Evil Mad Scientist Labs have updated their beloved open-source hardware Eggbot, a plotter that draws on curved surfaces, with a new all-metal model called the Eggbot Pro.

Tomorrow, 3/14, is Pi Day in the USA (it will not be Pi Day in the rest of the world until the Martian Emperor subjugates us all to his sinister 14-month calendar). In celebration, Thingiverse user Thor4231 posted this great Eggbot design, ready to be automatically sharpied onto your favorite ovum by means of the wonderful Eggbot printer. — Read the rest

The Evil Mad Scientists were presented with a challenge: inscribe one of Cliff Stoll's hand-blown Klein bottles, an object of surpassing beauty and odd topology. They modified an Eggbot plotter to etch the surface of a Klein bottle with a diamond engraver attachment.

Thingiverse member Dnewman has produced some nutritional templates for Eggbot owners (Eggbots are devices designed to print on eggs, ping-pong balls, grapefruit, etc). Clever!

Dnewman's solution is beyond elegant. Why not just print the nutritional information right on the produce using an Eggbot??

Evil Mad Scientist Labs sell a bunch of cool open source hardware kits for making plotters — basically, a very precise robot arm that draws with whatever pen or marker you screw into its grip. There's the Eggbot (for drawing on curved surfaces like eggs, balloons and balls), but there's also the Axidraw, which works on flat surfaces.

"No computer graphics tricks were used in this video," writes Jiri Zemanek of Czech Technical University in Prague.

Various patterns are generated in MATLAB using mathematical equations similar to ones describing Spirograph (or harmonograph) and Phyllotaxis. The patterns are calculated in such a way that when rotated under a stroboscopic light of suitable frequency or when recorded by a camera, they start to animate.

The Mug Marker is a Don McRae's cardboard mug-decorating robot that uses an Eggbot-style EBB controller board and stepper motors to draw precise patterns on your favorite coffee-mug. Lenore from Evil Mad Scientists has a writeup on the design process and the way it performs.

I really, really love the fact that this Instructable starts off with "Step 1: Obtain squid."

It's also incredibly cool that these instructions aren't just about collecting the squid ink. Instead, you're being taught how to save the ink from a squid that you're planning on cooking. — Read the rest

Instructables user Bbstudio has been doing some extraordinary egg carving for the Eggbot Easter challenge. This carved-away goose egg is probably the most physically impressive, though there's a lot more aesthetically pleasing (if less improbable) designs in his portfolio.

BBStudio

(via Neatorama)

Scott Bedford bent and twisted a fork to make a snaggletoothed egg-cup. I have a friend who has a mild phobia of bent fork-tines, this would drive him crazy (and I have to admit, there is something somehow unwholesome about such a grotesquely distorted bit of cutlery!). — Read the rest