DIY Praxinoscope for Simple Animations

Hello! My name is Jonathan Siddoway and as a volunteer at Jack's Urban Meeting Place (JUMP) I was asked to create a fully functional Praxinoscope for the Idaho Film Fair event JUMP is hosting.

This Instructable will show the design process and steps of creation! First off, a little history, the "Praxinoscope" is one of the original forms of animation, invented in 1879, it was the successor to the "Zoetrope". It works as an animation is placed on an outer ring which spins with a cylinder of mirrors at the center.

Watching through the mirrors as the device is spun makes your animation come to life!

Materials you will need:

27"x16"x.75" Wood Plank (For Wooden Base and Table)

Lubricated Lazy Susan

1/2"-13 Thread Size, 12" Long Threaded Rod with Hex Nuts

24" x 24" x 1/8" Mirrored Acrylic Sheet

24" x 24" Foam Mesh Sheet

1/4" Flat Head Phillips Screws

Black PLA Filament

Tools you will need:

3D Printer

CNC Machine

Laser Engraver

Table Saw

Angle Grinder & Cut Off Wheel

Table Mounted Vice

Drill (with Drill Bits & Philips Head)

Software Used:

Fusion 360

Adobe Illustrator

PrusaSlicer

Photoshop

JUMP's Make Team helped with the original concepts and ideas of how to design a Praxinoscope in a simple, repeatable process. What we landed on was an outwards-angled cone of mirrors that would reflect the picture animations on the table below.

I designed it entirely in Fusion 360 and imported parts from McMaster-Carr to ensure the design would function as intended. Many parts of the Praxinoscope went through many iterations to make alignment, creation, and ease of use better.

The Design includes: (in order from bottom to top)

Wooden Base (Created using CNC)

Lazy Susan (Ordered Online)

Wooden Table (Created using CNC)

Mirror Cone Base (Created using 3D Printing)

Mirrored Acrylic Panes (Created using Laser Engraving)

Mirror Cone Support (Created using 3D Printing)

Threaded Rod (Ordered Online)

All of the parts that are custom were made with their method of creation in mind, from The Mirror Cone Support avoiding steep overhangs, to the Wooden Base being completely made with one endmill on our CNC.

The Praxinoscope is made with the intent to slot together easily from Top to Bottom, to be durable under heavy use, and to easily telegraph its purpose to those passing by during public events.

With the design done, the next step is creating the physical parts. The first part we are going to make is the Mirrored Acrylic Panes.

This was created using a Laser Engraver as it is easily able to cut and etch acrylic without being destructive to the material.

I used an Epilog Laser Fusion M2 Laser Engraver, Fusion 360 for the Designs, and Adobe Illustrator to run the code.

Here are the steps!

1. Open Fusion and create simple lines for the engraver to follow and cut out
2. Right click on your SKETCH and select "Export DXF"
3. Select "Save" after renaming and ensuring the file is saving as a DXF.

(The file below shows empty because it is only a sketch)

1. In Illustrator, create a new page size preset with the dimensions of your Laser Engraver Bed
2. Import your DXF file and select "OK"
3. Set the Stroke Thickness to ".001 pt" and change the stroke color to Red (These settings are specifically for our in house machine. Other machines may differ)

These next steps mainly apply to Epilog brand printers

1. Select Print (or use the hotkey "Ctrl+P"), then click "more settings"
2. In the Epilog Printing Preferences ensure:
3. Job type is set to Vector
4. Speed is around 20%
5. Power is around 100%
6. "Send to Laser" is On
7. Hit OK on Epilog Printing Preferences
8. Hit Print on Adobe Illustrator's Print window
9. Go to the machine and print from there

The next creation portion is 3D Printing the supports for the acrylic cone.

There are 2 parts we are creating. The base support, and tower support of the mirror cone.

The First steps after downloading and opening the files are:

Starting with "Tower Support"

1. Select "Tower Support" Component
2. Right click and select Export
3. When Choosing File type, choose .STEP file
4. Click "Export"

Repeat these steps with "Base Cone"

Here at JUMP we have an Original Prusa XL, which uses PrusaSlicer.

After importing the Tower and Base, align them so they don't intersect and so the tower sits upside down. (As shown above)

No Supports are needed in any prints

Double Check Nozzle Size, and Print Quality are correct

Ensure the correct extruder is selected for both components

After slicing, send it to the machine to print!

FYI: After The Tower and Base are finished printing, use an X-Acto Knife to thoroughly remove all brims so pieces fit together and are smooth to touch.

The Wood Table and Base are CNC Machined out of 3/4" plywood.

Their designs were made with a 12mm Endmill in mind so that the entire base and most of the table can be created with just one endmill.

Before using Fusion, find the Stock Dimensions of the physical wood you would like to use.

Download and open the "Praxinoscope Base", and "Praxinoscope Table" Files in Fusion 360.

Switch them both to the Manufacture Tab

Open the Setup and adjust the Stock to match the physical wood you have.

Change the tools in the pockets, contours, and and chamfers if you don't have matching endmills.

The Endmills used in this project are:

1. 12mm Flat Endmill
2. 3.175mm Ball Mill
3. 45° Chamfer Mill
4. 1" Cove Mill

To Export G-Code, Right click on the Setup (above where toolpaths are shown) and select Post Process

Under the "Post" dropdown, select the Machine/Software you are using and select Post at the bottom of the screen to generate the code.

From there, set up your CNC machine and run your code!

FYI: When cutting out the Table and Base, make sure the Interior piece (The Table/Base themselves) is secured to the CNC table to prevent it from moving once the excess stock is cut off. (We used screws in places that get covered to accomplish this)

The First Miscellaneous item to prepare is the Threaded Rod. Use a Ø1/2"-13 Thread Size, and the rod will need to be ≈ 9 1/4" in length. I used an angle grinder with a cut off wheel to achieve the desired length.

Be careful to keep the threads usable when cutting one of the ends off the rod

The Second Item is the grip pad for the bottom of the base. Wait until after you have secured the Table and Base to the Lazy Susan before adding the Grip pad. (The grip pad makes alignment between the table and lazy susan harder)

To put on the Grip, flip over the Table/Base and lay the mesh over the top. Use a Knife to cut along the outside of the Base so it is a perfect fit. Then cut out along the Center Hole of the Base.

Once The Mesh is cut out, apply double sided tape, and press the Mesh onto the Base.

The Third Item to prepare is the Lazy Susan. On the side with 2 holes in each corner, neither size hole will fit the screws we use. We can fix this by placing the Lazy Susan on a waste board and drilling a wider hole where the small hole is.

The assembly between the table and base is the most critical of the entire build. If they are not aligned and centered, the entire Praxinoscope will spin eccentrically.

First, take the Base and Lazy Susan. Place the Lazy Susan within the template that was milled into the wood base. Make sure the side with only 1 hole in each corner is resting in the base (you can double check by making sure the large holes in the Base line up to the side of the Lazy Susan that still swivels).

Once it is lined up, screw the Lazy Susan into the Base.

Place the Table on top of the Lazy Susan and align the small holes with the screws you just put in (reference images above)

Once aligned, carefully flip over the the entire Table/Base and screw in the Lazy Susan to the Table through the holes in the Base

With that The Table and Base has been completed!

To assemble the Mirror Tower, Flip the Tower upside down and begin sliding in the mirrors. Leave the side with the extra opening at the top for last.

Remove the covering off of the Mirrors

Place the Base Cone over the bottom of the Tower and Mirrors and press until firmly seated.

The final steps of assembly are placing the tower into the "dogbone" octagon and securing the entire assembly with the threaded rod and hex nuts.

Spin it to check for any eccentricity and then we move to the final step.

In order for our Praxinoscope to display anything we need an animation for it.

The main image used is HERE from Adobe Stock. To make it the correct size and shape I used Photoshop and aligned all the images. I used legal sized paper for the animation as letter sized is not wide enough to fit in the Praxinoscope.

There is also a blank grid design to create your own animations!

In order to make a large number of animation sheets at a time, The Make team put together a Jig for the papers that is easy to line up to

The steps for making the animations are:

1. Print off the Animations on a Large Sheet of Paper
2. Laminate the papers so you can draw/erase them
3. Line up laminated papers to template
4. Cut the AnimationLaserFile using the steps from the Laser Engraving Section

Then place the animation on the table by bending the paper and spin the Praxinoscope to watch your animation come to life!

Congratulations!

You now have a fully functional Praxinoscope! Ready for endless animations and entertainment for all ages!

Let's see what animations you can make!

This project has been a ton of fun to produce and making it available to the public to use and make is always incredibly rewarding. I hope you enjoy your Praxinoscope!

-Elder Siddoway