First I want to say how impressed I am by Katz Sasaki's amazing
PlaySK Piano Roll Reader program and his YouTube videos [241121
MMDigest]. He sure has the Ampico system nailed!

Piotr Barcz has been learning how to use a laser roll cutter that
I sent to him and he uses PlaySK extensively to check the quality of
scanned rolls that are then converted to gCode and finally to images
which he plays with PlaySK.

I have done this just a few times because I am more interested in
the hardware and programming end of the laser roll cutter project and
do not have patience to deal with scanned rolls or even more so with
mastering new rolls. I have left that end of things to others to play
with. PlaySK has been very useful as tool in this development.

Now about my laser roll cutting project. Piotr has been having a
lot of problems getting the cutter to work reliably. He is just not
suited to dealing with mechanical devices and tends to apply wishful
thinking to a problem instead of engineering. I had not done much
with my system for a while other than some software updates. I had
a while ago demonstrated to my satisfaction that the system could make
very accurate rolls including edge trimming more than precise enough
for the rolls to play well.

So, with a little spare time now, I decided to set up a laser roll
cutter that had not been finalized. I also used the latest versions
of parts which are 3D printed. Without seeming too braggadocious I do
need to say the machine exceeds my expectations. I have eliminated any
hanging chad issues by controlling the laser a bit more and choosing
appropriate cut speeds. My new paper guide system produces excellent
edges with no paper jamming as long as the supply paper is of good
quality.

I am concurrently, but slowly, working on two improvements, one being
a stand-alone edge trimming saw that should speed up roll cutting quite
a bit as the laser will be relieved of this task. I just printed the
parts for this and am awaiting better saws to test with. Preliminary
testing suggests that this will work well and speed up roll cutting
maybe 20%.

The other addition for which I have done extensive coding and some
hardware development is a device to print lyrics on the roll while
cutting. I had written programs in the past which would print lyrics
on a specific roll feed printer but these have become very expensive
and it is unlikely that anyone would buy one for this task.

In addition, printing lyrics would require a separate pass through
the printer as it would be very difficult (but not impossible) to
coordinate cutting and printing at the same time. I also explored
inkjet printing heads but these, again, are insanely expensive. So
I decided to develop an entirely new method.

Lyrics are read from the source MIDI file. When the cutter encounters
a lyric in the gCode file (produced from the MIDI file) it goes into
lyric draw mode and draws the lyric text on the paper with a fiber pen,
as opposed to cutting holes. I have devised a method that requires no
additional axis or special controls; it works with the stock LaserGRBL
controller and firmware.

I have put this project on hold for the moment because I am having
difficulty working in my shop due to health issues, but the edge
trimming project requires very little machining so I am concentrating
on this right now.

I am actually surprised that there is so little interest in a hobbyist
built version of a laser roll cutting machine. There are currently only
a few people who have followed (and improved upon) my plans. Everyone
I know of who has done so has gotten good or better results depending
on their skills and willingness to follow instructions.

Spencer Chase
Garberville, California
http://www.spencerserolls.com/ 
spencer@poodlex.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]