It's been 30 years since I did this!

[Imagine]

Yup - I've just hand-built my own lighting fixture from wood, glue and bits and bobs....just like we used to :)

It all started about 18 months ago when I did a Retro Roadshow party where the client had some Rubik's cubes made to stand on the stage. I've been asked about them several times since then, and of course they weren't mine :(. Those ones were made of cardboard and wouldn't have lasted more than a couple of parties anyway.

Move forward to the weekend just gone. I had a weekend off and decided to give building these things a go. How hard can it be?
Well in 30+ degrees of heat we're enduring in this neck of the woods, it's cost me a fairly bad sunburn for starters.

Here's what they looked like a couple of days ago before being properly wired up (sorry to the purists...they're LED and not lamps)

18364

Tonight after a lot of faffing about with those awful LED strips, I finally have a video of it in action. It's fully DMX controllable (wirelessly of course) so it can stand anywhere in the room. It's been well and truly waterproofed (apart from the LED screens at the moment) so not worried about punters using it as a drinks table either.

At the moment the LEDs are behind one of the lycra scrims from my old 4 panel Equinox screen, and it'll do for this weekend's retro party. I've just ordered pearl acrylic cut to size to use instead for future parties which should hide the individual LED modules.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpPSp4YLh20&feature=youtu.be

It looks better in real life than in the video. Well, I'm impressed anyway :)

[DJColsie]

They look fantastic.

I would think they would look even better in "half light" where you could make out what they were before they start flashing.

[Benny Smyth]

Damn good work there, Wayne. Damn good work.

[Excalibur]

Whimsical:
I'm assuming they fold up totally flat, and are little bigger than a laptop for transport.
I'm thinking they'll be a tad heavy, as the 18mm plywood best suited for repelling boarders isn't light.
Don't forget to fit them with inspection/access hatches to allow you to check for squatters/ take cover when the crowd turn ugly.

Serious:
They look superb, well done. My first thought was to put two of them together as a deckstand. That should be a USP. :)

[Imagine]

Whimsical:
I'm assuming they fold up totally flat, and are little bigger than a laptop for transport.
I'm thinking they'll be a tad heavy, as the 18mm plywood best suited for repelling boarders isn't light.


What??? Like the rest of the retro boxes......I wish!
Actually, they're not that heavy - just awkward due to their size



Serious:
They look superb, well done.

Thank you kind sir.
I'm no carpenter and if you look closely you can see all sorts of dud bits. I'm sort of hoping that in the dark environment we work in nobody will notice too much ;)


My first thought was to put two of them together as a deckstand. That should be a USP. :)
Don't think I'd want them as a deck stand though....Apart from the fact they stand 4ft high when on top of each other, I've already got 16 feet of slightly easier to carry boxes for that :o

I do however need to find a use for them though. I may build a second set to give symmetry either side of the main roadshow. Alternatively, because this one's wireless it can go anywhere in the room and be used as a drinks table (it's got a lovely thick coat of varnish on it so drinks will be better off on there rather than my speakers ;)

I'm taking it out on the road this coming Saturday (yup - another 80s night....I seem to be doing a lot of those at the moment), so I'll see how it goes having just the one and make a decision from there

[Nakatomi]

Not a word I use all the time but I'll say it now. Awesome Wayne. Just awesome. Love it!