Project Logs

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• It's Alive!

  Colin Russell-Conway • 07/08/2021 at 17:06 • 0 comments

  Wiring was fairly simple with this driver.  I had it lying around from another project to put strips in under the cabinets in the kitchen but never got around to it.  The old Halogen ones were fine for now, I needed brightness elsewhere!  Two cables in (AC), two cables out (DC) simples.  The hard part was making sure they stayed in the case while I put it together.  A few countersunk M3 bolts made it easy and flush to keep together.  The inline switch was easy enough too, the only thing with these cheap ones that need to be crimped together is that I'm not comfortable with them having young kids around.  I generally squish the cable into the contact and solder it and put some hotglue over it just prior to squishing it together so I know its fairly stuck and can't be opened by some curious whippersnappers.

  Low and behold, it works.  It works well.  It's bright, shines down (which is the main thing) and also provides light on me for when I'm in video calls with the office so I don't look like a vampire or shadow demon.  

  The glue on the back of the strip wasn't great so since assembly I've added a few 3d printed clips.  I wanted to preserve the natural wood look too so kept it to only 5 clips around the frame.  

• Electronics

  Colin Russell-Conway • 07/08/2021 at 17:00 • 0 comments

  Using the dimensions, I modeled up the strip in my favourite CAD (123D Design as its easy and quick). and used this to create a case and clamp for the 12v LED driver.  I had some in line switches hanging around too and an old 2 core cable with a plug which was perfect.  After a few hours modelling the lot together, some printing and an M8 bolt and nut, it was time for assembly.  

• Shaping

  Colin Russell-Conway • 07/08/2021 at 16:58 • 0 comments

  Using what I had to hand (and with a can-do attitude), I cut the strips, glued them, clamped them around the mudguard and let it sit for 24 hours.  Some had slightly separated so required more glue and clamp-age and another 24 hours.  After this I (CAREFULLY) ran the curved shape through the router table to trim it to a somewhat uniform size and use the jigsaw to trim the edges.  I sanded it a little to remove any burns from the router and even out the width a little on at some thicker spots followed  by adding a little sunflower oil to give it a uniform colour and darken the wood so any burn marks left blended in.  I had the basic dimensions now for the wood and a length for the strip.

• Researching

  Colin Russell-Conway • 07/08/2021 at 16:55 • 0 comments

  I spent a couple of hours trying to find a way to curve wood, as I had some thin sheets I found the easiest way was to cut the sheet into narrow strips and glue them together in a curve.  Unfortunately the only thing that was large enough to curve around was an old bike mudguard!  To had I had a jigsaw and a router with a table.  It seemed very possible

• Materials

  Colin Russell-Conway • 07/08/2021 at 16:51 • 0 comments

  First job was to make sure I had the stuff to build it.  I had an idea in my head what I wanted it to be but as it might take a while for bits to arrive (with Brexit and ships stuck in the Suez and Covid-19 impacting the world).  What I had on hand was a 12v led strip, an led driver, some pieces of 3mm mdf with an oak veneer and a 3d printer - pretty much all I needed to get started. 

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