After making the single pane night light Lithophane holder, I decided to try something that would hold more images. I first had to find a light source, and thanks to folks at Reddit for the inspiration, I found one that I think may work. It's on order but I have already roughed out a design to hold the light source inside a holder that is going to rotate. The bearing is not the right type (its a slew bearing and not a thrust bearing), roughly based on this thing. I could have used a thrust bearing but I couldn't wrap my head around how to retain the bb's that will be used with it, and I did not want the whole thing to fall apart. There is not much weight however and lots of bearing surface, so I'm hopeful the poor choice of bearing will work out in the end. If not I will have to figure something else out.
Unless the stars really align for this one, it will be a while before I can post it up though. I get the feeling it will take a few test prints to get everything right. I'm planning to print this using Hatchbox Wood PLA, which I have had good luck with in the past.
I still need to re-test the single lithophane night light, hopefully I can get that one posted well before Christmas.
Unless the stars really align for this one, it will be a while before I can post it up though. I get the feeling it will take a few test prints to get everything right. I'm planning to print this using Hatchbox Wood PLA, which I have had good luck with in the past.
I still need to re-test the single lithophane night light, hopefully I can get that one posted well before Christmas.
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Update 12-11-2021: Just a couple of parts from this. Having it on the printer really made me realize how large this will end up, but I think it will be OK. I can always scale it down if I have to. It should still fit on an Ender3. The cone thing is not some crazy colander, it's a diffuser with holes to allow heat to escape from the LEDs (the top also has holes). The base will have some holes to also allow an updraft around the LED holder. I also found another possible light source for a lithopane - its an Ikea HALVKLART, which appears to be a USB puck light. It would probably even work with this design since I have designed it to hold a 100mm diameter light source. I'm gonna stick with what I have though, for now at least. If it turns out that it's just too large I may try something else.
 This was supposed to be a diffuser, however the LED I used did not require it so it is not used in the final version. |  |
Update 12/18/2021 - I'm almost done printing this, but I still have the base to do, and I may run out of the wonderful Hatchbox Wood PLA (which is sold out on Amazon unfortunately). I may need to make the base in another color but I will attempt it with what I have left. I decided to go with the Ikea HALVKLART as the light source, since it is very bright and already has a nice diffuser. It pulls about (edit) 170mA at 5V and it's a decently bright light. I designed a very simple way to turn the light on and off with a tap of the knob, which is yet to be tested. I'm hoping to get this done this week so I can send it off, though it will arrive too late for Christmas I'm sure. I will try and get this posted as soon as I can verify it works.
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Update 12/20/2021 - Getting very close now, I'm printing the last part before I can partly assemble it and confirm the fit on the slew bearing using some 6mm airsoft BB's as bearings. I decided to do a filament swap on the base to both conserve PLA and maybe make a smoother surface for the BB's to roll on. I also did a quick test of the Ikea LED and it works really well, even with the lights on. There is a cool pattern that the top throws to the ceiling as well, it's not quite like random stars but I like it. The light "switch" which is really just a push rod, also works.
Update 12/21/2021 - I put this together and found that the mechanism for pressing the top of the LED to turn it off and on was not working well, so I re-designed it and hopefully it will work this time. It is really just a pushrod, but it has to allow the top to turn while the base of the rod does not wobble off the LED. As usual I think I over-complicated this but if the stupid complex version doesn't work I will revert to something simpler.
Update 12/24/2021 - This was completed and works great (also looks pretty good too). I posted this in another blog entry above, but thought I should post here also - the final design is now posted at Instructables (where it got featured in "Workshop" and is entered in their "Anything Goes" contest). It is also uploaded to thingiverse:
www.instructables.com/Triple-Pane-Lithophane-Lamp/
www.thingiverse.com/thing:5172186
Update 12/24/2021 - This was completed and works great (also looks pretty good too). I posted this in another blog entry above, but thought I should post here also - the final design is now posted at Instructables (where it got featured in "Workshop" and is entered in their "Anything Goes" contest). It is also uploaded to thingiverse:
www.instructables.com/Triple-Pane-Lithophane-Lamp/
www.thingiverse.com/thing:5172186
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