Utilizing an previous printer to create natural pottery

Conventional pottery has been round for a lot of hundreds of years and is thought for the blending, shaping, and baking of clay so as to create suave gadgets. Instruments such because the pottery wheel and kiln are iconic, and Guillermo Perez Guillen needed to make a pottery wheel of his personal that might not solely be cheap, but in addition work with natural cornstarch-based mediums as a substitute of clay.

Guillen began his challenge by discovering an previous printer and eradicating the outside and paper tray, leaving simply the horizontal rail and base. From right here, he added a potentiometer on the aspect that allows the person to manage how briskly the wheel under rotates. When it comes to electronics, the platter was taken from a CD participant and its motor is pushed by a single TB6612FNG dual-motor driver. On the again is an Arduino Mega 2560, which is chargeable for studying the analog output of the potentiometer and mapping it to an 8-bit velocity that may be outputted through a PWM sign to the motor driver.

The “clay” Guillen got here up with is a mix of cornstarch, water, salt, and glue that enables it to carry its form when being shaped and whereas drying. To see a number of the creations he has made to date, you’ll be able to watch the demo movies under or check out his write-up right here on Hackaday.io.