This has been in the back of my mind for a while...

I have programmed PICs to control old bubblejet printer heads a long time ago, and thought about the possibility of putting the print head on the side of a router head, and as the x axis moved across (after finished routing) , it lowers to print a rudimentary part number or label on routed out parts, good for tagging large numbers of parts from sheets of stock. I know existing hardware exists for production lines (often plywood or plasterboard comes with these kind of markings)but dread to find out costs. Has anyone put any thought into such a thing for mach, made out of cheap n cheerful (or free) and plentiful supply of obsolete hardware (like printers)?. How would i go about outputting a simple line of gcode that sent a number over serial to be recieved by the pic( Programable Integrated Circuit for anyone confused) that then dumps the number to the print head? I thought of just using trigger outs, with the pic incrementing every time, but would be way more fancy if a part program could dictate the word or number.

xx
Benergy   

Could be done in a plugin I think...