Joyce's 22nd (belated 21st) Bdae present

It's been sometime since my last handmade present. Whether cos it's therapeutic or just plain meaningful, I dun really need a reason. I just like doing them. Which is kind of an irony cos I just plain suck at art. I just hope whoever did receive any handmade present of mine will like or maybe even to the extend of treasure them. Cos they are all really made through extensive designing and sourcing of materials. Very wu3 sim1 (got heart) one ok!

This present is sort of a belated gift. Suppose to be for Joyce's 21st bdae. Would have been a fitting gift to signify such a significant point in her life. Esp that year she gave me a hand drawn card and a erm.. helicopter that she built and spray painted. Really touched. Never expected ppl at this time and age still can do presents manually. I dun count. I'm a weirdo.

This present was originally designed to be an image projector box for slide film with some surprises inside. Perhaps the idea came from a collimation of my 2 most recent hobbies: Portable illumination (Torchlight) and Imaging (Photography). Getting a suitable optic for the projection was a real headache. And if you remember from your physics class, the focal point adjustment would drive you to suicide. Since I have no wish to end up giving Joyce her 21st bdae present when she is 210 yrs old, the idea was dropped. Or perhaps just temporary KIVed. An idea is like a journal article, not of use now but perhaps a treasure to some other researchers (or present makers) in time to come. All are too good to waste. Too bad i lost the drawing plan!! Argh! Oh well. It's still in my head.
To prevent anymore info loss, the designs of the present from then on was planned in an Excel sheet. From the materials, to the steps, to the timeline.... even contain all the images I googled and from past photos.. those I intend to use in this present. From preconception till end product, the present design was modified numerous times (I had a year to do it since I cannot complete my final design before her 21st bdae due to exams stress...ooops!). Not to mention lots of design changes even DURING the making process.. ahhh.. the never ending quest for perfection!
The final design was a table top display ornament... yeah boring idea, but I like that idea! Hah!

After many trips to Sim Lim Towers, bras basah complex, daiso, paper market, online shopping, etc, to brainstorm for ideas and acquire all the materials.....
Let the official construction begin!

Using my vernier calipers, I took measurements of the inner diameter of the glass dome. This was done quite arga arga cos the LCD display gave up on me years ago... while my knowledge on how to use it gave up even longer ago... after sec sch I think!

Hah... My ingenious eat snake method of doing the measurement...

Drawing the cross lines from corner to corner to determine the center of the board.

Now drawing the inner circumference using the compass.

There you go... perfectly centred inner circumference!
Just a check... perfect...

After measuring and aligning with the compass... the outer circumference too.

To fix the hinge to the 2 bottom base board.

Gotta mark out the holes for the screws, which I had to buy from another supplier cos the ones that comes with the hinges are not suitable.

Now using my trusty Dremel to drill the holes for the screws.

Next will be the LED diffuser...actually it's a decapitated squeeze bottle hah...

But the walls are abit too opaque so using clear tape on the inside and outside to solve this prob....

Next is to wrap the diffuser with grills. But guess what folks? The diffuser idea was abandoned after that.. and the innocent bottle got decapitated for nothing... get used to the world kids! heh... (But the materials was conserved for possible future projects... go green they say!)

For the decoration of the base surface a circular disk.....

......of flowery-glittery patterned flooring was used. 2 holes drilled for white LEDs to protrude from the bottom.... but yet again the designed was changed later on....

The stupid 5mm drill bit tore up my circular disk when i drill the 2 LED holes.. so I resort to using a finer bit using the dremel set.

See the difference? Left: flooring with damaged holes. Right: Flooring with nicely drilled holes.
Guess what? The double LED idea was also dropped! Then what of the holes? U shall see.....

Of cos, with LEDs, comes the power supply. These battery holders are made just to hold the 2032 series button Lithium cells but they can only hold 1 cell. So with abit of a twist from my multitool... they can now guai guai accommodate 2 cells!

Bending the legs so they can sit nicely inside the board.

Had to sacrifice one of those UV keychains from my torchlight days since the UV LEDs I ordered from China have yet to arrive.

Just when I was wondering how can I substitute the abandoned diffuser, I happened to remember I had 3mm and 1/4 inch piping readily available either through my contractors or in my office itself. Since I dun have a pipe bender.. used my 2 multitools instead... ended up with sore hands and ugly pipes!... hahah...at least it worked!

1/4 inch pipes would sit readily inside the two 5mm holes I has drilled earlier on for the LEDs but those pipes would be too thick and spoil the aesthetics of the present. Therefore 3mm pipes were selected. But the next challenge was how to fill up the holes?

Used these exclusive wires I bought off a member of CPF (candlepowerforums, not that bloodsucking govt body) years ago. I wonder if I can find them in Singapore. Truly good stuff. Teflon coating to fend off the soldering iron and silver coated super thin wires for delicate modification jobs.

Thanks to the slippery teflon coating, the wire was able to slip to the other end despite some bends in the pipe that was kinked.

And here's the solution to fill up the 5mm holes together with the 3mm pipes that I mentioned earlier: 2 part epoxy fix! Mix 'em and apply 'em... kinda messy though... heh.

They dried fast enough... and the pillars are up! In the middle of the pipes is a Nichia 5mm White LED that was state of the art a few years back. How times have changed.

And the messy and ugly underside....

cut a piece of the mesh grill that was not used earlier.... apply 3M heavy duty but transparent double sided tapes....

and now to prepare the decors.. using nice clover leaf stickers and very thin nylon string that were meant for girls to thread beads.... my colleague saw me buy these during lunch and thought i suddenly turned feminine!

Tie in and dangle the bear...and the middle decor is complete! Now to wrap the mesh grill around the LED.

Yet another idea that was later changed. The UV LED was originally in the centre but later I found that it was not powerful enuf to illuminate the darklight marker words and pics on the glass dome walls. So it was later shifted to the back circumference of the red flooring where the UV will shine up straight on the back glass wall.

Since most of the job is done, it's time to screw in the hinges and connect the platform boards.

And since my art really sucked, I will stick to basic drawings on the glass using the blacklight "invisible" marker. I drew on a piece of paper the illustration before I pressed the paper against the glass wall and I traced the outline from the inside.... Such precaution is becos erasing the blacklight ink is next to impossible. So no mistake! The words were later written under strong UV lighting (Inova X5).

Since the bear was just under the white LED lighting.........and I had some glow powder from Glow Inc......

I "iradiate" some onto the wings!

After 2 nights of soldering... I managed this mess!! Lucky they are meant to be hidden inside! heh!

Took selected photos and printed them on printable transparency sheet, cut them to size and wanted to add translucent backing to them but later decide against that.

Managed to mount them onto the glass wall without using messy glue. Used the 3M double side tape instead. One tiny bit for each corner of each pic.

Engraving the name of the would be owner... And since it's joyce... can't be without a yellow flower now can it?

final touches like glueing....
and applying velcro strips..

Oh yeah.. Since Joyce gave me a super large A3 sized Bdae card, I will do the opposite..... lol...with micro sized printed words.
Here's a slit of velcro so that it will hang from the winged bear's feet.

And since she's got enuf eye strain from mugging NIE stuff... be kind abit and include a magnifying card... heheh...

Plan view.. with the cute little ladybird to tiow you! and to hide the LED of cos.

Back view. Couldn't resist it.. gotta put my initials between the hinges.

And the Front view, of perhaps the most "effortful" present I have made to date. Sure it was messy and rough, but I am still proud of it. Gotta admit it was pretty rushed or it could have been so much more nicer but study commitment beckons and I dun wanna postpone the present into her 23rd yr!
It all looks pretty easy but there are lots of things these pics dun show. Heck.. alot of small processes was not included here. It's gonna take a whole lot from me to top this present! But I believe I can.. but that will be for next yr!

hey lookee here: I also found a box in Daiso that actually fits the present in the x,y & z axis to the inch. And it's actually very presentable!

Too bad I did not take pics of the lighted up effect (both white and UV LED) but I can assure you the effect in subdued lighting is pretty nice.

There! End!