DIY: A latte art printing machine!

I posted on bread laser printing, fruit printing, computer etching, 3d printing your own guitar, printing your clothing (a next step for TUI), and also about the secret-spying marks left by your printer as you print!

Today, I found this wacky and so cooool tutorial on how to make your own latte art printing machine. Oleskiy Pikalo wanted art work on his latte, so he bought a x-y flatbed plotter (Philips 8155) on eBay and a great book by Matt Gilliland: “Inkjet Applications”!

Here is the result, see the video!



He offers a tutorial on how to build something like this, here you go, so you need (I quote him):

1) An old flatbed plotter (in my case it was Philips 8155) - make sure it has real x-y translation stage. Your best bet is to perform a search on eBay for flatbed plotter. On a good day, you may get a decent fully working plotter for under 100$. I got mine for 175$ with shipping, because I wanted A3 format for later use, and a bunch of pens.

2) Most old plotters connect through GPIB/Serial interface -mine connected through GPIB interface, so I needed a GPIB card, which I also got on eBay. I got my card for around 30$, because the one I purchased was not a popular kind (LTP1 - GPIB).

3) Matt Gilliland’s book Inkjet Applications. It looks like Parallax has this fabulous kit on 40% sale for 59.95$

4) A small 12V relay (my plotter lowers pen by applying 12V to the solenoid). This relay will enable the stream of ink from the inkjet cartridge.

5 ) Edible ink - preferably brown. You can work with coffee directly instead of ink, but the contrast is not as good as wwith ink. Again, I got mine on eBay.

Good luck!

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure
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More on Theo Jansen

I recently posted on Theo Jansen for his giant kinetic sculptures, always elegant, massive and impressive with their ability to be eco friendly at the same time than resembling apocalyptic robots. Yesterday, Laura Galloway, from the TED conference, offered me to exhibit the 8 min video Theo Jansen's talk at the TED conference. The video is a must see.




Theo Jansen
From TED2007

Talk summary
Dutch artist Theo Jansen demonstrates his amazingly lifelike kinetic sculptures, built from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles. His "Strandbeests" (Beach Creatures) are built to move and even survive on their own.

Bio
Dutch artist Theo Jansen has been working for 16 years to create sculptures that move on their own in eerily lifelike ways. Each generation of his "Strandbeests" is subject to the forces of evolution, with successful forms moving forward into new designs. Jansen's vision and long-term commitment to his wooden menagerie is as fascinating to observe as the beasts themselves. His newest creatures walk without assistance on the beaches of Holland, powered by wind, captured by gossamer wings that flap and pump air into old lemonade bottles that in turn power the creatures' many plastic spindly legs. The walking sculptures look alive as they move, each leg articulating in such a way that the body is steady and level. They even incorporate primitive logic gates that are used to reverse the machine's direction if it senses dangerous water or loose sand where it might get stuck.

Laser printing on bread

Might be a little expensive, but would not that be cool to have a giant CNC machine print your most awesome pictures on toast every morning? Found on ComputerWorld.

Portable bubble wrap

Found on geek student this unlimited popping action portable device created by Bandai that even rewards you with a new sound after 100 pops!