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 plate 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

Plate 144 contains outer ring 144, inner/outer ring 144-96, inner/outer ring 96-63, and gear 63. All the patterns shown in this group were drawn using parts from this plate only.