So, a month ago, I came up with the idea of carving a 48x24-inch sign for my shop using a 2mm endmill only. I can hear some people ask: Why!?
Halfway through the process, I have asked myself that very question too, but we never stop halfway, and having that sign complete, I know why. Because it’s different, and I wondered if I could pull it off using my stash of “youneverknow” rubbis.
Material: Meranti plywood, addressable led strip with sound driver, simple color led strip connecting to my office system, glass fiber, PU varnish, and a few cast iron squares.
The idea - to punch millions of holes through a slab of plywood and fill them with a small piece of fiber to act as a lens, conducting light emitted by direct and indirect light from various light sources.
The curse - filling millions of 2.3-mm holes with a small piece of glass fiber and fixing them in place.
Electronics: Pretty straight-forward cutting and resoldering strips to more or less match the hole pattern for primary lightning and more simple strips for indirect filler light on the outside of the lettering. Have I mentioned there are millions of holes in the pattern?
Testing Primairy strips in sound mode because it’s a good excuse to crank up the volume.
They will prolly only ever be in sound mode at New Year; the rest of it’s days it will be more or less a knight rider light, but it never hurts to have a party mode in your lights, so I went for it.
Farnish: Multiple layers of PU farnish high gloss.
Hanging the contraption to my shop, firing her up for the first time, and enjoying the view while zipping a glass of glĂĽhwine and singing Oh Tanenbaum.
I will never, ever make such a sign again! My brain died during the many hours of glass fiber cutting and hasn’t come back online since.
