Stuff Made Here built a fully automated dog wash and the dog refuses to use it. The machine works: an arch structure with oscillating SLA-printed nozzles on linear rails, driven by a DC motor, sprays the animal from above and below via an undercarriage channel, then air-dries it. All electronics are waterproofed, with the AC power source kept at a distance for electrical safety.
The build was designed around avoiding specialty metalworking tools, leaning on SLA printing because FDM parts can't reliably handle water back pressure. That constraint collapsed mid-project. A new CNC lathe arrived and got used. A plasma cutter cut the undercarriage grate rather than waiting on a sourced part. The conduit arch was bent and welded. The stated goal and the finished build do not match, and the original piece is honest about it.
What makes this worth reading in full is the gap between the engineering and the outcome. The machine is capable. The nozzle linkages, the waterproofing decisions, the rail drive system, all solved correctly. The dog is simply terrified of it. That tension, competent automation defeated by animal behavior, is the whole story. The build details and the creator's self-awareness about the tool compromise are both in the original video and writeup.
[READ ORIGINAL →]