Well now, this is just magnificent. It’s clever and well executed and just plain fancy.
Out of curiosity, did any one part take much longer than expected, or was it a cumulative effect where each individual step just took a bit longer than expected?
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Seriously. . . WOW! Unbelievable! Nothing short of incredibly talented! Well done! ! ! 
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Worth the wait!! Glad to see you weren’t a red shirt - starting to worry when there hasn’t been a beta project 
Awesome job!!! Live long and prosper…
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Very nice. I like the idea of laser plus other techniques. Especially disguising the finger-jointed box thing.
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Thanks for posting. I know just about zero about working with wood so even the most remedial instruction on how to make a box like that is very helpful.
What kind of tool do I need to make those rounded edges?
And what kind of putty for the gaps?
(FWIW I can vouch for the hammered metal look spraypaint too, it’s really neat stuff.)
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FRIKKEN INCREDIBLE. I need to take some electronics engineering classes, BADLY!!
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I have used the Rustoleum Hammered Black several times for jeep bumpers and armor. If you have a pitted surface, or something that takes hits from rocks and needs frequent touch-ups, it can create a nicely uniform hammered look that hides the actual deformations.
It can be tricky to get an even hammered look, however, as you need to apply it thick enough to allow it to form the texture, while still avoiding runs and drips. I would guess i spray it at about half the speed per pass as i would with normal rusto/krylon gloss.
I can’t say I have ever tried it on wood. Looks great.
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Very nice!
How did you do the dimensions on the tabs?
Hofstadter’s Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.
— Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Thanks for all the great comments!
Here are some links to the various materials:
Kylon sandable primer (I used about 5 coats of this, sanding lightly in-between coats)
Krylon hammered bronze Paint (3 light coats)
Also some flat black that I had laying around
Patience (no link available, sorry 
)
Basic methodology is to prime, then smear on some putty, scrape it off with a flat edged plastic scraper, then sand smooth. Use a sanding block behind your sandpaper to get rid of grain and imperfections. Prime, sand, and then putty again. Rinse, repeat until it is smooth enough to satisfy the voice in your head (mine is my father’s). The put on a few light coats of paint trying to switch directions as much as possible between coats. Rattle can painting takes practice and rarely looks great (this is really only OK on close inspection).
The electronics are really simple (no engineering needed @nunzioc).
The Adafruit site has lots of great examples and tutorials:
The most important thing I always tell people about making physical objects is that it is really really hard to make the first one look like what you want! At a few points I almost tossed it out and started over since I did not really know where I was going when I started, and I was unhappy with the way some part of it looked (like the big CA glue drip on the plastic from gluing on the LAST neopixel 
. But the time constraints meant that I had to suck it up and just finish it.
@bill_laba Yes the paint on the edges of the plastic was supposed to keep the light from illuminating the inside of the box. It kinda works, but I should really have glued the LEDs on first and then painted over them. (see the proceeding paragraph…)
@GrooveStranger I used a wood router under a router table with a round over bit. Go to youtube, search on rounding edges with a router. Remember to keep the blood on the inside!
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Electronics is a lot easier than back in the day. You can learn everything you need for this on line. Baby steps, but you can work into it without classes.
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You can learn everything you need for this on line.
Exactly!
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Cool…can anyone point me to some sites?
Just going to add in another wow into the mix. Wow.
First picture I thought “He is cheating using a metal box to house the cut acrylic he did.” ;D
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nicely done!
I won’t suggest specific sites but find a Arduino along with a beginner kit and things will start to cascade from there. Start by building and reverse engineer other peoples projects and soon you will be doing your own.
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That’s just mean! 
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I’ve been wondering about trying my hand at some custom electronics. I’ve played with electronics in the form of pre-made RC components, and plenty of automotive electronic components. But I have never done anything with a breadboard or programing. When I don’t know anything about something like this, I generally prefer to start with a “complete” kit of some type, preferably from a respected name-brand entity
Would I be best served going with the Arduino Basic Kit, or is there something else that I (and others) should look into that makes more sense.
I must admit that I am tempted to start with a Lego Mindstorms kit because 
Legos!
Someone will surely tell me why that’s not in my best interest… or is it?
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Yeah! R3PTAR!
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Lego mindstorms is awesome, but…
It is very expensive, and not very generalizable to other things.
You are better off with the arduino kit in my opinion.
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