stevep2204 Posted January 3, 2017 Report Share Posted January 3, 2017 I know, I'm a little late to the Christmas project posting, but I figured it was better late than never. The first project I made was for my brother-in-law and his wife. My wife, being obsessed with Pinterest, kept finding these patio cooler posts that she thought were really cool and asked if I could make one. I had her show me a handful that she liked and tell me what she liked about them, and then I put this together in SketchUp. I think the final dimensions ended up being somewhere around 5' long x 3' tall x 2ish' deep. This was a pretty simple build. Nothing too difficult or out of the ordinary. Project number two was something I put together for my sister and her husband. *Quick background - both my sister and her husband are big Bacardi Limon fans. Whenever we get together, Limon and Diet Coke is the go-to drink for them (and pretty much the entire family). Needless to say, I decided I wanted to put together a special project for them. The basic idea came from an April Wilkerson video that I saw a while back (https://www.wilkerdos.com/2016/05/diy-backlit-led-sign/). I loved the way her sign came out, and using her tutorial, I figured I could put together a killer one of my own. So that led me to Google Images, and I went from there. After clicking around for a while, I came up with a couple photos that I really liked. Instead of just settling for one, I decided I wanted to combine the two. That led me over to the Adobe website where I downloaded a Photoshop free trial. After a little messing around, I was able to put the two images together (Photoshop has some awesome tutorials for those of you that haven't tried). Little did I know, that was only a small part of the project. Because of potential copyright issues, I wasn't able to just go to a FedEx and have them enlarge the photo for me like April did. Luckily, I remembered that my mom does a ton of artsy stuff and used to have a tracing machine that would project an image onto a wall. After searching around her basement for a little while, I was able to find the tracing machine in perfect working order! So I took that home with me and projected the image onto a piece of poster board that was the exact size of the plexiglass I planned on using. Despite being a pain to work around my own shadow, the tracing turned out pretty awesome and gave me confidence in the rest of the project (despite never etching glass before). Once the plexiglass finally arrived (5 days late - on Christmas Eve nonetheless), I dry-fit it into the frame that I made just to make sure it fit before etching. Luckily the seller gave me the correct dimensions (or close enough), and everything I pre-made fit together perfectly. Then came the etching. Surprisingly, this was significantly easier than I thought it would be; I used a Dremel and the same bits that April recommended. All I had to do was put the plexiglass over the top of the poster board that I traced on and follow along the image from there. Trying to get the circle perfect wasn't the easiest task, but it came out pretty dang good if you ask me. After that, it was as simple as dropping the finished plexiglass into the dado that I made for it and attaching the top piece of the frame. Alright, I've talked enough. Time to get to the goods. The final project ended up being roughly 2'x3'. Not exactly sure why the lighting ended up being so blah in the second photo, but at least it shows the lights. The actual lights don't look anywhere near that dark and yellow (more bright white-ish), but it gets the point across. I didn't buy the adapter to change colors via the iPhone, but I think they will probably end up adding it (seems simple enough). I think it came out pretty awesome though, and more importantly, they loved it. Anyways, just wanted to share with the crew. Happy New Year everyone! 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveJr. Posted January 3, 2017 Report Share Posted January 3, 2017 Very nice work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohiostatebuckeyefan Posted January 3, 2017 Report Share Posted January 3, 2017 Good work on both projects. Sent from my XT1058 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigmikez Posted January 3, 2017 Report Share Posted January 3, 2017 Nice work there man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevep2204 Posted January 5, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2017 Thanks guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisK Posted January 5, 2017 Report Share Posted January 5, 2017 Fantastic work Steve, love that table design! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foneguy Posted January 5, 2017 Report Share Posted January 5, 2017 Nice work dude ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted January 6, 2017 Report Share Posted January 6, 2017 Fantastic! Love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EEtwidget Posted January 13, 2017 Report Share Posted January 13, 2017 Great job ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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