AxiDraw Pantograph

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Mike Jacobs added a pantograph to his AxiDraw to multiply its size range.

Not content with that, he doubled it.

Bigger!!! I extended the extension—now it’s a double pantograph!! The #axidraw #plotter draws ~8.5×12” out of the box. My pantograph increases that to 45×58”. The precision has gone hell and there’s some warping—

Continuing the saga,

Increasing unpredictability! I added a swiveling mini roller. Now I really have no clue what a finished piece will look like, and there’s a good chance that no two pieces will look alike.

It is always exciting to see what creative things people do with an AxiDraw!

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Science Hack Day SF

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I will be at Science Hack Day SF giving a lightning talk on Creative Off-Label Tool Use featuring some of the cool and unusual ways people are using AxiDraw and other tools we make. I’ll also have an AxiDraw in the hardware hacking area to play with.

Science Hack Day is October 27-28 and is free, so register now!

P.S. If you’re doing something interesting and science or research related with your AxiDraw, please let me know!

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Fall Open House

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Evil Mad Scientist Sign

You’re invited to our annual open house!

When: Saturday, November 10, 4 pm to 8 pm
Where: Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
1285 Forgewood Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089

You can see the MOnSter 6502 in action, check out an AxiDraw demonstration, maybe meet Zener the cat (she’s not fond of parties), do some shopping if the mood strikes, and share in food and conversation.

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Invisible Ink with AxiDraw

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Joanie LeMercier has been working on a project using invisible ink and different lighting schemes with the AxiDraw. He has posted a bunch of clips and pictures in his twitter stream with the heading “Invisible drawing.”

Head over to the thread where you can see more progress shots as well as completed drawings.

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Lady Ada Lovelace Day 2018

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Julie interviewing Rachel at Maker Faire NY
For Ada Lovelace Day this year, I would like to celebrate a group of young women in science, technology and making who are celebrating and uplifting each other. I had the privilege of seeing some of them at Maker Faire New York this year, and I find their optimism and strength to be inspiring.

Check out their twitter feeds, their youtube channels, and especially the connections they make. It is awesome to see these young women making a difference in the world right now.

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Linkdump: September 2018

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Maker Faire New York 2018 Photos

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We’re back from Maker Faire New York, where we had an amazing time and took a bunch of pictures. Here are a few highlights:

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A wonderful Audrey II puppet.

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Flexible Arduino compatible “board”.

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The latest in maker materials experimentation.

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Digital apples.

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And musical robots.

There was so much more, and you can explore more pictures are in our flickr album!

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The AxiDraw SE/A3

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AxiDraw SE/A3

We’re very pleased to introduce a new member of the AxiDraw family: the special edition AxiDraw SE/A3. This new model joins our existing models including the AxiDraw V3 and AxiDraw V3/A3.

Like the AxiDraw V3/A3, the AxiDraw SE/A3 has an XY travel suitable for use paper up to 11×17″/A3 size. However, in place of the central extrusion that makes up the body of that machine, the AxiDraw SE/A3 has a central beam that is CNC machined from a solid billet of 6061-T6 aluminum, and then anodized to a sleek black finish.

This heavy, rigid structure — it’s a solid block of metal! — provides dramatically better straightness and stiffness, even compared to the already-stiff AxiDraw V3/A3. This design adds mass exactly where you want it: to the non-moving base that forms the X-axis of the machine. In order to keep the weight light where it matters, the moving Y-axis of the AxiDraw SE/A3 uses the same stiff and light custom aluminum extrusion that we use on the AxiDraw V3/A3.

We made a video showing off the SE/A3, and how it’s made:

The AxiDraw SE/A3 is available to order now at the Evil Mad Scientist shop.

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CMYK Portraits with AxiDraw

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Spongenuity has been posting some wonderful portraits made with AxiDraw on instagram, including some CMYK ones like the one below.

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