Introduction: KINETIC COASTERS With a TWIST! Laser or 3D Printable

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Today I’ll show you how to create these amazing self-moving Kinetic Coasters.

I’ve created loads of designs for you to make, in fact, so many that you can mix and match them to create literally thousands of unique combinations and effects. Keep them in their natural colour or paint and decorate them however you desire.

Not only can you satisfy your fidgety fidding fingers by turning any coaster by hand - the base, of course, conceals a hidden secret. Place a coaster against the base and it will automatically detect the presence of a coaster and begin to turn it for you automagically. And thanks to some tiny concealed magnets you connect several up in chain and watch as they all turn mesmerisingly beneath your glasses.

This is made possible by the tiny DC motor, batteries and sensors inside the base.

These coasters are a great way of expressing yourself at home or work, make a lovely personalisable project to gift, and are an ideal activity to assemble with younger makers.

The ones below in the video have been made from Plywood cut on the Creality Falcon 2 22w diode laser, and yes, 3D printing them is also possible, though I feel that there is a certain charm about the wooden materials for coasters. 🙂

Step 1: Accompanying Video

I have written out everything you need to know in this Instructable when it comes to making your own set of Crazy Kinetic Coasters. I also love making videos so have made one which you will find above. Consult one or the other but you can't go far wrong if you follow both.

I recommend taking a look at the finished project results in the intro of the video before carrying on down through this Instructable - though it's not compulsory!

Laser cutting DXF files are attached to this step for you if you will be making yours from wood like I will for the majority of this Instructable.

(At the moment I don't seem able to attach DXF's so have put the files on Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YId5lvQiwdkVOY6KTNVdozGtVBh3Cb55?usp=share_link)

If you want to make yours with a 3D printer I encourage you to look over this Instructable before heading over my website for details on the slightly modified build order: https://www.diymachines.co.uk/make-your-own-kinetic-coasters

Wiring diagrams are included where appropriate and the occasional nugget of advice is sprinkled and imparted throughout. Enjoy! 🙂

Step 2: Things You'll Need / BOM

To build a mirror project of your own you will need a few items. Below I have listed them out along with links to where you can find them on Amazon:

ETSY STORE KITS

With or without pre-cut wood: https://diymachines.etsy.com/listing/1693030560


Projects PCB: I made a custom PCB for this project to simplify wiring, you can order them from PCB way direct if you like: PCBWay Project Page

Step 3: Cutting With LightBurn

LightBurn is a great. I've found it so much easier to work with my Laser since trying LightBurn - open the software and drop in the .DXF cut file. For the rest of this Intractable I'll be using the Spiral based coaster design.

Position the artwork towards the bottom left of the canvas. Set the speed, strength of the laser, and number of passes required to cut all the way through your material. For the 3mm LaserPly I'm using I used the following parameters:

  • Speed (mm/min) = 520
  • Max Power (%) = 100
  • Number of passes = 1

Also make sure that the air assist is enabled, close this and then home your toolhead. With this done (and on my Creality Falcon 2 Laser) we can manually move the head to the bottom left of our workplace before pressing frame to check that all the artwork to be cut will fit on our sheet of wood. 

WARNING: ⚠️

Before we start cutting it is essential that you and anyone else within sight of the machine wears appropriate eye protection. Don’t think that a ‘safety squint” is good enough

With the artwork and material prepared you can start the cutting process.

Step 4: Quick Tip #1

When removing the parts from the machine you can use a strip of wide painters or masking tape to pick up the smaller parts. 👍🏼

Step 5: Coaster Part Identification

In the above image I have labelled all the cut parts for the Spiral coaster design so that we can follow along with more ease during the following steps.

Step 6: Preparing the 'pegs'

The first parts you'll need are all of those labelled as 'A' and 'B'. There should be eight of each.

Be careful not to confuse any of the part F's with part A's. The part A's have one long arm and one shorter arm.

This can be glued together in pairs, one part A to one part B so we have eight assembled parts, joined by sliding their legs together with a spot of glue on the inside of one of the legs.

Step 7: Pegging the Corners

Now we will glue these to part E, the corners.

Fit two of the parts from the previous step into each corner so that the longer arms cover the hole. Add a dab of glue from the inside corner to fix these into place.

Repeat so that you now have four corner assemblies.

Step 8: Preparing the Magnets

For this step you'll need your magnets. We need to pay close attention to their polarity as we install it so here are some tips to help you with this.

  1. Take all you magnets and join them end to end.
  2. Now insert a small peace of paper between the last two magnets at one end.
  3. Place this on a bigger sheet of paper and label the end with no paper as A and the other as B.

From now on we will refer to the poles as A and B (as north and south don’t matter). Whenever you put the magnets down, put them back in this position to help avoid confusion.

Got it? Right let's continue....

Step 9: Installing the Magnets

Now we’re going to install the magents inside the corners so that we have a pattern of A and B poles facing outwards as shown in the blue graphic above, this means that when we repeat this for other coasters they will always hold themselves together.

Rotate all your corners so they point towards the top left of your workbench. Pick up one and flip it over horizontally (check the animation above) so it now points towards the top right.

On the right hand slide pop a magnet in so that B is on the outside edge, then insert the magnet in the top so that pole A is facing outside

Apply some glue to the wooden pegs inside edge, and a drop on each magnet. This can then be attached to the base so that the magnets are sandwiched up against the base. Repeat for the other three corners.

Keep your magnets organised so your remember their polarity by returning them to the paper as we will still need to now the A and B sides whilst building the storage base later.

Step 10: Wheel It In

We can now take the two wheel spacers (F) and glue together carefully through the centre of the wheel (C) ensuring you don’t push the so tight together that the wheel cannot turn freely.

Pop the wheel (C) onto the base and then carefully bring the two halves together.

You can leave them held together with friction or add a dab of glue to the corner posts before joining them together.

Keep checking that the wheel can continue to turn freely.

Step 11: Decorating the Coasters

Awesome, that's how all the coasters are made.

Feel free to assemble different designs. You can combine different cut patterns together, flip different layers over when assembling them reverse the design as well.

You can also consider decorating them either before assembly or after - however you want. I successfully used paint, crayons, POSCA markers and sticky embellishments on mine.

Step 12: The Smart Storage Base

Let’s make the super smart storage base next.

It can store four of your marvellous coasters inside the handy container. Hidden inside it is our small DC geared motor which is able to detect the presence of a coaster (thanks to the reeds switches) alongside any of its four edges and will automagically begin turning it.

This makes it so much easier to string many coaster together for some entertaining effects.

Step 13: Cutting the Parts for the Base

First we need to cut the parts out which is as simple as opening the file in LightBurn, move the tool head to the corner of the material. Click ‘frame’ in LightBurn to check the artworks boundary is within the edges of the material. If it is, pop your safety glasses on and press Start.

There are two sheet’s to cut for the base station. We’ll assemble the first sheets parts (which is the part of the base which hold the electronics and motor). Then later we’ll assemble the second sheet, which is the container section on top after finishing and checking the electronics.  

There is a different guide sheet you’ll find above which will help you identify the parts for the coaster container as we go along together.


Step 14: Assemble Pegs

In a similar way to before, couple up the part A’s and B’s with a drop of glue. This time there are only four of each part and you'll be left with four pegs after gluing them together.

Step 15: Attach Pegs to Corners

We can glue our pegs in place so the arm covers the hole. Ensure your parts are orientated as shown in the images (both the square base and the corners - pay attention to where the hole is on each corner and what side you glue the peg to).

Step 16: Attaching the Corners

We’ll put the magnets into our corners next. For this we need to have our magnets B pole pointing outward from each corner. Insert the magnets and glue into place.

The corners can then be glues to the baseplate so that the magnet is sandwiched up against it.

You can check the polarity using your first coaster - they should attract one another instead of repel once glued into place.

Step 17: Cog/wheel Stand-offs

Now glue the small E tabs into the three holes in the baseplate D.

Step 18: Solder the Reed Switches

Now we can start the electronics. I’ve created this PCB which holds all the electronics in the right place and saves a lot of work connecting wires. You can order it using the links at the top of this article if you like. I’ve also created a circuit diagram if you would like to assemble your own circuit.

To help position our reed switches we’ll temporarily install the wooden cut piece ‘part i’ on top of our base.

On to this we will use a couple of our M4 x 5mm bolts to attach the PCB to help with alignment.

Now insert one of the reed switches from the underside of the PCB, it doesn’t matter which way round they go. The black sensor part of the switch needs to be positioned at the bottom of this gap. You may need to use a tool to persuade it into place.

Once there, bend the legs above the PCB to hold it in place then solder the two wires. Repeat this for the other three reed switches before carefully trimming off their legs.


Step 19: Solder the Battery Holders

Remove the PCB from the wooden base and insert the two battery holders from the side with their outline drawn on it. The PCB can be turned over and the holder pins soldered into position.

Trim the legs whilst being mindful to protect your eyes - these legs travel fast and far! ⚠️ 👀


Step 20: Attach the Motor

You'll need to wires, about 3.5cm in length attached to your motor. Either attach two wires if wires are not already attached or shorten what you already have attached.

Attach motor onto PCB with two M1.6 x 3mm screws.

Solder the two wire from the motor to your PCB where labelled 'Motor +' and 'Motor -' (though the polarity really is not important).

Step 21: Test the Electronics

Let’s test this out now before we finish the last of the assembly.

Bolt your PCB back to the wood with all four screws this time. If they don’t secure it well add a drop of glue or thread lock to the screws.

Install a set of batteries and then bring your coaster you made earlier alongside the base. You should hear the electric motor start when the coaster approaches from any of the four sides.

If you'r does we'll carry on and add the cog/wheel. If you're does not it's important to go back and check your work so far before continuing.

Step 22: Install the Wheel/Cog

With that working let’s lift of the top wooden panel with PCB attached and use hot melt glue or similar, fit wheel leaving a small gap so that it does not rub on the wood.

Attach back on to the rest of coaster whilst ensuring that none of the reed switches become trapped.

You can now bring your coaster alongside the base and enjoy the fruits of your work so far.

Step 23: The Coaster Container Itself

The rest of the container is assembled like a box whilst paying attention to the orientation of the bottom panel.

The four small rectangles then go inside the corners with their longer edge against the floor of the box - this make supports for the false floor.

This box then sits onto of the rest of the assembly with the last panel dropping into place and resting on those wooden supports inside.


Step 24: Project Complete

Well done. I hope you enjoyed following along and thank you for making it through to the end I know I can be a bit wordy sometimes! 😆

Have the best of fun with your new Crazy/Kinetic Coasters (or whatever your decide to call yours!) and I look forward to sharing my next project with you soon. Subscribe here on Instructable or over on my Youtube channel to keep up-to-date. (https://www.youtube.com/diymachines) And don't forget to take a look at my other projects.

Take care, do some good, and ciao for now. 🙂

Lewis