Although I’ve been working on this project since I joined the makerspace back in February, this will be my first blog entry on my quest to design and build a Trading Card Sorter. Here’s a little background on the project:
Since I began playing Magic: the gathering back in my senior year of high school, I’ve acquired boxes and tubs full of cards just lying around my room in precipitous towers with zero organization. I also noticed that game store owners spend many man hours each week sorting through the thousands of cards they get each week by hand just figure out what they even have in stock. So to make both their, and my, life easier, I’m attempting to build a prototype of a this card sorter and try it out in a game store.
Since I started, I’ve gotten up to a simple design for the 3 axes and shape of the sorter, with only a general idea of how I’m planning on actually picking up the cards. The base frame will be like any XY gantry system, being driven by stepper motors on a frame make of 80/20.
Above are pictures of the X axis drive, with a rickety platform from which I was planning on mounting the Y axis assembly. The mounting plate, driven by a stepper with a belt, will be guided on side rails of aluminum rod using bearings press fitted into covers with a triangle curve to “grip” the rods. It’s a very WIP prototype, as the plate will need more support in order to take most of the load off the bearings.
Later this week I’m planning of remaking the plate since it’ll need 3 bearing mounting holes to properly constrain it and finishing up the frame from aluminum plate, 80/20, and some nuts/screws.
That’s it for now, I’m planning on posting each week to help me stay motivated, continue working on it each week, and keep a record of my journey to create my first homemade machine!
~Mark