Ralph G's Dremel pantograph

Ralph G Writes:

Dear Mr. Wandel,

I wanted to thank you for putting all this great stuff on your website! I was Inspired by this to build a Pantograph of my own design and it works great! Added a Table to make clamping and positioning the workpieces and templates easier. I also integrated a height adjusting mechanism for the Pantograph arm. Some Teflon Washers between the arms make the movement even slicker :-)

The Dremel is fixed by gluing a threaded adapter ring into the motor bar so I can easily remove it without tools for other projects. If I had put the motor bar on top like you did, the Dremel bits would have been too short to reach the workpiece. The stylus is also only partly threaded, with the two wing nuts I can incrementally pull it upwards or downwards and then fix the position with the second wing nut. I added a counterweight to the arm. This I found to be a really worthwhile addition because it removes all pressure from the stylus making it even smoother to operate and also removes all of the residual minimal play I had when lifting the stylus. The play did not come from play at any of the pivot points and was there even if I tightened the rig until it didn't move. It was really minimal (less than half a mm) but nevertheless noticeable. Now, when I lift the stylus a mm the Dremel bit is lifted exactly half a mm.

Its not a fully threaded rod for the pivots. Only the terminal ends that show are threaded. I used mostly normal nuts on the underside, wing nuts on top, I tried unthreaded rods first but because I put the motor bar and the back bar under the side bars the weight would pull these downward over time. It has the added benefit that I can adjust for play and stiffness of movement.

As you can see I use it only for small projects and it had to be as accurate as I could possibly make it with my limited tools. If I want a routed pocket for an Inlay which had to be exactly 0.6mm deep I can do this now.

More about the pantograph at:
http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?171654-Dremel-Pantograph-for-Inlay-work
Best regards
Ralph

Ralph also sent me a link to his nicely built jigsawing table (in German):
http://www.messerforum.net/showthread.php?116927-Immer-noch-keine-Bands%E4ge-Stichs%E4gentisch!&highlight=stichs%E4gentisch

At left:
The height adjustment mechanism for the back pivot.

See also:

3D router pantograph

Dremel mount for the pantograph

Inlays with a dremel pantograph