“Dead” pen – a most useful tool

[Shel]

When setting up my EggBot, i do a lot of fiddling with arm height, egg centering, servo up/down position, etc.  I used to mount a Sharpie in the holder, and mickey-mouse the measurements while trying to make sure not to mark the egg.

Turns out, using a “dead” Sharpie makes things a lot simpler.  I built one by ripping the guts out of a Sharpie, trimming its tip a bit, inserting a 1/4″ dowel with toothpick down the body, and clamping the dowel so the toothpick stuck out just the same amount as a Sharpie’s ink tip.

If anybody replies to this asking for more details, I’ll gladly be more specific.  In the meantime, all I can say is that with my work-flow, things are now a lot easier.  I can do all the fiddling I need without worrying about marking the egg.

[Windell Oskay]

Yes indeed! A “dried” sharpie is one of those classic tools that Bruce Shapiro, who invented the EggBot, has often talked about as a helpful piece of equipment for getting things set up and aligned. Thanks for bringing this up again. :)

[Shel]

Probably nobody else needs the adjustable feature, but for me adjustability was the reason for making the tool.

The reason I need it adjustable is because I use an adapter which provides a stop near the tapered pen tip.  Not all pen varieties will stop with their tips at the identical length, so I wanted an adjustable probe.

This might make more sense if I show you my setup, and what I mean by a pen stop:

[Author]

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