There doesn’t appear to be an official OT section but I figure we laserheads can appreciate something similar out in the wild. I recently 3D printed and assembled a CylinDraw machine. One can purchase the entire kit, 3D printed parts included, or just the non-3D printed parts and print your own, or working from the bill of materials and what I’d consider to be a ton of determination, build it from the ground up, collecting all the components and going from there.
I have a printer and devoted the time necessary to create the more than fifty pieces, then purchased the hardware, screws, electronics, wiring and even a laser cut piece of acrylic used for the base. That part I could have cut with my laser, but excluding it wasn’t an available option.
With an optional Dremel™ Stylo and engraving bits, one can engrave glass, metal and anything that can be put in the chuck or wrapped around a cylinder. The pen holder has pretty good capacity as well.
I’m still learning, having completed only one cup beyond the calibration testing, but it’s nearly as fun as the rotary on the laser, although a good bit slower and noisier.
This video may vanish in the future as it is hosted on my Dropbox. If someone has a recommendation for a free video host site that allows embedded videos to play, please comment.
One thing I learned is to stack at least two cups, as gravity on the pen, which is a free-fall servo is sufficient to bend the cup surface. The other thing is that I’ve been spoiled by LightBurn software. The CylinDraw would very much benefit from having something close to LightBurn running the show. I understand that the Arduino within is not running GRBL and is operating on custom code from the creator. It presents a terminal window when running and resembles g-code, but my understanding doesn’t go much farther than that.