To create our device, we decided to use laser-cut wood as the main material for our device mainly because the design required a large number of parts and 3D printing would not be feasible due to time constraints. Laser cutting allows for quick iteration on design, and this became very important as we had to change an important part of the design halfway through the building phase of the project. We mainly used 0.25” wood for our laser-cut parts as it is stronger, but we also used some 0.125” wood in places where the thinner material would help save space and strength was not imperative.
We 3D printed several key components in the design, such as the track for the follower to roll along or small mounting components, as their geometry was difficult to create out of flat sheets of material. For hardware, we used a variety of M4 and M5 bolts and nuts to secure each component. We designed certain fasteners in compact locations so we used smaller sized bolts there, and we used long bolts to secure multiple components together such as the lazy susan and gear assemblies. To simplify our design and manufacturing process, we utilized prebuilt shaft mounts and linear bearing mount blocks; the solidworks models we used are shown below. Using these meant we did not have to design and manufacture our own versions of these and could just design to the existing, robust part.