Prototype crunch time

[Doug Griffith]

I've been working on an evolved version of a light I mentioned in an earlier thread (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?198976-I-need-a-laser-sticker-suggestion) and ran into a few snags. Of course there was a convention we were shooting for and it was about 6 weeks away. I needed to redesign a good chunk of the product to meet industry requests. My first snag was the extrusions. We were supposed to get tooling made and have samples in our hands for 3 out of the 4 profiles needed. The 4th one I just 3D printed. Well, the other extrusions were going to be one day late which was too late for us to make the convention. We didn't find this out until the last day so it was too late to 3D print them. So, in a nutshell, I thickened up the profile inwards, cut it out of 1/4" MDF, stacked and glued. A little sanding and black spray paint and all was well. I made 8) 2 1/2" long pieces like shown in the photos below. They worked perfectly.

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My second issue (that a laser could help with) was the control panel. It's supposed to be made from a flat plate of aluminum. The PCB layout was a moving target because the switches were coming from Poland (a story in itself) and they might have changed last minute. In a nutshell, I didn't have the layout completed until the day before the show so I had to cut the plate out of acrylic. It was spray painted black and looks like the aluminum parts.

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After a few all-nighters the lights made it to the show today:
https://vine.co/v/b3zMbZhYrTQ?fb_action_ids=324998260965035%2C324936 700971191&fb_action_types=vine-app%3Apost&fb_source=other_multiline

[Chuck Stone]

I have no idea what it is, but it LOOKS cool!!

Do you need sunscreen with it?

[Lee DeRaud]

Very cool.

I've been a fan of using laminated MDF for quick & dirty fabrication since the first day I had the laser...it works a lot better than people give it credit for.