Sure is coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere. But it can also be beautiful — drag a small ball through it in a controlled manner you can make some really pretty patterns. That’s precisely what this compact build from [Printerforge] does.

The build relies on an ESP32 as the brains of the operation. It employs small 28BYJ-48 motors to run the motion platform. These were chosen as they operate on 5 V, simplifying the build by allowing everything to run off a single power supply. Along with a bunch of 3D printed parts, the motors are assembled into motion system with linear rods and belts in a CoreXY layout, chosen for speed and precision. It’s charged with moving a small magnet to drag a ball bearing through the sand to draw patterns under the command of G-code generated with the Sandify tool.

We’ve seen some great sand table builds over the years. Some use polar coordinate systems, while others repurpose bits of 3D printers. If you’ve got a creative new way of doing it, don’t hesitate to let us know!