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YOU CAN BUILD THE 10,000-DOLLAR LAB SHAKER FOR 169 DOLLARS

A research team published the parts list for the ten-thousand-dollar lab shaker — and it costs 169 dollars to build.

by Matthew Hollingham, Yi Xiang, Titus Reed, Juan Pablo Gevaudan

FULL CAD BOM FIRMWARE DOCS

ScienceOpen-hardware

Built withArduino3D printing

difficulty
●●●○○
time
a weekend
license
CC0-1.0
repo
repo FINISHED0 stars

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

1
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COMPAREE VERDICT

This is a proper academic hardware publication: peer-reviewed, costed, validated and released into the public domain. If you need a temperature-controlled orbital shaker and do not have ten thousand dollars, this is the project. The build itself is not complicated — an Arduino Uno starter kit, its 9 V DC motor driving a 3D-printed orbital platform on skateboard-style bearings, a DS18B20 temperature probe, and a cheap portable electric heater that the Arduino switches on and off with a servo pressing the heater's trip switch, all inside a foil-lined insulated box. Every part comes from the Arduino store, Amazon or a hardware store. The paper gives you dimensional drawings and photos, but no step-by-step video, so you have to interpret the figures. If you already own a commercial orbital shaker, the authors actually recommend the retrofit option for reliability — it is just the insulated chamber and heater around your existing unit. The one thing most likely to go wrong: the servo-on-the-heater-switch trick depends on the heater model, and a different heater with a stiffer switch or a different safety cut-out can leave you chasing temperature drift that the original team already solved.

GOOD TO KNOW

  • —All CAD files, Arduino code, and a validated bill of materials are in the OSF repository.
  • —The paper is peer-reviewed and published in HardwareX with full build documentation.
  • —Licence is CC0 1.0 Universal — public domain, no attribution required, OSHWA certified.
  • —The 169-dollar figure is from the paper and includes all components for the standalone shaker.
  • —No assembly video exists — you follow the paper's figures and the dimension drawings in the CAD.
  • —The validation was against manual mixing, a water bath and a heated horizontal shaker, not a commercial temperature-controlled orbital shaker.

Parts to buy

6 items

From our check of the build. Exact quantities and part numbers are in the creator’s BOM.

  • Arduino Uno starter kit (includes the motor and servo)Find
  • DS18B20 stainless temperature probeFind
  • Small portable electric heaterFind
  • Insulation board and aluminium foilFind
  • 608 bearingsFind
  • 9 V DC supplyFind

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Can I build this?

PrintFive parts for the orbital shaker — base plate, top plate and the bearing connectors (print those at the highest quality); files on OSF
BuyArduino Uno starter kit (includes the motor and servo), DS18B20 stainless temperature probe, small portable electric heater, insulation board and aluminium foil, 608 bearings, 9 V DC supply — the full BOM is in the paper
Tools3D printer, soldering iron, basic hand tools, multimeter for wiring checks
SkillsArduino upload and wiring, 3D printing, interpreting academic CAD drawings — not beginner-level because there is no video walkthrough
TimeA weekend if you have all the parts; longer if you are sourcing the exact motor and heater from lab suppliers
Cost169 dollars per the paper (including 12 dollars shipping), dominated by the 110-dollar Arduino starter kit, which already includes the motor and servo; the heater is about 20 dollars, and insulation, bearings and printed parts are cheap
SafetyMains-powered heater with a real fire risk, which the authors flag. The servo works the heater's tip-over shut-off switch, so that safety feature is effectively disabled — keep the heater stable, never leave it running unattended, and use the medium heat setting (on the highest setting the authors' heater tripped its own over-heat cut-out). Wear a mask when cutting the insulation. If you work with cell cultures, your normal lab biosafety rules apply.

Build at your own risk. Projects involve tools, electronics and sometimes mains voltage — follow the creator’s safety notes.

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Gallery

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Start here

Navigation into the creator’s own docs — we don’t rewrite the guide, we route you to the source.

  1. 1.Read the full HardwareX paper (The paper contains the complete BOM, assembly notes, and validation data — start here, not the OSF repository.)
  2. 2.Download the design files from OSF (CAD files, Arduino code, and supplementary dimension drawings are all in this repository.)
  3. 3.Buy the Arduino Uno starter kit, a small portable heater with a trip-shut-off switch and a DS18B20 probe(The motor and servo come with the starter kit; the heater must have a trip switch the servo can press, and you should use its middle heat setting as the authors did.)
  4. 4.If you already own a commercial orbital shaker, start with the retrofit chamber design instead(Figure 2 in the paper shows the retrofit option — it is faster than building the full shaker from scratch.)

KNOWN ISSUES

  • The heater control works by a servo pressing the heater's trip-shut-off switch — the authors note the kit servo cannot turn normal heater knobs — so if you buy a different heater, check it has a switch the servo can actually operate.
  • There is no assembly video, but the paper walks through the build step by step with photos (printing, shaker assembly, foil heat shield, insulating chamber) and the OSF repository adds build and operating instructions as PDFs — read them alongside the CAD before you start.
  • The 169-dollar cost assumes you already have access to a 3D printer and basic electronics tools — if you are pricing those in, the real cost is higher.
  • The validation was against manual mixing and a water bath, not against a ten-thousand-dollar commercial temperature-controlled orbital shaker — the paper does not claim equivalent precision to a commercial unit.
  • The foil-lined insulation is deliberately low-tech, which keeps the cost down — if your protocol requires sub-degree temperature stability over hours, check the temperature validation data in the paper first.
  • If you are building this for a regulated lab environment, check whether you need formal calibration or validation documentation — the paper gives you the performance data, but it does not give you a certificate.

Can I use a different motor or heater than the BOM specifies?

Possibly, but the paper only documents the Arduino starter-kit 9 V motor and its specific heater. A different heater is the bigger change: the kit servo is too weak for normal heater knobs, so it has to be able to press the heater's tip-over switch, and you should re-check temperature stability against the paper's results.

Is this as precise as a commercial temperature-controlled shaker?

Not proven — the paper validates it against manual mixing, a water bath and a heated horizontal shaker, not against a commercial temperature-controlled orbital shaker, and concludes it can do the same job as a water bath shaker for binding isotherm experiments. If your protocol needs tight temperature control over hours, check the paper's temperature validation data first.

Do I need a lab background to build this?

No. Every part is a consumer item — an Arduino starter kit, a portable heater, a temperature probe, bearings, insulation and foil — and the paper links Amazon, DigiKey and the Arduino store. Lab experience mainly helps with validating temperature and interpreting the binding isotherm results.

Can I sell this or use it commercially?

Yes — the licence is CC0 1.0 Universal, which is public domain with no restrictions at all, and it is OSHWA certified. You do not even have to credit the original team, though it would be decent to do so.

Is there a version that does not require 3D printing?

Yes. If you already own a commercial orbital shaker, the retrofit option needs no 3D printing at all: you build the insulated, foil-lined chamber around your shaker and add the Arduino-controlled heater. The authors actually recommend retrofitting an existing shaker for reliability.

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Discussion1

FROM THE COMPAREE TEAM

The paper's build costs 169 dollars, while the commercial temperature-controlled shakers it lists cost thousands of dollars, and it was validated against manual mixing and a water bath. What would you use it for first?

CompareeTEAM23d agoedited

Practical notes from our verification: this is one of the cleanest academic hardware publications we have catalogued: peer-reviewed in HardwareX, fully costed, validated, released under CC0 into the public domain and OSHWA-certified. The 169-dollar total is line-itemed in the paper's bill of materials, and it is built from everyday parts: an Arduino Uno starter kit (including its 9 V motor and a servo), a DS18B20 temperature probe, skate bearings, five 3D-printed parts, insulation and a cheap commercial space heater whose switch is pressed by the servo. The validation compares it with manual mixing, a water bath and a horizontal shaker in strontium binding experiments. There is no assembly video, so you follow the drawings, CAD and photos in the paper, which is fine if you have built lab hardware before and slower if you have not. If you already own a commercial orbital shaker, the paper also describes a retrofit option that adds only the temperature-controlled enclosure. Correction (4 October 2026): we re-checked this page line by line against the project's own repository, documentation and videos, and fixed errors in earlier versions.

Matthew Hollingham, Yi Xiang, Titus Reed, Juan Pablo Gevaudan

The team is at the Re-AIM Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University. They published OpenHW3 in HardwareX after validating it for binding isotherm experiments. The paper states plainly that commercial temperature-controlled orbital shakers can cost up to ten thousand dollars, and that this cost is an implementation barrier for laboratories — OpenHW3 is their answer.

Web

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