Intro to Fabrication: Week 01

March 31, 2021

Inspiration

My initial goal for this assignment was to recreate this technique from Brooklyn-based artist Eric Forman. I like how invisible the technology comes.

I also felt like, as a flashlight, it was a great tool to act as a hands-free illumination in small areas.

Ultimately, I failed, but my final output is OK.

Materials

First, I grabbed some materials.

Leftover wood piece
diffuse acrylic
leftover 12V White LED strips
Birch Veneer

I didn’t end up needing to buy any of this stuff, I was able to find it in my room, at work, and at school.

I didn’t take pictures of this (my bad), but I laser cut out a few strips of acrylic in order to test the veneer.

Before I tested it, I needed to make sure that I was getting power to my LEDs. I was able to use a desktop supply to play with the distance between the acrylic and the LEDs.

The veneer isn’t quite thin enough, but I decided I had to work with it and continue. Next was trying to figure out how to route out a pattern to lay the veneer in. Now that time has passed, I know of a way to do this effectively, but for now, I’ll explain my initial, flawed process.

First, I realized that I needed to shave off the top of the wood (should have just sanded the edges of the acrylic to fit into a triangle space).

I then thought I could use the Dremel to grind out the inside. Sadly, the dremels on the floor have about 2 usable bits and they were too small to make this project work.

After this, I knew I had to try again. I re-thought my process and ended up having the idea to make a standing statue (I messed it up) that can be put on its side, but isn’t veneered (it became too dim). Here is that design process.

Unfortunately, I spent so long focused on getting my circuit to fit, that I failed to document most of the process. Here are the tools I used.

I ended up needing to use a different switch, which totally messed up my initial build. As such, the bottom of my statue not only looks like a botcher surgery, it doesn’t stand on its own anymore :(

Final Piece

Given a second shot and some more familiarity, I know I could make this way better. Until then, here is my flashlight.

I also 3D printed a cap because I forgot about the top of the light.

Written by Philip Cadoux, current ITP student and Creative Technologist. Follow me on Instagram