I’m planning on building a mechanical drawing machine. I’ve been considering two general approaches, one is a motorized mechanical machine primarily made of metal while the other is a pendulum based, gravity driven device primarily made of wood. I’m currently leaning towards the motorized version.

Examples of drawing machines at work

Five Specifications:

1. Adjustable drawing geometry. I want each drawing to be individual if I so choose
2. Not messy – I’d like this to be clean and tidy
3. Able to use multiple pens or pencils – modular
4. I’d like the aesthetic assuming it’s metal to look clean, ie no left over labeling on metals and atleast scotchbrited finishes.
5. Doesn’t need to have the motor functional – if the rest of the mechanics works, the motor can come later.

Five Constraints:

1. Not too large, I don’t have much space to store it.
2. I don’t have a lot of free cash for this, and with machined parts and a motor I think it would be easy to exceed the budget I’ve been planning on of around $150. I’m hoping I can do machining myself, and use left over stock from the lab I work in.
3. I think I’m a little constrained by not having good access to a machine shop locally. I may be able to use the idea forge or similar though which could help.
4. I’m limited in my skillset on getting motor systems to work. I understand alot of the mechanical part but lack skills in the motors. Perhaps the electronics lab can help with this?
5. I’m honestly fairly time constrained as well. Work and school are very intense right now, and I don’t have time to design and machine 20 components so this will be a balancing act.