Spin Art - Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2011

I build the first version of my giant spin art back in may after reading build instructions in Make magazine Volume 25.

It work okay but had a few problems. It was direct drive driven and I was worried about burning out the motor. It was scary fast and got unstable as it speeds up.

Three days before Maker Faire I decide to rebuild it. First thing I did was make a new box out of lumber one that I could mount the motor underneath. Then used two pully and a belt to reduce the speed of the motor. I mounted a sheet of thick foam board on top of the center pully. It was much lighter then the wooden board I was using before making it much more stable and safer. I used some plastic fencing, duck tape and paper as a splash guard so people wouldn’t get covered in paint as it spins. The plastic fence worked but looked ugly.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnn8se7L1-I

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Things to change for next year.

• More paper - I purchased 100 sheets of poster board that I cut in half (good quality). As well as a book of painting craft paper with 160 sheets (No as good). For a total of 360 sheets of paper. I was completely out of paper, and things that I could use as paper by noon of the 2nd day. This was good thing as well because it gave me a chance to wonder around the Faire and see what everyone else was making.
• Safety Fence - Three kids fell in to the spin art box! No one was hurt but they did get covered with paint. The plastic splash fence that I used as a splash guard couldn't hold the weight of a child as they reached in to the center to  pore paint on to the board.
• Ugly Splash fence - The thing looked ugly from the outside. It could have easily been fixed up by putting spin art paints all round the outside of the splash fence.
• An assistant - Very important, It was almost impossible to go to the bathroom with a line of children waitting patiently for their turn. I also was trying to get a photo of every child with their spin art but it was impossible while operating the box at the same time.
• A time laps from above - It would have been really interesting to watch the entire thing from a camera mounted above the box doing a time laps with a picture once every 5 secs.