Like many of us, Robert grew up with Spirograph. He’s is also involved in woodworking and wood turning. He has been putting together a pin router system that will cut spirograph designs into many kinds of wood projects.

(If the only kind of router you know is the box that delivers your internet, then you need to understand that there is also a woodworking power tool called a router.)

Carpenters use routers to shape the edges of boards. Routers can be hand held or mounted in a table, allowing you to move the wood rather than the machine.

A pin router adds a simple guiding system to the router table. The pin, aligned with the router bit, enables you to quickly and accurately copy complex patterns and shapes from a template into a piece of wood. Guitar makers and small shop furniture makers use pin routers for accurate, repeated cuts. (Learn more about them here if you’re interested.)

Enter Spirograph, and Robert Roehrig’s pin router.

He found that the die-cast metal Spirograph (which I reviewed here) is able to do things that plastic pieces are too flimsy for. (Plus, it looks cool.)

You can see that he has screwed the ring to a “sled” which he can move freely with his hands. A piece of wood is attached to the underside of the sled with double-sided tape. As he moves the sled, the wood is engraved by the router bit. The pin, visible on the top, is aligned with the router bit. Because he can’t see what’s happening, he has to trust that every movement of the sled is transferred to the wood.

When he inserts the pin in a pen hole in the Spirograph wheel, and he slowly moves the sled around while keeping the gears engaged, the router bit carves out a spirograph pattern in the wood below.

“It’s like doing Spirograph in reverse,” he says.

This next photo shows the router bit beneath the table. You can see how it lines up with the pin on top.

Here (above) it looks like he has put another piece of plastic on top of the ring that keeps the inside wheel from jumping out – a hazard familiar to anyone who has used a Spirograph.

Finally, here are some little Square Bottles he turned, sporting medallions made with the spirograph unit.

I hope to hear more from Robert about his explorations. I’ll continue to share them here.

The post Carving Spirograph Patterns into Wood with a Pin Router appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

And we all know, here on SpirographicArt.com, that Spirograph is a Classic Toy. Nice to have the Royal Mail acknowledge it too.

Actually, they have every reason to be proud of it. Spirograph was developed and first marketed by a British engineer, Denys Fisher, and hit the stores in 1965. Kenner acquired the rights for the the American market and started distributing Spirograph in the USA in 1966.

The first patent on spirograph was, according to Wikipedia, registered by a Polish mathematician and inventor, Bruno Abakanowicz, but I have not seen any pictures of his invention. It may have been nothing like Denys Fisher’s plastic gears and wheels which we know and love.

You can purchase the stamp, along with those of the other Classic Toys, on the Royal Mail website here.

PS: Thanks to Jason from New Zealand for the heads-up about this stamp!

The post The Royal Mail Honours Spirograph with New Stamp appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

Lego Technic spirograph machine by PG52

Whether or not you’re a Lego aficionado, you might find this mechanism for drawing a spirograph-like design intriguing. Technically it’s not a hypotrochoid like a spirograph pattern produced inside a ring. Rather, it’s a pintograph, produced by a pen held by two mechanical arms attached to rotating wheels – a variation of a harmonograph which is produced by a pendulum mechanism. This Lego pintograph, however, has a rotating table, so it produces a radially-symmetrical design – like a hypotrochoid. By controlling the speed of the rotation, as well as the lengths of the arms, many different designs can be produced.

The builder goes by the name of PG52, and he’s apparently French. His machine went through several generations. Below I’ll show his videos for Version 4 and Version 5. Narration of the first is in French but there are English subtitles. If you’re into LEGO Technic and can read French, you may be interested in what he shared on a LEGO Technic forum at http://www.techlug.fr/Forum/topic7691-30.html – or just examine the pictures.

Merci PG52, où que tu sois.

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Nathan is a math teacher as well as a father and an inventor – and quite the artist as well, especially when his chosen medium is pancake batter.

After some trial and error, he has figured out how to make a working spirograph mechanism for drizzling out pancake batter in a hypotrochoid pattern in a frying pan.

You can buy the plans for his “Pangraph” on his website and make one for yourself if you have the tools and skills.

His videos are funny, too. Scroll down for more, and check out his YouTube channel for more silliness.

The post Spirocakes! appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

Any parallels with how you use spirograph?

Psst: in the video they’re using Stabilo 88 pens, the kind I like for Spirograph.

The post Mandalas (and spirograph?) appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

Tony Orrico explores the geometry of the body and the creation of geometric figures that Spirograph lovers will recognize as somehow related to the beloved toy. Here are a couple of videos. There are more videos on his website, TonyOrrico.com.

The post Tony Orrico, the Human Spirograph Machine appeared first on SpiroGraphicArt.

“Your eyes won’t believe what your hands have done.”
“So much fun you’ll never want to stop.”

Introducing Super Spirograph:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9mrNm5PIEE

Spiromania, 1973, with a “live” band, promoting regular and Super Spirograph:

Spirograph Plus, with the extra arm, from the 1980s:

Much later, a commercial for the stunted version of Spirograph that was sold before the latest version came out – warning: this is in Dutch!

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