With the release of the Motorized Card Shuffler, I wanted to reflect back on the original Card Shuffler, and the creation of this Motorized version. When the Card Shuffler first released, it found an audience almost immediately, rising to become one of Makerworld's early success stories. The platform was still in beta, and the shuffler stood as a sign and participant in what Makerworld was growing into, and what 3D Printing was evolving into. Not just a tinkerer’s hobby anymore, but a tangible expression of design that was within the reach of all. From the original release of the shufflerThe Card Shuffler was an accumulation of evolving ideas and philosophies of what I thought 3d printing could be, of what I wanted out of it. The desire to design my own card shuffler came before Bambu even entered the market. The card shufflers being sold at the time weren’t anything too great. Loud, ugly. If you gave me two words to describe what was on offer. The 3d printable versions were proof of concepts, but nothing that could fully compete.A work in progress of the design. I had an idea for how I wanted the design to look, not just function, so before I got into doing test prints I was already exploring to make sure my design focused ideas could be achieved too. With this new generation of 3d printing and my first X1C I really started to explore and push my designs, how I constructed them. It was with an early iteration of Bambu’s Maker’s Beginner Kit that spurred the Card Shuffler project into action. It introduced the Screws and Bearings that would become the foundation of this project. My first time working with proper self-tapping plastic screws, and it made something click.The first fully printed prototype model.The Card Shuffler was also my first foray into mechanical movement. My first time creating gears. It was the foundation that helped me to explore further and more complex designs and movements. It started my love of the MR128 sized bearing that I often use throughout my designs. They certainly helped provide a smooth action to the whole mechanism. The sort of old printing presses that helped inspire the design of the card shuffler.I didn’t want to just make a functional card shuffler either, I wanted to make one that caught the eye, that inspired. That felt exciting to use and have there with you as you played. I based the design off old cast iron machinery and printing presses. I wanted everything to have form, to draw the eye in, so even things like the gears were given special attention and showcased beyond just being extrusions. The first draft for the Title page. I took screenshots from Fusion and edited them in Photoshop to add the coloring and layout.The Card Shuffler also ushered in a new era for me, with how I approached my assembly instructions. I felt like I had something special on my hands with this project, and I wanted to give as polished of an experience to every aspect as I could. That included the assembly instructions. The overall final look has mostly stayed the same, but the process for creating the instructions has been greatly refined. The first few I did were just raster images I colored in photoshop. Later versions are done with the help of illustrator, helping to create much clearer diagrams with the use of vectors.I knew I wanted to do something that felt as simple and iconic as the IKEA instruction manuals. Early on in experimenting, I started playing with colors and quickly set a color palette that would define every instruction I’ve created since then and helped me give my own flavor and style that helped set them apart. All in all, the Card Shuffler was a major milestone in my own journey and evolution as a designer, and a representation of what I thought 3d printing could be. I wanted to show that 3d printing could make fully polished products, not just trinkets. When the Card Shuffler was first released, the Maker’s Supply was still in its infancy, and the selection of components were still somewhat limited. I had been interested in doing a motor add-on, but the time wasn’t yet right. I had left the design somewhat open to make it easier to make a motor add-on, but there were still several questions as to how that would best work. I knew I wanted to have a switch, but I wasn’t sure how to best incorporate it into the design, and the only switch at the time was a latching switch. The momentary switch that’d later be released with the Cyberbrick was what I really wanted. I set the idea aside while I explored other projects and further built my experience. A closer look at the motors and electronicsHaving built a few designs around the 030 motors now, it gave me a little more experience working with them and getting the best out of them. I knew I’d have to use the Speed Controller to get the most out of this, but beyond that I wanted the electronics to be fully self-contained within the back of the card shuffler. As I got into the design itself too, I quickly realized that the best approach wasn’t just to stick a motor on the large gear.The re-designed gear layoutI had to ditch the large gear. I had some concerns about having a now motorized gear being exposed as openly (With the crank version, it kind of pushes you in a position where your hands are kept free of the large gear), but also it didn’t quite make sense when the driving force is a motor, vs my arm. I wanted to give each side its own driving motor, and with taking the large gear out too it gave me the perfect spot to put the momentary switch. Something that had been a big question on my mind.  Sadly, we lost a little coverage of the gear movements; one of the enjoyable aspects of the original design. The motor upgrade. I free-styled it a bit!One of my main goals was to try and contain as much of the motor upgrade to the back as I could, to reduce the number of parts that’d need to be printed if someone wanted to upgrade their old shuffler. While I originally intended it to be as easy as just swapping the back most plate, it did grow a little beyond that. Those changes undoubtedly helped produce a more polished and contained design though.  Who knows what the next version will bring. For now, though, I am excited for this new release, and next evolution of the Card Shuffler. If you print the original version, the motorized version, or are upgrading from one to the other, I hope you’re having as much of a blast with it as I had with designing it.