Custom Braille Card Embosser V2 - Tactile Friendly

Custom Braille Embosser V2 - Tactile Friendly

I started this project about a year ago because I couldn't find a quick and affordable way to make custom braille business cards. Version 1 of this embosser fixed that for me, however, many people who printed that version were kind enough to guide me on what needed to be changed to make it more accessible. So, Version 2 is the result of those experts' feedback.

[Computer rendering of every part lifted apart in a column: the Base at the bottom, the two cylinders with their gears above it, then the Knob, the Lid and the Handle.]

[Animation of the twelve assembly steps, rendered from the part files: each part travels into its place, from Cylinder A and its gears to the Lid and the Handle, and the Handle turns at the end.]

What's new in Version 2:

• Wrong assembly is nearly impossible. Each of the four gears has a unique shaped peg, and each end of each cylinder has a hole that takes one peg only. A wrong gear will not go in, so trial and error is a fair way to find the right one.

• One-piece Base. This version has the grip extension built in, with the addition of raised arrows on its side that show which way the card travels and which way the card's information should face.

• A seam channel on the cylinders. A built in design that gives your slicer somewhere to hide its layer seam, so it never lands on a braille dot during printing.

• Push-out Plate tool. This extra part helps lift the cylinders out of the Base when you want to make a change.

• Double Sided Option. Using interpoint spacing, you now have the option to emboss both sides of a single business card.

• Solid Piece Fixed Gear Option. If you’d rather not assemble the gears and cylinders separately you now have the option to print them as a single, solid piece.

Step 1: make your cylinders with the web app

The embosser files don't include ready-to-print cylinders with your message on them. Customizing the message on the cylinders, generating the STL and downloading that file is the first step of the project you need to complete. There are two ways to make the custom braille cylinders, and the one I would start with is the web app I built for this project because it translates the text for you:

https://braille-cylinder-stl-generator.vercel.app

[The generator's page: the 3D preview on the left, the form on the right, with the Embosser setup choices marked in red.]

Select Version 2, type your text, press Generate, and download one file with both cylinders spaced for printing on one plate. Translation is done for you by Liblouis, the open-source braille translation engine used by screen readers and braille displays worldwide. It comes with more than fifty language tables and both contracted (grade 2) and uncontracted (grade 1) braille. If you read braille yourself, the translation lands in an editable field first, so you can change any cell before you generate.

[The Translate to Braille button and, under it, the braille field filled with the translation of the word Washington, both marked in red.]

Everything runs in your browser and your text never leaves your computer. The app is built for screen readers and keyboard use, and it has a help page of its own if you need it.

[The web app's 3D preview showing the two generated cylinders side by side, Cylinder A with raised dots and triangles, Cylinder B with dimples, and the status line Both cylinders are ready.]

The step-by-step Web Generator Guide in the download walks through every control with a marked screenshot.

Optional path 2: the OpenSCAD customizer

The same generator exists as an OpenSCAD model, and a copy of it is also on MakerWorld as a customizer: Braille Cylinder STL Generator — Embosser Version 2. It makes the same cylinders with the same dials. There is an OpenSCAD Generator Guide in the download files that walks through it, including the offline copy for your own computer.

[The OpenSCAD window with the generator open: the Editor, the preview with the two cylinders, the Customizer panel and the Console, each marked in red.]

The largest difference for path 2: the customizer does not translate. It takes braille characters only, so you must turn your text into Unicode braille yourself with a translator of your choice (the guide shows one) and paste it in, one row at a time. The translation is then entirely yours to be responsible for, with no Liblouis behind it; that's why I would start with the web app.

Printing

[All eleven parts laid out on a cutting mat: grey Base, cyan Lid, two white cylinders, four pink gears, yellow Knob and Handle, and the white Push-out Plate.]

• The main assembly parts. For the main assembly parts you can use your printer's default 0.2 mm profile: 3 walls, 15 % infill, supports off. Nothing needs supports, seam painting or slow speeds.

• Two customized cylinders. The customized cylinders do better at 0.12 mm layers or finer, at least 3 walls, 15 % infill, with the Arachne wall generator rather than Classic, supports off. An example STL pair is included with slicer settings for the X1C.

• The tactile assembly map (optional). This tactile assembly reference is four flat plates that print best at 0.2 mm, no supports, also sliced for the X1C.

• Print times and filament. From the sliced X1C projects, the nine parts take 6 h 11 min and 188 g of PLA on one plate; a cylinder pair 2 h 46 min and 37 g; the map's four plates 2 h 44 min and 107 g over two beds.

Assembly

[A numbered instruction panel: Top Gear A held above Cylinder A with a red dashed arrow from its peg to the keyhole; a box at the top right sketches the gear's two faces and the cylinder end it goes onto.]

There are twelve assembly steps. The first step is to build Roller A (a cylinder with its two gears), then build Roller B, pair them so the triangles nest, drop the pair into the Base, then the Knob, the Lid and the Handle.

The download files have three editions of the assembly guide, all built from the same steps:

• Maker Guide is the short edition.

• Assembly Guide By Touch describes every step for tactile users.

• Visual Assembly Guide is a pictures only edition, with a part to find sketched beside each step.

Using it

[One hand holds the embosser on its side while the other lowers a card into the slit along the top of the tower.]

[The embossed card coming back out of the embosser between two hands, its braille dots raised, the large arrow on the tower pointing toward the Handle.]

Turn the Handle to home (grip level along the Base, pointing right), lay the embosser on its side with the slit up, drop a card in, turn about half a turn, turn the embosser over and keep turning until the last row has come out. With the card still held in the cylinders, roll back and forward over the rows twice more, then let it out: a card that has left the cylinders can't go back in the same place. The User Guide covers it with a picture for every step, including changing the message. The pair is made for 0.4 mm card, which is most business cards; if a pair punches holes through your card instead of leaving rounded dots, the guide says when to generate one at 0.3 mm.

If something doesn't fit

• A gear's peg won't enter: wrong gear for that end; only one fits.

• The pair won't drop fully into the Base: it's in back to front; Cylinder A, with the raised triangles, goes on the left.

• The Knob finds no pocket: the pair is upside down; the crosses on the top gears face up.

• The Handle catches: the triangles aren't nested; lift the Lid and pair the rollers again.

• Holes instead of dots: the card is thinner than the pair is made for; generate a pair at 0.3 mm or use thicker card.

What's in the download

STL files for the nine printed parts (the Push-out Plate among them), the example cylinder pair, the tactile assembly map's four plates and its OpenSCAD files, the three sliced X1C projects, an assembled reference STL, the offline OpenSCAD generator, and seven guides as tagged PDFs with every picture described, numbered by the step they belong to: Step 1, the Web Generator Guide and the OpenSCAD Generator Guide; Step 2, the Visual Assembly Guide, the Assembly Guide By Touch, the Maker Guide and the Tactile Assembly Map Key; Step 3, the User Guide.

Credits

Designed and tested by Brennen Johnston. Braille translation by the open-source Liblouis library. Documentation in the Makers Making Change Open AT template. Source and every file.

If you decide to print one, please add a comment or review. I’d love to know how V2 worked for you.

External links

- https://braille-cylinder-stl-generator.vercel.app (the web app)