wizard interacting with the black wheel with the index holes in it, and possibly also via the plastic gears at that end of the unit.

I have never seen one of these units in person, so I am just working off of what I saw in a single introductory video on the manufacturer's site.

[doorknob]

Originally Posted by pdl61 When you say "small stepper motors" can you give me any advice?

This would just be a guess, because I have not actually examined one of those units up close, but since I have seen other small CNC machines using Dremel-class spindles built using small stepper motors, my thoughts are that something along the lines of a NEMA 17 motor with a holding torque of around 100 ounce-inches might be big enough to do the job for you.