AMR Software
AMR Data Centers

3D Printed Polar Drawbot Can Make You a Modern Day Michelangelo

Share this Article

13

[Image Attribution: Stephen (kongorilla) Kongsle] Kongorilla’s work was among the inspirations for Carlo’s design

Carlo Franciscone, an Italian engineer from Novara, has done a redesign of the mechanical parts used to build a wall-mounted Polar Drawbot based on work he’s seen by others on the web, and the result is one of those “take my money” items.

In case you’re not familiar with the concept, a Polar Drawbot is a polargraph mural drawing robot intended to teach students about programming, physics, trigonometry, and electronics. The Makelangelo iteration of the device is essentially an “art robot” which hangs on a vertical surface and, with nearly the same technology as a 3D printer, uses a pen holder, software, steppers, and motor mounts to trace out an image of your choosing. Software converts PNG, JPG, BMP, and GIF images to the instructions to draw the finished product, and as an added bonus, includessupport for DXF files.

ghizmo_drawbot_25_preview_featured

Franciscone says the electronics and firmware come from the Makelangelo project using version V1 of the Adafruit motor shield, he used a DK Electronics motor shield for his project. As for Makelangelo, it’s also scalable and the project team say test models have ranged from being capable of drawings from 30cm2 to 300cm2.

After several test trials using parts he had close at hand, Franciscone found that none seemed to match his requirements closely enough for his taste, so he began to completely redesign each and every part to put his personal stamp on the device.

ghizmo_drawbot_010_preview_featuredFranciscone says the testing revealed he would need three separate types of pulleys: one used for smooth cords and the others to take on the task of moving the power through a synchronous transmission he made with ball chains.

For his project, he used 3.2mm all metal chain with a pitch of 4mm, 4.4mm plastic ball and cord with a pitch of 6mm, and a plastic ball and cord of 4.4mm with 12mm pitch.

He says that while the various chains can be used interchangeably, the pulley diameters in the machine setup must be changed as well to avoid results which mess up the aspect ratio of the finished drawings. As a counterweight, Franciscone used a “D” type battery past it’s prime and a holder he made to to hang it.

He says his parts were inspired, to a large extent, by work done on a similar project by fellow Thingiverse user Kongorilla. You can see Kongorilla’s photos of the project, as well as a whole bunch of very cool other projects, on his Flickr photo stream.

And by all means, check out this interview with Dan Royer of Marginally Clever below.

Can you see yourself building this Polar Drawbot based on the Makelangelo version by Dan Royer? Let us know in the Polar Drawbot forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the video below showing the drawbot in action.

ghizmo_drawbot_13_preview_featured

ghizmo_drawbot_22_preview_featured

 



Share this Article


Recent News

3D Printed Skin: Australia Leads the World with Breakthrough Trial in Sydney

Will the Slate Truck Usher in a New Era of 3D Printing Car Customization?



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

Sponsored

AMT Shakes Up 3D Printing Market with Affordable, High-Performance Post-Processing Consumables

Additive Manufacturing Technologies (AMT), a global leader in automated 3D printing post-processing, is launching a new line of consumables that promises to significantly reduce operational costs for additive manufacturing users....

The Bambu Lab 3D Printing Platform… or Trapdoor?

Bambu Lab began as a completely closed 3D printing system, where the printer, software, and materials all functioned well but were exclusively from the company itself. This approach mirrored Formlabs,...

2025 Renault 5 E-Tech Electric Is Latest Car with 3D Printed Accessories 

Due to the required numbers, additive manufacturing (AM) has struggled to make significant inroads into vehicle interiors in meaningful numbers—at least as far as public knowledge is concerned. Typically an...

Featured

BMW Completes Project to Automate Plastic 3D Printing

After a three-year journey to efficiently scale polymer 3D printed part production, the POLYLINE project has concluded. This endeavor, headquartered at BMW’s Additive Manufacturing Campus, pooled the expertise of EOS,...