disclaimer: some of these posts are describing things that have already happened. im post documenting alot of things since i think this is a cool project that uses alot of different skills.

Im a person who really likes to see/touch what im building so the prototype was quick and dirty, i made some basic tabbed panels in sketchup:

at this point i wasnt worried about kerf, or fit, i just wanted a basic model i could show off to people and get feedback. i also needed to keep everything together, i decided on a captive nut approach and created one piece to hold the inner spire together, another to hold the outer spire together, and for now i just laser cut a base.to bolt everything together.

there were some pretty flimsy joints in this setup, especially in the larger pentagon. i didn't have enough room to bolt in the center or bolt on both sides, but offsetting the bolt worked well enough. until, it didn't.

it worked well enough for a proof of concept but barely. i used M3 nylon nuts and bolts that you can get from the usual sources (aliexpress, amazon, mcmaster). but i have a major redesign before i can get anything more done on the acrylic. it was a bear to get this together at all. next time, blinky lights!