Polar Coaster Drawing Machine

thingiverse

This is the Polar Coaster Drawing Machine. It was designed as a demonstration of polar kinematics. This version draws things on round drink coasters. Blank drink coasters are available from many suppliers including Amazon.com. The bed has little "fingers" that securely hold the coasters without any need for clamping. Check out the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_aS0PbP8HY You can use most 3 axis CAM programs to generate the GCode. You then run the GCode though a pre-processor that converts it to polar coordinates. This allows it to use basic CNC firmware. The firmware thinks it is running a standard 3 axis Cartesian machine. You can use just any CNC controller that supports at least 2 axes and a servo. I use [my pen/laser controller](https://www.tindie.com/products/33366583/penlaser-bot-controller/) and the base has mounts for it. Other people have used 3D printer controllers like RAMPS. I have written a few blog post regarding this machine. * [The Polar Coaster – A Drink Coaster Drawing Machine](http://www.buildlog.net/blog/2017/08/the-polar-coaster-a-drink-coaster-drawing-machine/) * [Polar Pen Machine Kinematics](http://www.buildlog.net/blog/2017/08/polar-pen-machine-kinematics/) * [A Polar Pre-Processor for the Pen Bot Written in Python](http://www.buildlog.net/blog/2017/08/a-polar-pre-processor-for-the-pen-bot-written-in-python/) [Polar Coaster Updates](http://www.buildlog.net/blog/2017/10/polar-coaster-updates/) I printed everything with standard settings on a TAZ 6. The only part that requires support is the radial axis carriage. You can buy the GT2 pulleys or print them. If you are adventurous, you can print the polar belt. I recommend PolyFlex from PolyMaker because it is the least stretchy flex filament I have foound.