A Look Back: The AxiDraw Story (Part 2)
As we get ready to launch Bantam Tools NextDraw™, we wanted to take a look back and honor the legacy of AxiDraw. We spoke with Evil Mad Scientist founders and now Bantam Tools’ COO and CTO, Lenore Edman and Windell Oskay, who shared the story themselves.
Bantam Tools: What was the inception of Evil Mad Scientist and how did your personal interests and backgrounds influence its unique ethos?
Lenore & Windell:
Evil Mad Scientist started as a hobby blog; a place to record our personal projects. In the early days we were showing our projects at events like Maker Faire, and many folks said “I’d like to make something like that!” We started the business as a way to enable these folks to do the kinds of things we were doing, especially in electronics. Both of us come from science and education backgrounds, and we brought attention to detail to our instructions for our kits and projects. When you truly care for the experience of the builder, you try not to make assumptions about where they are coming from. You don’t know what background or knowledge they have, so you work hard to make everything they need accessible. This approach led us to things like using cross-platform compatible tools, which are often open-source and free.
EggBot
Bantam Tools: Prior to AxiDraw, Evil Mad Scientist produced EggBot & WaterColorBot, how did these projects come about? Would you explain their influence on the development of AxiDraw?
Lenore & Windell:
We met a lot of folks through Maker Faire, and one of them was Bruce Shapiro, the inventor of the EggBot. He had done a small batch of EggBot kits but wanted to focus on his motion control art rather than running a kit business. He saw our kits and liked our approach. One of the things that we particularly liked about the EggBot was that it worked with Inkscape, an open source vector art program that we were already fond of. Our collaboration resulted in us redesigning the EggBot to be more manufacturable and more reliable. We enlarged the ecosystem with additional accessories, different sizes, and a model that was easier to use as well. We also started developing tools for generating vector art. One was StippleGen for converting images to vector art; another was the Hershey Text extension for Inkscape for converting text into stroke-based lettering.
WaterColorBot
We were approached by a software developer friend whose kid wanted to participate in an art robotics competition. He asked us if we would mentor the hardware part of the project. In the end, we helped Zephyrus design the WaterColorBot, not just for the competition, but also as a product. The appeal of robots making art is undeniable, and it was a perfect fit for classrooms and studios where technology was being taught in novel ways. Much of the WaterColorBot was built on top of the foundation that the EggBot had laid: it used the same controller board, and was able to work with Inkscape as well.
A similar collaboration came about when Lindsay Wilson approached us with his drawing robot called AxiDraw which was inspired by our previous art robots, and again built with the same building blocks. The first generation AxiDraw ran a modified version of our WaterColorBot software. He had sold a small run of machines, but found he did not want to manage a kit business. We took over the idea and redesigned it for manufacturability and improved stability. We changed the design to use two fixed motor locations and a single belt so that we did not need to move the weight of a motor in one axis. We used bearings on steel shafts, similar to how Lindsay had, but with a combination of sheet metal and machined aluminum parts. We launched the AxiDraw V2 in 2016 and it was an instant victim of its own success. We could not keep it in stock. We were overwhelmed by the demand for it, and soon found the manufacturing bottlenecks and design weaknesses. We redesigned it almost from scratch and just 8 months later launched the AxiDraw V3.
Bantam Tools: How did the experience with the Inkscape extensions for the EggBot and WaterColorBot influence the development and user interface of the AxiDraw?
Lenore & Windell:
Similarly to the EggBot and WaterColorBot, the AxiDraw used Inkscape extensions as the main way that users interacted with it. We gradually added more capabilities in the suite of Inkscape extensions that worked with our family of pen plotters. As we had more and more users showing us the various ways they were using our plotters, we gradually added capabilities like plot order optimization and refining tools for working with artwork like hatch filling. For new users, we created example files using tools we made like StippleGen or contributed to, like SquiggleDraw. These answered questions like “how can I plot a photograph?” It also gave us wonderful moments like seeing actor Stephen Fry posting a video of his AxiDraw drawing a picture of our cat.
Bantam Tools: AxiDraw V3 introduced some major structural improvements. Can you tell us about some of the changes?
Lenore & Windell:
The AxiDraw V3 had the same basic geometry and capabilities as the AxiDraw V2, but was redesigned from the ground up. We used larger scale manufacturing techniques, including using custom aluminum extrusions for increased rigidity. It turns out that steel shafts are remarkably flexible, and to get better performance we designed custom aluminum extrusions that were able to get us a vastly higher amount of stiffness (in the directions that count) without adding moving weight. This let the machines run almost twice as fast without any loss in output quality. Around the time of the AxiDraw V3 launch, we moved to a new location and purchased a CNC mill which expanded our capabilities and let us bring more precision to our in-house manufacturing. We improved the AxiDraw V3 design incrementally over the years, redesigning parts for longevity, stiffness, and robustness.
Bantam Tools: In addition to those improvements, the AxiDraw V3 era brought new sizes! What were some of the challenges in making larger machines?
Lenore & Windell:
The steel shafts we worked with for the earlier AxiDraw had enough flexibility that bending (even just under their own weight) had the potential to decrease the output quality at even moderate sizes. Going to the custom extrusions let us build larger sizes without losing capability by using different lengths of the same extrusions. Being able to machine large parts in-house also let us design the beautiful special edition models whose bases were machined from solid aluminum in place of the extrusion. We eventually got large enough — with the AxiDraw SE/A1 and A2 — that the shipping size got unwieldy. We designed a special carriage that it could maintain rigidity even after being partially disassembled for transport. We also scaled down and made smaller models for customers for whom size was a significant constraint.
AxiDraw used as part of a scanning system.
Photo source: Roxanne Radpour, John K. Delaney, and Ioanna Kakoulli, “Acquisition of High Spectral Resolution Diffuse Reflectance Image Cubes (350–2500 nm) from Archaeological Wall Paintings and Other Immovable Heritage Using a Field-Deployable Spatial Scanning Reflectance Spectrometry Hyperspectral System,” Sensors (Basel). 2022 Mar; 22(5): 1915.
Bantam Tools: What were some of your favorite novel use cases for the AxiDraw?
Lenore & Windell:
We were contacted by the Archeomaterials group out of UCLA that was exploring ways of doing non-invasive pigment analysis of historical artworks. They used the AxiDraw as a portable X-Y platform with a sensor mounted in place of a pen. The researchers could position it in front of the artwork to do the analysis whether it was in a museum or a cave. We made some parts for them including a tripod mount and a rigid end effector to make it easier for them to work with it in this new way.
Photo of plots by @GrothmannTobias @pircasa @TomDuff and others for #PTPX via @jimmy_kl
We also have had a few groups who wanted a more reliable workflow for marking parts. They could create a custom fixture in front of the AxiDraw for their parts and then use a pen that worked on their materials to consistently record the required information.
One of our favorite groups of users come from the generative artwork communities. In the early years of AxiDraw, they came together with events like the Plotter People meetups. When COVID hit, they started the Plotter Twitter Postcard Exchange (#ptpx) as a way to stay connected when coming together in person was not an option. It still persists and the benefits of connecting with the community throughout the world are amazing. We have participated regularly and we treasure the artwork we have received. Not all are made with AxiDraw, but many are, and often come with notes about how the AxiDraw has impacted the artist.
Bantam Tools NextDraw™
Bantam Tools: Anything new you can tease about the upcoming Bantam Tools NextDraw™ hardware and software?
Lenore & Windell:
We’re really excited about the changes that we’ve been working on here at Bantam Tools. The Bantam Tools NextDraw™ features all new firmware and software that dramatically improves the overall speed and smoothness of the motion. People who are coming from AxiDraw are going to find that these new machines move dramatically faster, and at the same time are producing more fluid results on their paper. Beyond that, these machines all come standard with the incredibly fast (and practically bulletproof) brushless pen-lift mechanism that was only available as an upgrade to AxiDraw.
There are also a huge number of refinements and quality of life improvements. In addition to the automatic homing feature, there’s an optional spring for adding pen pressure, a solid housing around the electronics, a convenient power switch, an elegant pause button, and built-in cable management to keep your desk neat.