February 2012

EggBot Makes an Ornament

I first saw the EggBot in action at MakerFaire and then waited to get in the queue to get one as Evil Mad Science prepared the kit for sale (just as I await their Digi-Comp II now).  As I was just getting started, I went through a lot of ping pong balls -- which were ideal to practice on although a bit small.  I later moved on to ornaments and eggs.  My first original design for an ornament was motivated by my daughter's kindergarten science teacher.  She taught her class a photosynthesis song she'd written.  So I put elements of sun and rain along with leaves on the ornament and then spiral-wrapped the words to the song around it. My daughter gave it to her as a gift and I emailed a link of the video of it being made.  The ornament itself is one of "unbreakable" plastic and takes ink well.  I used a total of five colors.

The video shows the ornament being made -- I only edited out the pen changes.
As I sometimes transport my EggBot, I made a case for it (just as I did for my somewhat larger MakerBot). I used a Pelican 1450 case with Pick 'N Pluck foam. There's enough room for a box of pens as well.  I just tuck the power supply, USB cables, and any other supplies in the interior of the bot.  I'm always on the look out for interesting round objects for the EggBot to decorate.   ;-)
If you'd like to make your own, here's the SVG file for the ornament plot: photosynthesis2.svg