Kevin's ZenXY table

The shadow I’m worried about it really the edges, not the shadows from the peaks.

This is a cross section of the top I’m designing for my table. The LEDs are going in the cyan layer.

I’m using these lights. I connected them to a fan control on the Duet with a buck to drop the voltage from 19.5v to 12v. I’m able to dim them by controlling the “fan speed” in 5% increments. I think they look best at their brightest (12v) setting though. I considered color changing LEDs but the wife didn’t like the idea of any color light other than warm white. And the plan is to put this in a living space, so … white it is.

From the top of the stepper to the bottom of the top glass, I have 3 1/8". The black flashing holding the glass is 3/32" thick and the glass holding the soda is 3/16" thick. My magnet is about 1/8" from the bottom surface of the lower glass. I’m using a 1/2" ball and I have room for up to 3/4". Is this what you’re looking for? Let me know if misinterpreted your question. In the end, I wanted to keep the top panel (vertical section of wood) as thin as possible. Hope this helps!

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My lights are mounted on all 4 sides, about 3 inches “deep” (i.e. under the aluminum angle). They’re mounted vertically pointing inward but as high as I could get them – essentially butting up against the angle aluminum, which holds the glass. The under side of the aluminum is bright white, so it helps reflect quite a bit of light. Also, you have to get quite low to see the actual bulbs. Here’s a quick video I just took so you can see just how far down you’d have to be to see the actual LEDs.

And here are a few more designs I drew to show the lighting effect…




Spiral erase

Engine turn

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Would it help coating tubes on the inside with plastidip or similar?

Kevin,

I’m planing on replicating your build as closely as possible. I think it looks great. Do you have any additional documentation/photos that you could share?

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Unbelievable !!! beautiful work…
This only makes me want to build one…
Thank you for sharing.

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Tommy - Thanks. I’m happy to share my build process. But unfortunately, I did not document this build as well as I probably should have. Much of the designs / measurements were done with a pencil and paper. Here’s an album with some pictures of the mechanism and configuration. These pictures were taken of the first iteration which was a bit crude compared to what it is today. As noted above, I changed a few things - used a rubber glass-corded belt instead of a polyurethane steel-corded belt, for example. I also omitted the duct tape :roll_eyes: , added sound dampening and sealed off the bottom to help with noise (and keep hands away).

I did model some of this in Fusion 360 to be able to mill certain pieces - the brackets holding the pulleys, brackets holding the linear rods, etc. It’s more of a collection of sketches than a full blown model, but might be helpful for relative measurements. Happy to share this as well if it’s something you’d find useful.

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The solid oak frame is wicked! :open_mouth:
Georgeous build… I am more than just slightly jealous. Would love to have one of these in our meeting room at work :+1:

I always thought you reroute belts around corners either “flat-on-flat” or “cogs-on-cogs”. You seem to be doing fine by having “cogs-on-flat” turns of 90°. Any specific reason you’re not using pulleys?

Thanks, Roman.

No specific reason. I used standard 608 bearings I had left over from another project. The only downside to using them in a “teeth on flats” configuration is potential “zipping” noise. Mark commented on this above - he twisted his belt to avoid this. I haven’t experienced any noise issues, but I’m also running about 100-125mm / sec.

Thanks, I was wondering about the noise and/or rattling of the setup. Mark’s table is at warp speed, so I can imagine that “teeth on flats” would not work for him :smiley:

Really really beautiful work! I stuck to the round table I had seen from Shapiro, but if I ever get to building an XY setup, I’ll be aiming for it to be like yours :+1:

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Hey, not sure if it was mentioned but what did you use for the sand base? Mine is going to be a similar size and im stuck on what to use. I see some people are using hardwood, steel sheets, or glass. Do you think regular glass would suffice as it is only holding the “sand”? Tempered glass is expensive in my area.

Thanks in advance!

Regular glass will work. Just don’t have any drunken parties around the table. They use tempered glass for tables because it shatters into beads instead of shards.

If you’re paranoid, but cheap/poor, maybe some inexpensive window tinting film or vinyl masking sheet/frisket film could be a way to alleviate some concern. That way, if the glass does crack, it’ll at least have something holding it together (and hopefully, you’ll notice the crack before the film gives out), and you won’t have shards of glass and piles of sand under your table. Worst case, carefully cover the glass with clear packing tape, laid edge to edge. :slight_smile:

Heck, for hurricane season, we’d just put big 'X’s of masking tape on the windows before starting to drink ahead of the storm surge…

Thin painted plywood under the sand. 1/4" glass on top. Probably pretty safe since the glass is completely supported with a box to catch it if it ever breaks. A piece of cast acrylic would make a good top.

Or just leave it open so you can touch the sand, put your magazines on the surround :grinning:

I’m using 3/16" untempered glass to hold up the soda. Actually, it’s a mirror. I cut it from a piece I had left over after a bathroom remodel. Turned out to be a good idea - the LEDs under the flashing reflect back up off the mirror (i.e. the border without soda).

The top glass is 1/4", also untempered. About $50. The glass store talked me into it - they said table tops are usually untempered, although I’m not sure if that’s entirely true. I’ve made a few custom windows and doors, and I’ve used tempered glass for those projects, although that’s mandated by code.

Kevin,

What is the black material that you are using to “mask” the outer border of the table, and how is it secured?

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Tommy,

It’s aluminum, 3/32" thick bent at a right angle. I ordered it from a siding supply / manufacturer near me. Four lengths of about 48" and I cut the miters myself. I think I paid $50 for the aluminum lengths. It came painted bronze, but I ended up painting them black to match the frame. One leg of the angle is 3 3/8" (the leg that holds the glass) and the other leg is 5/8", although I don’t recall exactly. I attached it with screws through the short leg into the oak frame. I had to shim a bit to get the frame to sit square to the wood (the aluminum break was a bit more than 90 degrees).

I had a few pencil sketches of the cross section, but I can’t find them at the moment. I’ll keep looking.

Hope this helps.

Kevin

Edit: Correction - the short leg of the aluminum is 7/8"

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Found a sketch of the cross section. Hope this helps.

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You call that a sketch? I call that a 1:1 engineering drawing!

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