Final Result
Idea
When it comes to a box, the first thought that comes to my mind is a music box. I happen to have a handcrank mechanical mini DIY music box that I bought from a gift store a few years ago, so I think this could be fun to include this in my enclosure. I also inspired by the flashlight made by Tora in the second class, so I want to explore light and acrylic paper in this project as well. Therefore what I want to make for this class is a music box with light interaction.
Materials
Since I want the light can be seen through the box, I need something that is transparent. I planned to make an acrylic box, yet I found this in Wholefood unexpectedly. This glass vase is a cube with a top open and uneven grids surrounded, which could offer different refraction of light inside. I also bought two acrylic boards (6” x 12” x 1/8”), one is matt white transparent and one is a single-side mirror. I thought it would be fun if I put some cylinders covered with acrylic paper to obtain more light effects.
Measurements and Prototypes
Since the music box has an irregular shape, I had a hard time measuring its dimension. The most tricky part is to measure the location of nails, which I need to put holes in the acrylic to fix the music box.
I also encountered some difficulties measuring the length and width of the square grid cube glass vase, since its inner wall is not flat at all. I had to tape some hard acrylic boards on the inner walls to measure the dimension with calipers.
To test the measurement of the glass dimension is accurate, I cut the cardboard and drilled holes at corners on both cardboards. I connected two boards with four stand-offs that I found in the drawer containing nails. This simple prototype allowed me to do an easy and quick test to check whether my measurement was correct or not. It turned out that my bottom board was a bit larger so I had to scale it down to make sure that it would not be stuck.
After this quick test, I started to draw diagram in Illustrator.
I ran some tests about the size, location of holes on cardboard before I started to laser cut on my acrylic. From these tests, I knew: 1. do not put corner holes too close to the edge, which will mess up the shape of holes and edges of the board; 2. the cut that laser cutter produce could not exactly match what I measured with calipers. I adjusted a few times about the distance between three smalls holes to fix the music box legs in this cardboard prototype, which was really a time-consuming part.
I located the battery holder, and music box on the bottom board to check if they could fit in.
Implementation
Soldering
In this project, I have two major parts to solder: one is the potentiometer and the other is the LED light. To protect the LED light, I also soldered a 220 ohm resistor along with it.
Decors
To enhance light effects, I also cut some cylinders and covered them with acrylic paper. I placed these decors at the bottom of the glass vase to have beautiful light refraction.
This is how it looks when I put LED into a cylinder and when the glass is filled with decors.
Put all things together.
In the future
I did not notice that the height of the music box was not determined by the handle on the side but by the gear. I could not cover the glass vase seamlessly with my open board because of this slight flaw. This made me feel a bit disappointed but also taught me a lesson — “Always measure twice”.