I like your tripod improvisation in the original post now thats what I call modding. Good job on the door I was most impressed with the quality of the engraving! Keep on modding!
thanks for the explanation. as per my understanding.there shld be some space between all the layers.imean between glass and the 2 layers of plexi glass to prevent the scattering of light.say a thick layer of tape will do the job. and instead of taping i will paint the 2 surfaces of engraved plexi layer (say left and right faces of layer 1)as well as the top and button side of that LED strip.how this is gona work? so the light will travel only from one side of that plaexi strip. http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/4684/ideadoor1kr7.gif these strips i will fix at the top and button. u said ""The part that actually light up the engraving comes from the top of the strips."" umean from the diffused side right.is it like the pic i posted above?
Thanks for all the comments, people! Use tape just around the edge of the glass. Anything touching the glass will light up, so make sure to hide the places where the tape touch. The method in the picture you posted should work fine. Just like i tried to explain. If you want to paint the sides of the strip you need the LEDs to have a smaller diameter than the thickness of the glass, though. That's why I used tape. I used 3mm LEDs on 3mm plexi, so drilling a hole is pretty much impossible. If you plan on using thicker glass and/or smaller LEDs painting should be OK.
thanks again. actually i had small table decorating lamp idea in my mind.on which my company name and logo are engraved in two different layers.but engraving is a big thing for me.i never did that before.may be i need(think) to built small CNC for this. any idea and suggestions for engraving operation?
If you want to make a table model you could just make a block at the bottom to hold the strip(s) of LEDs. Then just paint the top and sides of the glass black to prevent leaking of light. As for keeping the glass sheets together you could just use some narrow double sided tape. You could also make a small frame just to hold the glass together. It 's just a matter of taste and need for durability. (Never underestimate the destructive forces of curious fingers) The engraving is pretty easy to do by hand. you just need to do some practice to get used to the feeling. Check out this for more info on the process. If the pieces are pretty small, you could try to ask some local sign or gift shop if they can do the engraving for you. (if the hand method isn't your thing) If you want multicolor engraving you could also find some UV LEDs and paint the engraved parts with different UV reactive colors. The color range is a bit limited, though. And it doesn't get the same effect, but it could be interesting to try out.
FYI - I got here via frontpage of digg.com --> techeblog.com --> bit-tech. I always love in when I see something from bit-tech on digg, even though I'm not here much anymore. I would love to see an example of this using RGB leds with 3 layers and either CNC or laser engraver to control depth for brightness. Do you know of anyone who has done this with RGB? Also, I like the suggestion someone else made of doing simple animations with this method. You could only do 6 or 7 frames or so. Certainly less than 10... Any examples of this in the wild? Thanks for sharing this great work with the world. I hope you and your family enjoy it for years to come.
Yeah it's awesome this project log was dugg. Check out the view count... 291k views in a 5-page thread has to be a record.
Meh, screw digg. (Pun possibly intended.) I found this thread (and signed up for the forum) because the link has made it onto the del.icio.us index, and because you are freaking amazing. Very nice work. I've got a few questions but I haven't read all 5 pages of this thread yet so I'll hold off. Just wanted give you a quick handclap and let you know about delicious.
I would like to do something like this for the side window on my pc but I am having trouble deciding on a type of graphic to use. Really cool idea using the door for this. Might be nice for even larger designs with a simple but stout metal frame.
wow in about 12 hours this has gathered another 7,000 views! thats crazy 302,xxx views that is a hell of a lot for a 5 page thread. EDIT: you have more views that the sketchup components thread and that is soooo many more pages than this!
I'm currently in the planning stage of a coffee table with an LED feature. What can be used as a suitable power supply for the LEDs? Where can i find a suitable power supply online? Thanks, -Joe
When choosing a design you need to think of something that won't look odd when it's "negative". Try drawing/converting the image to a picture (or even better: vectors) with black background to help you visualize the end result. Somewhere in the area of 9-12 V should be OK. Make sure the power supply is DC output. The maximum output will depend on the number and type of LEDs you choose. A power supply could be found in about every store that sell electronic equipment.
Sorry to bump the thread, but I have a question regarding the LED holder strip you made. What did you use to cut the LED and resistor holes and the wire groove? It seems extremely consistent and well done from your pictures, and I would love to match those results. Unfortunately I have yet to find a good way to make them so neat... Thanks!
The strip itself is cut with a jigsaw with a metal blade. The holes are cut with a dremel using one of these. To get a consistent depth i mounted the Dremel in the router attachment with the edge guide (the guide used to control depth). The wiregroove was cut using a fiber reinforced cuttingwheel and the router attachment. This was to get the groove straight. The depth of the groove is done by "eyeball measurement". The depth of the groove wasn't that important anyway. Hope that makes sense
