My wife wanted a German candle pyramid for a while and I figured; since our living room is Pirates of the Caribbean themed, why not kill two parrots with one laser.
This features pirates and wenches from the original, un-P.C. version along with the lamps, railings, signage and talking skull (“fairly warned, ye be, says I!”) from the attraction. The top is Captain Jack Sparrow’s compass (the needle inside also spins).
Took 10 months of off and on design and trial and error to design and a week to fabricate.
The hardest part: getting the slots the right size so that the tabs fit snuggly. My answer: make sure they’re square (i.e. if the board is 3/16th of an inch thick, make the tab cut 3/16th of an inch. Then, reduce the slot square to 97.5% for a snug fit.)
One design element I’m particularly happy with is the roof. Since it was a hexagon, I first cut the whole thing out and then scored the tiles on in sections, rotating the piece six times. That way the smoke from the laser always blew downwards, creating faux-shadows.
If you’re wondering, she loves it.
That took some work. Such a lovely and engaging design. Very well proportioned. The fans are a neat look. Thanks for posting and especially doing the video.
It took me ten months to be “worthy” and even then, there’s some really janky stuff going on behind the scenes to make it work (reusing part of an old drawing compass, the top of an candle jar, a rubber band, etc.)
My parents had a little metal one with angels and that had dingers hanging from their bellies that would hit the bells as the “flew” around. I always looked forward to watching it spin and ding!
