A couple of years ago, I made a bowling trophy for a fake bowling tournament when some friends came to visit me in South Carolina. Beers consumed, memories revisited, fun all around. We’re doing it again this fall, so I made yet another trophy. But this time I integrated an LED lamp into the design. 3D printed base and bowling pin with marble PLA, with laser cut and engraved acrylic. I added 100mm standoffs to give it a professional look and voila! It lights up and stuff…
I’ve learned one thing you might consider - I’ll never make something with the LED base unless it’s wired to use a USB charger. We’ve all got plenty of those knocking around (or you can get them at the dollar store) and it’s not so much the expense, but the hassle of changing batteries. When I made a lantern for my daughter’s BCT (“Lantern of love”), I hacked the LED module to support direct wire..
One step ahead of you. When designing the base enclosure in fusion 360, I made sure to include an opening for the USB micro cable in case they wanted to plug it in to the lamp base directly.
Trophy like that pretty soon your fake bowling tournament is going to turn into a real bowling tournament!
Beautiful job
It looks amazing! I haven’t made an LED base in quite a while, but I like the ability to plug in also. Well done!
Of course you were!
For a fake trophy, it looks better than a real one. Beautiful work.
Nice!
Great job! It’s projects like this that make me think I should buy a 3D printer. And have more parties that involve a trophy.
Gorgeous! The winner of that trophy is really, really going to be happy to take that home! I’m sure it’ll be a hard-fought battle to win it!
The trophy is cool. I really like it, but now I’m more inspired to make an unofficial bowling tournament with friends. That sounds like a lot of fun.
Wild Pokemon bowling?
I’d probably have to make something weird…we’re not great bowlers. Maybe for every gutter, they draw a name of a song from a jar of songs, and they’ll have to sing it at karaoke right after bowling…. Might be there all night.
Buddha bowling!!!
The other thing on my “must do” list when making LED projects is to steal the on/off switch from light sets with integrated timers - the ones which have an embedded timer so when you turn it on it stays on for 6 or 8 hours before it turns itself off. You turn it on at something like 5pm and it will turn itself off at 11pm. That way you’re not having to turn them on and off everyday. Hobby Lobby & Michaels have various light sets or lighted tchotchkes that are really cheap after whatever holiday they’re themed for featuring this type of on/off control.
Or….use Alexa and a bunch of smart plugs and wireless light bulbs. Nearly my entire apartment uses those. Most all of my lights come on in the morning and go off at night according to schedules and the rest I can control with my phone. Caveat…..woe be unto anyone who decides to turn my lights on and off the conventional way…it messes with my set-up.
Or… use node red automations in Home Assistant to create tons of super needlessly complex automations because, well, because you can. I call this one Star Wars Mode. I just have to say “May the force be with you” to Alexa. I’ll go back to hiding in my hole now.
Waaaayyy over my head, but I love it. I just plain love technology.
I use the 6 hour versions for all my holiday products — 6 on / 18 off makes the perfect daily timer.
OK, we’re off on a tangent but all lighting and many other things in my home were automated and voice-controlled. A combination of Hue, Wemo and Alexa, plus some ittt (if this then that) customization.
I hate technology - because I’ve been in the industry since the 80’s! But I will use any tool that makes my life simpler.