Project Redwood 3.0 -by ZapWizard -Jan 15th '05

Gorgeous woodwork Zap; nice to see that you have gotten at least some of the kinks worked out . Good God, that wood is tough!

I look forward to seeing how the rest of this goes. Im going to guess that the front panel lighting is going to be white-but have you checked to see how blue or red looks as well? Some LED experimentation is in order I think; Blue would look especially nice against the red wood IMO

 

For the mouse, what about take a solid block of wood and machine it?

 

I initialy designed with red LEDs, blue just contrasts too much, it looks too sharp against the soft look of the wood. White allows for a solid glow, with out destracting from the look of the wood overall. In either case the LCD I have is white, and there is no going back on that.

That has been answered several times.

 

That wood is awful sexy looking. I have some ipe that looks much like that.

 

The case feet are done. (Well two of them so far)

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They are made using parts from Home Depot and plexiglass.
It is a rubber expansion something or other, a rubber washer, 1/8" lucite, 1/4" acrylic, 1/8" lucite, rubber washer.

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Each case foot has 9 LEDs, wired in three sets of three.
I used the cable from a RCA cable to provide power.
The cable runs down into the rubber stub, though a hole I cut, to the LEDs.
The LEDs have a 100ohm resistor to protect against overcurrent.

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Here are the two finished feet on the test base.
I can dim the case feet using the PWM output of the Matrix Oribtal LCD.

 

That looks sweet man!! Keep it going, as for your mouse is your veneir... (SP) doesn't work out, you can get a Vynyl that is wood looking to go over your mouse... should look the same.

 

Although it would take alot of wood and... time.. have you considered cutting the shape for the mouse out of a solid chunk of wood instead of molding a think sheet to the surface?

 

Zap, one again you have begun a wonderful mod. Keep it up

 

This project is so ****in cool...

 

Looks soooooo perfect.
If you aren't going to sell it(see my previous post), will you do one for me too?

 

Looking very good still, Zap. I like the way you made the curve by sawing increasingly deeper (and I can imagine how "fun" that must have been to sand afterwards). How would you describe the density (hardness/weight) of this wood compared to e.g. oak? (And by the way, how is 'padauk' pronounced?)

Piano hinges should be very commonly available, so I assume that Home depot also carry them. However, they are often quite big (the ones I've found are minimum 1cm in width). You might be able to get smaller, specialty hinges at a music repair store as you mention.

Anyway, looking really great, and keep up the amazing work!

 

No way, this thing is taking a lot of work...well I would built another but for a ton of money.

The curves took about an hour on eash piece, as I couldn't stress the sanding belt. (It barely lasted till the final piece)
The wood seems pretty unique, in hardness it can be discribed as very close to mohogany, in easy of cutting it's half-way to pine, and the pore-structure is like oak.

I have no idea exacly how Padauk is pernounced, I am not 100% sure that is the correct spelling, it's just the most popular spelling on google. I would guess "Pa-duke".

I edited my first update post with my info on piano hinges.

 

Once again Zap is doing great job! That wooden mouse seems to be impossible, so I'd leave it the way it is or try to find look-like-redwood-plastic... But I'm just loser

 

You mentioned that the padauk dust could be used to make dye, zap. Then perhaps you could mix up the dust with for instance epoxy, and smear it on the mouse. You could then sand it down afterwards, giving a smooth, real padauk surface. If you're worried about not getting any wood structure, you just blend different batches of dark and light, and mix them up a little while adding it to the mouse. I've gotten some nice structures that way, using different colors of wood putty.

 

That's creepy....... I was just about to post the same idea..........DEMON!!!!

 

Hmm, I may try that, I have saved quite a bit of saw-dust just in case I need filler. Can't hurt the mouse now. Since logitech is a sponsor I have asked if they will send me an MX1000 to do light modding on (Buttons and wheel out of wood)
I have a few small events coming up that I need the mouse for, otherwise I can bring my MX700 back from work.

 

Why don't you carve a new mouse out of a block of wood.

Just kidding! I've read the thread. Just thought I'd jump on the bandwagon.

Zap: Awesome project - as always. Addicted and subscribed. Can't wait to see what tricks you pull out of your hat - especially the "dial."

 

doh! (missed one post)

 

idea for the mouse

use a slightly thicker piece, shape it the same way you did on that last attempt, and then sand the bumps out.

if that doesnt work, you could use a few pieces of shaped wood and epoxy them together, sanding it down to hide seams

dont give up on it, it will look great with the theme

 

Nice work as always ZapWizard.
Are you planning to sand the edges of the case feet? If you are, would you sand it to create a consistent frosted glow or sand it to a nice clean smooth clear look?
As it is now it looks a bit bumpy, inconsistent and rough.