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 This is my friend Daina. She is pictured here at my wedding signing as a witness. Recently she was having some bad times and other life complications. I decided to do something nice for her and spruce up her new apartment. I used this photo (photography by Ryan Cummings) and cropped it down to her bust.  The project begins.  I then made a negative of the image. (free online editor at http://www181.lunapic.com/editor/)  I then uploaded that image to http://rasterbator.net/ and set it as 4 sheets wide, rasterbation, black on white, interlaced half-tone, circle, grid size 10mm, raster size 0-60% (The min dot size will be 0mm and the max will be 6mm). I now have my dots!  Your standard 4x8 MDF board cut in half, then trimmed again to 37x36 inches.  We went metric on this mofo. (it's just easier to work with.) Measuring every 5mm for rows, 10mm for columns.  I then drew lines across and down. (Rows shown here)  Completed lines and table for scale  Removing the unused portions, I got a nice outline.  MOAR DOTS! In total, roughly 8,000 dots give or take. I measured every single dot with a transparent ruler, rounding the measurement up to the nearest .5mm and then wrote the measurement to the lower right of the dot.  Transcribing the measurements from the paper to the board. (Watching "The Wire" all the way through during this project.)  A close up of the dots and measurements.  I pulled out my drill bits (standard, not metric) I converted the sizes to metric and I had my bits labeled from 1.5 to 6. (Rough approximations in mm)  To massively cut down on time, I used an old pair of work gloves to apply friction to the drill chuck to reduce spin down time. This allowed me to stop the drill faster and point it at the next dot faster. This probably cut the drill time by 1/3.  All the dots drilled. Time to stain it. Since this was going in her house, I showed her some sample stains to find out which she liked best and she settled on Bombay Mahogany. I knew it wouldn't stain perfectly as this was MDF, but I figured that if it turned out terrible, I could always just paint it.  I applied Minwax pre-stain and then the Minwax stain. I had to apply a few extra coats to some sections that weren't taking the stain as well. Here's how it ended up. Not a perfect stain, but I like it. (The flash on the phone camera washed the color out a lot.)  While letting the stain dry, I cut out a backing frame from some 2"x1" boards. I gorilla glued the pieces together and clamped. Once they dried, I used 3M spray glue and rolled some foam fabric over one side. I cut away the excess and it left a nice foam edge to go against the wall. (The purpose is to allow a seamless fit against the wall, once properly mounted, to keep light from escaping out the sides.)  I bought some LED ribbon off Amazon.com and attached it to the inside of the frame. I had to use a bit of the 3M spray glue to get the converter box/transceiver to stay down. (the depth of the box is also why I had to use a backing frame and the foam padding.)  I pulled down some other wall art for a test hanging (Hence why there is some light escaping from the sides.) Not too shabby if I do say so myself. She hasn't seen it yet as it is her Christmas gift. If she doesn't like it, I told my wife we could just keep it hung up on the wall and add a plaque to the bottom saying "In loving memory."
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Dec 24, 2014 20:38
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Your wife must be a cool lady.
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Dec 24, 2014 21:23
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Wow, this looks like it had to be a maddening process, but that end result is pretty amazing.
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Dec 24, 2014 22:33
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Aliquid posted:Your wife must be a cool lady. My wife is a very cool lady. I love her so much.
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Dec 25, 2014 02:18
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Wet Fifty posted:My wife is a very cool lady. I love her so much. (read: my wife has an account here)
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Dec 25, 2014 18:08
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Other than the weirdness of giving someone art of their own face, this is really awesome. I mean, no offense, I don't know your friend and her tastes as well as you do (obviously) but I don't really imagine someone other than some kind of Patrick Bateman-style executive wanting their own face rendered large in some fine art format on their wall.
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Dec 27, 2014 00:29
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Pile of Kittens posted:Other than the weirdness of giving someone art of their own face, this is really awesome. I mean, no offense, I don't know your friend and her tastes as well as you do (obviously) but I don't really imagine someone other than some kind of Patrick Bateman-style executive wanting their own face rendered large in some fine art format on their wall. Yeah, I get that. It was a concern, but she really liked the photo. She also has the occasional bout of low-selfesteem so having a giant picture of your face in lights might help. I don't know, I just wanted to make something nice for someone. I've been on a new life trip looking at things and asking myself, "I wonder if I could do that." and then doing it. So far I've built a large dinner/gaming table, another piece of wall art(Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day and the Owlbear from tabletop) and now this. It all started as just a way to keep myself from getting depressed.
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Dec 27, 2014 19:10
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Well, it's her walls, and if she likes it, she likes it. You're a good friend for making such a thoughtful gift.
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Dec 28, 2014 08:13
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This is pretty awesome, dude. Art by friends always gets a prominent place on a highly visible wall in my house, and if I were your friend, I'd probably make this piece greet you at the door. That table you constructed is making me super jealous, too. I don't have access to any decent tools, but you're still giving me ideas.
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Dec 28, 2014 19:14
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Baron Fuzzlewhack posted:This is pretty awesome, dude. Art by friends always gets a prominent place on a highly visible wall in my house, and if I were your friend, I'd probably make this piece greet you at the door. At the time I built that table, I had a jigsaw, a circular saw, a miter saw, and a palm sander. Not even a table saw.
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Dec 28, 2014 22:05
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This is a neat technique, I'll have to remember it for future reference. It looks like a great materials-cheap way to make good art. Very nice result btw.
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Dec 29, 2014 01:29
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8000 holes to drill! I don't think I like any of my friends that much. You're a nice dude 
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Dec 29, 2014 05:20
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Very cool idea and great outcome As a suggestion to again cutting down time, consider using diff colored sharpee markers for diff sizes instead of writing all those numbers (and half numbers)? Also, to reduce light escaping, have you considered adding a backboard? Again, excellent work! funkmaztafox fucked around with this message at 08:07 on Dec 29, 2014 |
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Dec 29, 2014 06:32
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funkmaztafox posted:Very cool idea and great outcome Not sure how I would do a backboard with the way I have the wire mounting. It would be preferable to do a backboard if the customer doesn't have white walls. As far as the sharpie goes, it would take longer switching between markers instead of just quickly writing down the line. I considered it, but it really was going to add more time instead of saving time. I would also have to memorize 10 different sharpie colors and their corresponding mm values. That creates a larger chance of error on my part. The way I do it now is measure a columns worth of dots at a time, writing the measurements down, then when I have a page done I fold the page to have the column I am working on exposed to the right. I place the paper to the left of the column on the board I am working on and just go down the list writing the measurements. Takes about 30 seconds per column to write the measurements on the board.
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Dec 29, 2014 20:38
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drat dude you have the patience of a saint. How many hours do you think you spent on it? I wonder if there was a way to get the rasterbation program to output each dot as a color/number/symbol that corresponds to it's size, instead of the dots themselves. You could print it out and glue it temporarily to the board, then just drill through the paper. It'd save all the gridmaking and marking steps. PS I hope a mod fixes your tag, this isn't a shitpost
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Dec 29, 2014 23:29
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Wet Fifty posted:Not sure how I would do a backboard with the way I have the wire mounting. It would be preferable to do a backboard if the customer doesn't have white walls. Didnt think about having to change sharpees as you go. Good point. As for the backing, i see what youre saying. I was thinking like this: http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-f79a95145d28a873f39934437c7af5eb?convert_to_webp=true but instead of the brown paper backing, something more white. Granted, the wire would be embedded anymore within the frame but what you lose in mounting flushness, you gain in reduce light escaping.
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Dec 29, 2014 23:45
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funkmaztafox posted:Didnt think about having to change sharpees as you go. Good point. Honestly, the light escaping isn't really noticeable unless you look for it. Oh, and the 3M stick tape that comes with the LED lights is always poo poo. Hot glue that fucker in place. Wet Fifty fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Dec 30, 2014 |
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Dec 30, 2014 01:45
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Stupid question, will the LEDs ever need replacing or just the battery?
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Dec 30, 2014 04:05
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Congrats making the front page of reddit
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Dec 30, 2014 08:39
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Laminator posted:Congrats making the front page of reddit I... um... oh dear. That is something. I never expected that.
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Dec 30, 2014 12:31
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If you have access to CNC equipment and can figure out some software way to interpret pictures into circles of the appropriate size and spacing you could speed this up a LOT.
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Dec 30, 2014 23:35
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Parts Kit posted:If you have access to CNC equipment and can figure out some software way to interpret pictures into circles of the appropriate size and spacing you could speed this up a LOT. That is the goal. I am entering my university's woodworking program on the 5th so I will find out if they have one. I know I am taking some CAD classes this semester too.
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Dec 31, 2014 02:23
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It certainly won't be the same thing as what you're using in class but if you need practice Autodesk Fusion 360 is free for student/hobbyist use. If you get lucky they might even have a huge CNC machine that has automatic tool changing! ed: oh yeah I think I'm going to give this idea of yours a shot, but with a vector drawing from Illustrator sent to Fusion 360 for 'pocket' cuts in mdf. Just wanted to remember to say thanks for posting it, really neat idea.
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Dec 31, 2014 04:13
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Parts Kit posted:It certainly won't be the same thing as what you're using in class but if you need practice Autodesk Fusion 360 is free for student/hobbyist use. Thank you for the support. Hope yours turns out well. Post in here with a link once you get yours done.
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Dec 31, 2014 06:48
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I saw this on reddit, cool project dude.
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Dec 31, 2014 18:30
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dreesemonkey posted:I saw this on reddit, cool project dude. Thanks!
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Dec 31, 2014 20:29
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Did this with a laser cutter. Wasn't able to set it to cut through the plywood though. Next time.
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Feb 14, 2015 18:52
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Suicide Watch posted:Did this with a laser cutter. Wasn't able to set it to cut through the plywood though. Next time. Most laser cutters have a focal length that tops out at 3/8 of an inch. Use 1/4 inch plywood and set it at 50-75% speed. ALWAYS do a test cut on similar wood to make sure you get all the way through before running a full print.
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Feb 15, 2015 17:50
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