Make your own toys with Ponoko

This is exactly like the toy you remember, only bigger and with more options. Each plate is cut from 3mm clear acrylic, is 7" (18cm) across, and includes a variety of rings and gears in several sizes. The individual plates work as self-contained sets, or they can be combined with each other to make an ever-increasing number of different patterns.

The laser-cut plates will be shipped directly from Ponoko to you, which means that you'll need to provide your own pins, pin-board (I recommend foamcore), and pens. NOTE! This drawing tool uses pins with sharp points. It is not recommended that you give it to a small child (or foolish grown-up person) who might eat the pins. Eating pins is pretty much always a bad idea.

There's a slightly longer discussion of pins and pens on my page of notes, which also addresses the problem of pen-skid: http://polychroma.com/spiro-info.html

This listing is for three plates: 150, 144, and 84. However, if you'd like a different set of three (or even three all the same), please send me a message. There are a lot of possible patterns once you combine the parts from all three plates. I've made a printable PDF of inside patterns, which may be found here: http://polychroma.com/spiro/patternguide.pdf