As I paint 3 paintings for the backers eacha week, I am also making mock-ups of the new robotic head that I will be adding to the robot. Above is the first mock-up. I put it together only to realize that there were lots of problems with the design. But thats cool 'cause I have a whole load of friends looking at this and helping iron things out - and that part is turning out to be more fun than expected.
The main problem with this design that I didn't see until I built the mock-up is that half of the airbrushes would be upside down when mounted on my robot at a 45 degreen angle. So only 3 of the airbrushed would really work correctly. I need 5 at a minimum.
Also I showed the design to my friend and colleague Mark, the same one who I mentioned in previous post that printed his own 3D printer. He suggested I make each airbrush holder modular - and have them snap together when ready to paint. Have I mentioned he also has done work at NASA - so I take his advice really seriously and really like the concept of a modular robotic head that snaps together. It would make swapping colors really fast and easy, maybe color changes can even be done robotically if we design it right.
Another cool thing about Mark is that he is into sharing all of this. So we spoke briefly and decided that when we came up with a design and plans, we would post it on our site so anyone could build their own version of whatever we come up with.
Will try and get another mock-up done this week and post it along with the next set of paintings in schedule next week.