Accent Light In Acrylic, plywood and ebony veneer

Yet another thingy in my exploration of cubes.


The basic construction is an acrylic grid which is about 6 inches square. All the pieces slot together and hold without glue.

The cubes are then made out of standard 1/8 birch plywood and faced with ebony veneer. each cube slots into a spot in the frame.

In the very center is an array of blue lights pointing to the 8 corners of the frame.

I think next time I might embed the lights in the frame itself to get a bit more brightness. I also want to try some smaller 4 inch versions with solid blocks cut on the CNC (about .9 inches square) In truth, cutting and arranging that much veneer was a pain.

Also thinking about one where all the blocks light up individually with an arduino controller. Cover the blocks with rice paper and cut designs in the blocks so the appear when lit? So many ideas… I need minions.

Edit: I meant to attach this and forgot. It’s the cube file for the acrylic:

acrylic cube frame large plain

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Thanks for this write up. I like this as is, but look forward to the future iterations you envision.

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This is really great; I like the cube look! Reminds me of my Rubik’s cubes…

That would be so cool!

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Interesting!I have been playing with 3-inch blocks and how to play with designs even as inlays of other material, or paint in the engraving. Wondering if you just added the ebony to a brightly lit 6"-cube out of clear or seaglass acrylic.

The way you organized the ebony that the grain followed through is really nice.

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This is totally awesome! I want to make one now, haha.

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Oh my gosh this turned out so cool and thank you for that write up!

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I LOVE the modernist look of this. Very nice!

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Kinda looks like a sci-fi space cube. Very cool!

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Your cube turned out great. I like the look oy the acrylic and the dark wood.

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Ooooooooh :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

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Very cool!

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Acrylic will light better and brighter. If lit from within or along an edge.
Without seeing your acrylic cut files. It is tough to tell if it would make a difference.

Another option might be super bright LEDs.

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Nice! Thanks for writing it up!

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Man, that edge lit acrylic really sets it off. Excellent design! The idea of embedding the LED’s to more directly illuminate the acrylic has serious merit. It’s already outstanding in it’s appeal, yes, my imagination is running right behind yours.

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Ahmazing!!! Love this!

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I’m still stuck at working out how you do this!!! Feels like the magician sawing the girl in half.

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Just very cool!

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Thank you for the write-up, I was wondering how it was built.

Here is the file a bit larger for everyone, I missed it the first time I read your post.

cube-slots

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I edited the post to include a link to the file for the acrylic frame (at the bottom). It took me a while to wrap my brain around it too.

I tried just directly attaching the SVG but there was no preview, so it’s a dropbox link. Is there a particular way to add an svg to a post?

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I used the upload image feature using a desktop browser.