Machine Shop, Science

MPCNC: Sakura Micron Pens

After shimming the corner posts, a plot with Sakura Micron pens came out nicely:

Spirograph pattern - Sakura Micron - Z-0.25
Spirograph pattern – Sakura Micron – Z-0.25

They’re all 01 size pens, with a nominal 0.25 mm line.

Just for fun, a plot done with four sizes of black Sakura pens at Z=-1.0 before the Great Leveling:

MPCNC - Sakura Micron black pen widths
MPCNC – Sakura Micron black pen widths

The 005 pen made a nearly rectangular single-pass tour around the perimeter of the plot, so you’ll see it passing through every legend.

The chunky-by-comparison 08 pen = 0.50 mm:

MPCNC - Sakura Micron 08 Black - detail
MPCNC – Sakura Micron 08 Black – detail

The 05 pen = 0.45 mm looks much crisper:

MPCNC - Sakura Micron 05 Black - detail
MPCNC – Sakura Micron 05 Black – detail

The 01 pen = 0.25 mm:

MPCNC - Sakura Micron 01 Black - detail
MPCNC – Sakura Micron 01 Black – detail

The almost-can’t-see-it 005 pen = 0.20 mm:

MPCNC - Sakura Micron 005 Black - detail
MPCNC – Sakura Micron 005 Black – detail

If you were doing this for a living, you’d probably use 05 pens, because plotter pens are hard to find.

Original HP plotter pens produced a 0.3 mm trace (with a hard to find un-worn tip) roughly equal to Sakura 03 pens, but I haven’t seen anything other than black at Amazon. There’s apparently a 003 pen with a 0.15 mm line; that’s just crazy talk.

Jamming Sakura pens into a plotter pen adapter for the MPCNC makes little sense, so I should gimmick up a specialized holder with some thumbscrew action to keep them from crawling upward out of the holder.

3 thoughts on “MPCNC: Sakura Micron Pens”

  1. From experience, an 005 pen tip will wear away pretty quickly under this duty (I’m using a Cameo Silhouette with an art pen collet). The fiber point will wear down to the level of the metal sleeve it pokes through. Being cheap/frugal, I file new points on worn out drawing pens anyway. You don’t get the same size line anymore, but you can at least use it for writing. I find the Sakuras wear out before they run out. Anyway, when they do I just sharpen them with a diamond file like they were a pencil.

    If you want to lay down a lot of ink, check out the “Graphic 1” size. Graphic 2 and 3 are chisel points and may not be what you want at all. I tend to use 005, 08, and Graphic 1 for drawing and 01 for writing. The 05 holds up well in the Cameo.

    1. I tried pulling the tip further out of the sleeve, but they’re firmly anchored inside. Using a saw on the sleeve seemed too dramatic; I never thought of a file. I’ll try rehabilitating a couple of wrecked pens and report back.

      Thanks for the experience & suggestions!

  2. Pingback: Sakura Pen Nib | The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

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