Whether or not you feel the need to laser cut custom drink coasters, you have to be impressed by the amount of thought that went into Coasty.
They say that justice is blind, and while we can’t promise you anything at your next court date, we can at least say with confidence that we’re not the kind of people who will turn down a good hack just because it’s held together with rubber bands and positive vibes. If it works it works, and it doesn’t matter what it looks like. Having said that, we’re blown away by how incredibly finished this particular project is.
Coasty, designed and built by [Bart Dring] is one of those projects that elevate a hack into something that looks like it could be a commercial product. It takes in a common pulpboard coaster and laser cuts any design you want. It’s just the right size, with just the right components because this is Coasty’s purpose. It has a slot to feed in the coaster, and uses this as one of the axes during the laser cutting process, with the laser’s left to right movement as the other. This method makes for a smaller overall footprint and means you never need to open the protective enclosure for normal operation.
One of the most striking elements of Coasty is how much of the hardware is 3D printed. If it isn’t a motor, smooth rod, or other mechanical component, it’s printed. We’re used to seeing 3D printed parts as brackets or mounts, but rarely do you see an entire chassis printed like this. Not only does it take a serious amount of forethought and design, but the print time itself can be quite prohibitive.
But by designing and printing the majority of Coasty, it really gives it a professional look that would have been harder to achieve if it was a bundle of aluminum extrusions.
The back of Coasty features an exposed PCB “motherboard” with a dizzying array of plug-in boards. Hardware like the stepper drivers, Bluetooth radio, and laser power supply are separate modules for ease of maintenance and development. There’s a few neat hardware features integrated into the motherboard as well, like the IR sensor for detecting the edge of the coaster.
The printed filter is an especially nice touch. Containing a scrap of commercially available carbon cloth intended for home air filters, Coasty is able to cut down on the smoke that is invariably produced when blasting cardboard with a 3W 450nm laser.
It turns out that custom drink coasters are serious business for some hackers out there. This isn’t the first time somebody has gone all out to make their mark while simultaneously preventing marks.
Coasters, intended to protect your fancy wood table from dripping condensation on the outside of cold drink glasses. Then you cut them full of holes that defeat the purpose of the coaster.
A useful purpose for this machine would be making custom painting stencils. Cut a bunch of letters, including narrowing the coaster for proper kerning, then tape them all together in a line. Mount onto the surface of something then carefully spritz with paint.
True. But since they are cut from very absorptive pulpboard, they would tend to suck up the liquid by capillary action. So while you do reduce your level of protection, it’s probably not by much.
just put an uncut coaster underneath the cut coaster and that problem is solved.
I really like the effort put into this device, very well done. Great project.
Perhaps it could be adjusted to only mark the coaster rather than cut all the way through.
Where is the coin slot?!?!
I’m now struggling to get the red dwarf toasty toaster out of my head. I’d love to see a voice modual added to this. Constantly asking if you’d like a coaster… Coaster? Maybe one with a meem on it, a cat maybe? No, ah, more of a dog person, how about a coaster with a puppy on it…
My first thought on reading the title: “Coasty’s the name, coaster’s the game!”
lol. Will it come with a large, wooden mallet?
I was expecting something to toast bread.
As for the complaint about holes the defeating the purpose, the answer is obvious. Cut holes in a piece of one color and bond it to a whole piece of another color for a two tone effect.
I like that PCB, how it’s the entire back plate and has slots cut where needed.
My first thought reading article title was this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRq_SAuQDec