Without a stand a led panel is pretty much useless , most builds assume that you already have a stand for the panel. Not this time, panel and versatile stand included.
Drill (if like me you don’t have a drill press, it is important to use some kind of a jig to drill perpendicular holes, I use Gator v drillGuide).
Drill bits: 3,4,6,8,10 mm.
Wood saw(I used Japanese saw).
Spray paint (optional).
- Cardboard box (i used amazons A3)
- 12v or 5v (according to power supply) led strip in temperature of choice, 2 meters.
- 10 mm wooden dowel:
2 - 50 cm.
1- 70 cm.
1 - 76 cm.
(from my experience those lengths are about the maximum the stand will handle, any longer and it becomes unstable )
- ¾ Birch plywood pieces -
1 - 7*15 cm.
3 - 4*7 cm
3 - 2*7 cm
(high quality plywood is necessary)
- Power supply, 12v/ v5 according to led strip voltage/power rating.
(not all power supply are created equally, the first one I tried gave terrible flickering on camera, the other one I had was match better and smooth. Just try with another supply.)
- Binder clips
- 2 - 50*5 mm screw with wingnut.
(that is what I had already , M6 or M8 hardware recommended here )
- 1 - 5 mm threaded insert.
- Led controller/ dimmer (optional).
- Wires for soldering and connecting strip to power supply.
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Step 1: Led Panel
1. Start by cutting out this template, you can change the size of the panel according to your needs. Use duct tape (do not use hot glue, it will melt under the heat of the leds) to assemble the shape.
2. Cut 7 smaller led strips (in the designated place for cutting) to about 25 cm each, place and space them as seen in the pictures, glue them in place using a small amount of super glue every couple of centimeters.
3. Solder all the positive leads to one wire, and another for the negative leads. Apply power to check if all strips light up. Solder longer wire to the positive and negative leads that will run down to the led controller and power supply.
Step 2: The Stand
This is the difficult part of this build, if the drilled channels for the wooden rods are not parallel the stand will function poorly. I added some guidelines and the conclusions from my experience.
1. Drill two 10 mm holes 4.5 cm apart in the 4*7 plywood pieces as shown - (plywood is layered, each layer has a perpendicular grain direction to the other two it is layered with, first drill 3 mm pilot hole in the layer with the grain, it will help guide the drill bit naturally straight with the grain. Then drill 10 mm holes, don’t apply high force to the bit, let it guide it self ).
2. Using the Japanese saw, saw the drilled pieces in half (being mindful of the layer grain direction), insert a dowel in one hole, clamp the piece and drill out the hole again with 10 mm bit. Repeat for the other hole (if one of the pieces will not go as planned use it as the head for the led panel, that is what I did)
3. Line up the two of the 4*7 pieces and drill a 6 mm hole through the middle, screw in the threaded insert in one side (the threaded insert is there to prevent free spinning of the screw, apply a drop of super glue to the threads so it will be permanent). Using the 5 mm screw and wingnut tie the two sawed pieces together and use them as a drilling template for the other parts.
4. Using the template from step 4 drill 10 mm holes in the 2*7 and 15*7 pieces as shown (just through the plays, not the layers).
5. Optional, sanding and painting ( do not apply paint inside the drilled holes or on dowels, if painted let the paint dray for at least 4 hours )
Step 3: Assembly
1. Glue the two 50 cm dowels to the base (7*15 cm) with a tiny amount of wood glue.
Repeat with the 2*7 piece on the top, you should have two parallel dowels at this point. Glue together the 70 cm and 76 cm dowels, with the 2 - 2*7 pieces.
2. Screw the two 4*7 pieces as shown in the video ( at 2:40), connect the led panel.
3. For the diffuser I used parchment paper cut to size and held with binder clips.