No desk is complete without your own personal mug to insist on having your tea in. Oh sure, you can use a suitably obscure freebie mug that you picked up somewhere, or even buy your own, but do any of them really express the personality that you'd like your workmates to understand? No, you're going to need a personalised mug for that desk. The cheap and easy solution is to buy one from an on-line printing company, but where's the fun in that?
The mug plotter is loosely derived from Evil Mad Scientist's Egg Bot - it uses the same control board, and a modified version of the software, so you can design and print your mug from inkscape.
To build the mug plotter, you're going to need the following as a minimum, regardless of how you approach it:
Eibotboard
two stepper motors
servo
5V Power supply
mini-usb cable
PC
To build the Mark I mug plotter along broadly the same lines I have, you'll also need the following:
3mm ply
Something to cut it with (laser cutters are good)
250mm of threaded rod, and a nut to suit. I've used M5, but its not important.
Some 1/4" aluminium rod (but anything in that range will do).
Around 20mm metal tube big enough to slide over the rod - I didn't have anything to hand to drilled a 6.5mm hole through a bit of 1/2" aluminium rod.
Some connectors suitable to join your stepper motors to the threaded rod and 1/4" rod.
Lots of small (M3) screws and nuts.
There's quite a degree of flexibility in the choice of stepper motor. I went for Bipolar, 200 Steps/Rev, 28x32mm, 3.8V, 670mA because it was pretty much the first one I saw, but it's within the ballpark of what you need
Design your frame. Or download the attached DXF, it's up to you. Load the DXF into your laser cutter of choice, and run off one copy in 3mm ply, or similar. The file attached will give you all the parts you need, but you need duplicates of a few of parts. As with anything, read all the steps first so you know which parts you need (hint, it's the stepper motor mount, the side panel and the end upright). You'll also need to get rid of the borders.Cut the 1/4" rod to length - you'll need:
1x25mm
1x80mm
1x250mm
Start by assembling the mug mounts - connect the two concave frames together, and then the convex two. Place a circle frame on the end of each to keep it square, and then attach to a piece of your 1/4" rod with a bit of glue - 25mm on the convex one and 80mm on the concave one. You need to file down the last 10mm or so of the 25mm rod to provide a surface for the connector to grip to. Cover the sloped ends of the two mounts with some draft excluder tape, and slide the spring onto the end of the concave mount.