DIY Machines

A fully wooden one would look amazing. If I had the time I would have also made one from just wood. If you do make your I would love to see a photo.

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it! You should totally have a go and you can always turn to your friend for help - or the other makers and myself - if you get a little swamped at the code part.Thank you for sharing it.Lewis

Hi redbeardtrev. thank you for pointing out that I had missed this two files. I've now uploaded them to step 5 with the others for 3D printing.

I'm really glad it inspired you in some way. 😊There's something forever intriguing about inventions which measure the weather or time.

Wow, that's is stunning! Great idea and the way you completed it is perfect. Very impressive! Well done.

Thanks, and your welcome. WLED is awesome.Ahh yes, they are very thin slices indeed those pop-out panels. Thanks for sharing the tip.

Thank you, I'm glad you like it.

Sure, WS2811 run at 12v. One of the problems with the electronics design was the voltage drop caused by the long distance run of LEDs. One way to help resolve this is to use a higher voltage. This is why I chose the 12v WS2811 over the 5v WS2812B (which are usually my go-to addressable LEDs for most project). Lewis

Thank you, I hope you enjoy making your own set. smile

Oh wow, that looks brilliant. I love that you made your own design changes, especially that they make the build cost even cheaper! Great work and thanks for sharing. :)

Oh wow, that would look very smart.

Thanks Techniman, I hope you enjoy building it and playing with it afterwards. :)

Thank you.

Thanks Mike, I'm glad you like the project and have built your own. I added the Pause button and the ability to dim the lighting down to 'off' as my way of switching effectively turning off the table (or given the impression). When I wanted it 'on' again I could just press play on the table built in controls and turn up the LEDs if I wanted them as well.

Hi Jim, thank you for pointing out the parts missing from the BOM. I will add them in now.

Originally I was going to use a Pi zero but found that sometimes Octoprint ran a little slow. This is not a huge problem for the sand table as any interruption in the flow of GCODE won't result in a disaster that might happen if it occurred on a 3D printer. I switched to the more beefier Pi to avoid the problem but had forgotten to revise the drawings.

Thanks for calculating a more exact cost of building one. I'm glad you found the 3D files easy to print - I work hard to avoid requiring supports. Not just for print speed and removing the need for as much post-processing but also for the environment (If I have removed the need for 100g of plastic support for each build, this multiplies up with everyone who builds one and can save many kg's).

Thanks. You simply Draw over it if it's a 'full table' drawing (in that it covers the entire drawing area). Or run a simple pattern over the surface before the next drawing. I draw very close parallel diagonal lines across the surface every so many drawings.

Thanks.

😁 Thank you. You are very welcome.

Thank you. It is very quiet, perhaps I could liken it to idling desktop PC. (It's hard to describe!)

Thanks, it take take a lot of time to write out but I hope anyone else who wants to make one can.

I still find myself staring at mine when I'm supposed to be doing more important things. It is very mesmerising.

Thanks. That is a great idea! The control panel could be extended with two more dials or a four way thumb sized joystick.

I'm not too far away from Portsmouth. I'm on the Dorset coast. :) I'll be printing some spare parts and putting them on my site if you need them - though you may already have the printing covered.

Hi Gerrit. You're correct about the voltage drop - in the instructions above we do connect the power lines at both ends of the LED strip to help when they are at full brightness. Four LED's a square must look very crips and bright! :) My soldering has come along way in the last year, but certainly has much further to go. Connecting all these LED strips is providing me with a lot of practice. :)

None of the printed parts require support if orientated well. I can't remember how I orientated them in the print files. All the main chessboard parts should be printed with the large flat base on the printed (orientated as they would be used later). The control panel fronts (printed in two coolers) should be printed with what will be their front faces when finished, facing down onto the bed whilst printing. This allows us to change the filament colour later so we can read the text.

You're very welcome. That looks amazing, it's so nice to others which have been built. Thanks for sharing some photos of it. :)

Thanks for sharing that resource. :)

Hi, thanks for the kind words. I've been working on automatic piece detection but it was going to drive the cost of the project up. I decided to make this one which I think offers a lot of features and playability for a fairly low cost of materials.I will finish the work on the 'luxury' version later this year and share a project video for it. It may have one or more additional tricks up it's sleeve as well. :) (Though I suspect it will cost at least twice as much to build one compared to the version covered in this Instructable).

I did consider it (though with magnetic sensors). I have a prototype that can sense it. The cost of material for others to make one was quickly rising so I decided to release a budget friendly one with lots of features (this one) and later in the year will finish and share the 'luxury' version which will have piece detection along with some other tricks. :)

Which ones are not working for you, and what country are you in? I can update the links for you then (they are country specific).

Give it another spin. It should get you there now.

I took a guess that you were likely from the USA and updated that link. I've revised the stepper motor link as well now so hopefully you will that it works for you.The 24mm should be just fine for this project.

You're welcome. It's great that you managed to salvage some of your parts. An E-stop button is a great idea. I think I might take the opportunity to make one with a massive red button - just like in the over the top movies. :)mi GRBL is not perfect, but it did what I needed to do. Thanks for sharing your build and modifications.

It looks great, I'm glad you could do it on the Mini.

Yes you certainly can. I started with the cheaper A4988 but it resulted in an unacceptable image quality for me (as well as making more noise). The TMC2208 was worth every penny in my opinion.

Hi, sorry to hear the page doesn't work. Where did you find the bad link? It would be great to know so that I can correct it.It should be this page: https://diy-machines.selz.com/item/5f06e0e7701f5d0... Which also allows Paypal.

Yes, it is more expensive. If the shield you purchase come with the A4988 then it's not harm to try them first. Alternatively you could upgrade just one axis with a TMC2208 and see if it makes enough of a difference to you to upgrade the other - you needn't go all in immediately.

Wow, thank you. That's an incredibly kind remark.

Hello, I'm glad to hear that you're building one for the grandkids. I hope they enjoy it.You found a mistake in my labelling there. Thanks for letting me know. You're correct that DoubleCog.stl and DriveGear.stl are the same (I clearly couldn't make my mind up to what to call them!) :)Sorry if it confused you for a little while. I'm going around now attempting to correct the mistake so others don't have the same trouble identifying parts.I would love to see some photos, I print them out and stick them on my pinboard for motivation.Lewis

Thanks. :)

Wow, extremely kind of you. I enjoyed designing and sharing the project. I'm so glad to hear you like it as well. Thank you.

You're welcome. Thanks for the kind words.

Unfortunately not, maybe a 'domino harvesting' type sidekick machine could sweep up and load the empty carousels. That would be neat.

Wow, thanks for the kind words.

Yes I know the thing. :) Thank you.

Thank you DltToday.

Thank you. :) Glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks, I'm lucky enough to have access to SolidWorks where I work.

Thank you dev_ani, sorry it took me so long to see your kind comment.

I'd love to see some photos. I have pinboard behind the camera where I print and stick the photos people send in. It keeps me working when things don't go so well. You can send them to lewis@diymachines.co.uk and I'll add them to the pinboard. Here it is so far:

Yes of course you can Steve. :)

Wow, a good piece of inspiration you found but the quality of the one you designed and built for yourself is remarkable. Very well done indeed.