Really neat design, I’m surprised by how compact the hardware is overall !
What king of control board do you use ?
Now you need to stick a webcam under that desk 
Thank you. I am using a grbl_esp32 board. The tmc pen plotter. I was thinking about trying to mount one from the wall were the bear picture is.
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Jeff, that is a stunning project! Beautiful result, kudos to the team. 
Makes me want to get back in the game and finish my own project 
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I don’t think I see it in here. How high are your lights above the sand surface? It looks like they are about 1" to the top of the strip from the surface the ball is on.
I guess more importantly what height do you think would be good? I am trying to mock something up and wanted to start with an educated guess for them.
I have about an inch total height between the glass. I think the leds are centered about 3/4" up. I can check the cad later if you like.
No that is okay. I am going to grab some lumber right now. Looking like my table will be just under 5" thick if I use a 1" LED bar. I can start with the lights at the top and move them down if needed. I really do not want to go over 5".
Thank you for offering though.
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Question here… I see you use glass as your bottom surface (where the sand sits) and then of course another piece of glass as the viewing glass flush with the table surface. Correct? Is it necessary to use glass for the sand bed for any reason? Would a thin piece of plywood or luan allow the magnet to move the ball well enough?
I’ll jump in here. Yes thin wood works up to a certain point then it can sag. I would say most tables do it this way.
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Thanks Ryan, sag is definitely my concern. I will just have to experiment. Might also try a sheet of HDPE. I just don’t know where to find glass cut to size readily so that’s why I figured I’d try other options. Although I will need glass anyway for the top…
If you don’t have a local glass shop that does windows and stuff, framing shops will cut glass to size if you’re not comfortable doing it yourself. There’s a significant mark-up, though.
I use plain glass (not borosicate) beds on my 3D printers, and cracked a few when getting things set up, so I’ve gotten pretty adept at cutting squares. It’s not hard once you get a feel for how hard to lean on the cutting wheel. Our local home center carries glass in a variety of sizes up to 24"x36", and the cutting tool was like $3.50.
Wear good heavy gloves and eye protection. I don’t own a torch hot enough to flame polish the edges, but hand-sanding with regular 220-grit emery paper rounded the edges enough that I’m not slicing myself open when I handle the pieces.
Note that this is the “deadly sharp pointy shards when broken” kind of glass I’m talking about. For a table top, I’d strongly consider an impact resistant plexiglass alternative, especially if there are kids in the house. The home center carries that too, but it is also significantly pricier than glass, especially in thicknesses that won’t sag in larger sizes.
You’d want safety glass for the top. Unless it’s a half inch thick, plexi will still sag over time.
Thanks for the info! I didn’t even think to look at the hardware store, I see Lowe’s has glass sheets near by. I am sure I can figure out cutting it myself if need be.
https://youtu.be/hIWfvgDJ3JE is a good overview. The only adjustment I’d make is to put the cutter on your mark, then bring the straightedge to the cutter. The cutting wheel is offset from the edge of the tool, so if you put the straightedge on the line, the cut will be a little bit off.
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Exactly.
These two piece of glass were from the same coffee table we had that wasn’t used.
I also remember buying a piece of glass from a local glass shop. They went out of business but we bought some very large pieces to replace broken ones from a fish tank. It was like $10.
How thick of glass are you all using? And I assume its tempered glass? I got a quote back on the glass i would need to make my 24x24 draw area ZenXY table and the price shocked me…
Mine is about 1/8" thick and about 19x19". It is salvaged, but it doesn’t have a label. So I don’t think it is tempered. It is meant for a coffee table, so I don’t think it is a big deal.
cool trick to see if glass is tempered (bear with me if I make a mistake, its been 11 years since I tried this:
get an LCD screen (polarlized light source) and a pair or polarized sunglasses. Put the possibly-tempered glass between the sunglasses and LCD screen, and look through the sunglasses. Rotate the sunglasses. At a certain angle, no light will be blocked and you can seen the screen. At another angle (I think usually 90 deg), you will be able to see the lines of internal stresses and distortion in the glass. If you see this, it is tempered. If it is NOT tempered, then you will see no light at all.
Tempered:
Not Tempered:
These photos are from testing the panels on a glass fish tank before drilling plumbing lines into the glass.
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My table has a piece of tempered glass that is 759 x 1243 x 4.7 mm and is supported only at the edges. I think it is intended to be placed on a wood desktop to protect the wood and provide a smooth writing surface. I bought two pieces, the same size from someone on Craig’s list for $6 each.
Get creative with parts sourcing!
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Hey Jeff, I’m just building a table very similar to yours, embedded into a coffee bar. Did you by any chance post the files for the angles below your glassplate and the fixtures for your LED strips somewhere? I would love to adapt from them and re-share <3
Yeah… I made them in onshape. I can share that. The actual STLs won’t be that helpful because they are for the erratic hole I made in my counter.
Onshape is free for non commercial use, but they don’t make it obvious when you try to sign up. Let me go grab the link.
It’s definitely a bit of a mess in there. Sorry about that. But if you need any help, ask. And please post more details about your project in a new thread so we can all live through it with you . The table I have is not waterproof enough for a coffee bar, but hopefully you have a plan to fix that.
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