Neon Viewer wood prototype

Outland81

Well-known member

Donor 3 years: 2023-2025
Joined
Sep 2, 2017
Messages
2,304
Reaction score
1,595
I've been working on a wood prototype of my mirrored tabletop cabinet. I have a couple of threads on this thing already but I wanted to highlight the cabinet itself since it's finally coming together. Seems like it belongs here more than elsewhere. So not a restoration, but a showcase of a design I've been nerding away on for some time.

Here are some recent views with different setups...

1) angled view with inner art, background art, marquee, etc.
2) front view of same
3) close-up showing ipad mini image / reflection
4) angled view with different control panel art and background art

IMG_9098.jpg IMG_9099.jpg IMG_9108.jpg IMG_9112.jpg

I'm glad I finally got off my rear end and made this version myself. I'd been trying to get others to help me CNC the parts from CAD files and / or make it using traditional woodworking. Little to no interest, too busy, asking too much, never heard back, etc. It's like people have their own priorities or something! What's up with that? :)

Well, it's all to the good b/c now I have a much better understanding of my own design and more wood skills. Also a lot cheaper and faster to go the DIY route. I've been working off my original grid paper drawings, my mounting board prototype, the CAD files I outsourced, and I've made some on the fly adjustments as needed.

When I'm not toiling away on Asteroids Deluxe monitor bezels for my valued customers, I work on this for...a...a change of pace. Yeah, that's it.

So I recently joined my local maker space, which has a small wood shop. They have basic equipment like a table saw, miter saw, drill press, belt sander, etc. In just a few sessions there I've been able to cut the parts I need and then take them home to piece together. This is using 1/4 inch sanded birch and some 1/2 inch, both from the local big box stores (Lowe's and Menards).

(These are from a few weeks ago)

1) overhead view
2) close up of inner back
3) cabinet back
4) right side
5) close up of angled blocking

IMG_9018.jpg IMG_9019.jpg IMG_9020.jpg IMG_9023.jpg IMG_9024.jpg

Gotta go for now, more to come...

Back again. One more detail for this post. The cabinet back is like 2/3 of an ice cream sandwich, with a 1/2" inner piece (the ice cream) and a 1/4" outer piece (the wafer) screwed together. The wafer is the frame and the ice cream allows for screws around the edges to keep the cab sturdy. I later attached some ledges on the inner back piece for the background art to sit on. You can see my pencil outlines for those above.
 
Last edited:
The two way mirror is a piece of acrylic from T&T Plastic Land that I cut to size. It looks fantastic and is a really good substitute for glass, being lighter and sturdier, and a little cheaper. Thanks to @p0rgy8190 for the referral.

1) testing mirror with display stand and artwork piece
2) overhead view of same
3) view without mirror

IMG_9015.jpg IMG_9016.jpg IMG_9017.jpg

I needed access to the background artwork and the mirror, but with this design it's harder to do all that from the back. So I made a top that's in three sections. The center top section has hinges on either side for access to the mirror and the marquee assembly in front, and back access to the background artwork. The hinges I used are tiny and cheap but they serve the purpose for now.

Here's the back section tilted up for access...

IMG_9039.jpg

The front section is a triangle, with a top piece (above), the marquee, and the led panel underneath. Tilted up to show how that works. One led strip in front of the mirror, and one strip behind. The whole assembly rests on the wood bump outs above the mirror.

IMG_9091.jpg

The lighting has been tricky. I've found that fewer leds in front of the mirror results in a more convincing illusion than using the entire strip. At issue there is the device reacting to the leds and appearing washed out & revealing the screen dimensions. I have most of them taped off right now.

Still more to come!
 
Last edited:
This is magnetic sheeting on either side, in front of the mirror. With the matching side art pieces, the artwork reflects nicely & gives the interior that immersive look that's so compelling.

The sheeting was already in place, but I removed it and decided to go ahead and paint everything black. I've had this Mars Black acrylic paint for a few years. Foam brushes work great for this.

IMG_9071.jpg IMG_9077.jpg IMG_9078.jpg

IMG_9083.jpg

"Ooo, black. Always a good choice. It's like space without the stars." Later I sanded it all back down and did a top coat. I also reattached the sheeting.

Here are a couple of pics of my front section. No laughter, please! I'm kidding. You can laugh, it's okay. Let's just say I don't think I'll be winning any wood shop awards any time soon. This is one of the trickiest areas to do in terms of really precise measurements and angles. Still needs tweaking.

IMG_9075.jpg IMG_9076.jpg

At any rate, the front section sits on the base and pulls out for access to the cabinet innards - the display stand, the device (if using), the side art, and other stuff. I found that since the front section is really just an empty box, it's possible to store some items back there, like the side art and the control panel art. I have a lip in the middle that I hot glued into place. That holds the back piece, which just sits there and keeps the box closed.

IMG_9115.jpg

Because of the way I did the center (with a front piece and thicker blocking behind it), there's a hole where you can store ... well ... some neon pens, for example. The decorative top piece comes up and off. I made a small wood bumpout to keep it in place. I have all these public domain clip art designs lying around. I love the pointing finger! A fun detail to add.

Really nice to see the blacklight reactivity on the control panel area. Very groovy. 🤩

IMG_9116.jpg IMG_9119.jpg
 
Last edited:
The other day I found this little cabinet knob at an antique store for $1.75. I thought it'd be neat to use it for the hinged back section.

IMG_9130.jpg


Thinking out loud...I need to tweak the top section and the marquee assembly so they're more sturdy. The center top section is supposed to screw into the top of the cabinet sides & keep the whole top more stable, but it's a little off kilter at the moment. Not quite enough clearance on the inside to make it work. But definitely something I can improve for next time. Also the marquee assembly needs blocking and end caps for a finished look.

Because of this sturdier wood design, I can be much more precise with the cabinet artwork than with my previous version. The areas where I have artwork are the inner sides, the background, the control panel (left, top, and right), and the marquee. I'm still experimenting with front art and external side art.

The punchline here is that all the artwork (including the marquee) is on magnetic sheeting, so if you don't like one or more elements, you can just swap them out. After all, what I think looks cool might very well look like clown vomit to you. ;) For what it's worth, my guiding design principles have been "make it look cool" and "no clown vomit." But again, very subjective and everyone rightly wants their own choices.

The only exception to the magnetic sheeting is the background art, because it just sits on the little ledges I described earlier. I may put a small square of sheeting behind it because it does tend to be top-heavy.

My collection of...uh..."what I think looks cool." You can call it whatever you like! :)

IMG_9132.jpg

I'm planning on using partial sheeting for the side art, with a frame going around the edges vs. complete coverage of the entire side. No need to use more sheeting than is really necessary.

One of my happy discoveries was to find that the background art piece fits perfectly inside the grooves on either side in front of the mirror. These grooves are holdovers from my smaller design when I used them for a display assembly - the phone would be inside a bezel that fit into the grooves and the whole thing would just hang there. Later I decided a display stand would be easier and more versatile. But I'm glad I kept the grooves because I can take the background piece and slide it in for this extra layer of the mirror illusion. So in this case the star field appears to float in front of the geometric background piece. You could also swap them for the opposite effect. The display stand fits comfortably underneath.

IMG_9114.jpg

I have a few more things to share about this version, so stay tuned! Thanks for looking.
 
Last edited:
Thinking out loud...I need to tweak the top section and the marquee assembly so they're more sturdy. The center top section is supposed to screw into the top of the cabinet sides & keep the whole top more stable, but it's a little off kilter at the moment. Not quite enough clearance on the inside to make it work. But definitely something I can improve for next time.

No time like the present. The other day I dremelled out some of the depth on the inner left side. We now have clearance, Clarence. I sanded the rest down by hand, cleaned it all up, and then put three screws on either side. Now the top is secure like it's supposed to be.

1) top center section (left)
2) top center section (right)

IMG_9154.jpg IMG_9155.jpg


My display stand is made out of black mounting board. I added some black duct tape to help keep it together. I finally added a width of the board at the far end as a backstop piece, to keep artwork and devices/bezels from sliding backward. That was getting really annoying! I also put lengths of board on the the cabinet base to guide the stand into position, to keep it in the middle.

1) display stand with guides and backstop piece
2) close up of backstop piece
3) both in use with ipad mini + bezel

IMG_9134.jpg IMG_9135.jpg IMG_9136.jpg


One of the more interesting effects with this design is an intersection of layers - the neon f/x at the sides spill over onto the background piece. This is because the sides angle toward the center, which you wouldn't get in a square / box design. Kind of subtle, but it makes the illusion richer.

1) inner side art + reflection (no background piece)
2) same but with background piece
3) easier to see the spillover effect in this pic

IMG_9142.jpg IMG_9143.jpg IMG_9145.jpg


Finally, the neon f/x on the marquee react even though they don't get direct led exposure. This is best seen in a very dark room at about 4am...

1) slightly overexposed
2) slightly underexposed - more what the eye actually sees

So the control panel area gets good reactivity, and so do the vertical sides up to just under the marquee. I haven't tested any designs there yet.

The design below is from a Dover publication. I modified it with some neon markers, and it's being reflected off the device stand.

IMG_9163.jpg IMG_9164.jpg

I'll probably add some more pics later in the week, just different setups to show what else can be done.
 
Other possibilities with the illusion include bump out designs and extra layers behind the mirror (no examples yet). I built in some space - a vertical channel on both sides - in front of the background to allow for separate pieces of these to be placed or inserted. The designs would stick out from the channels and face toward the mirror.

IMG_9226.jpg IMG_9227.jpg


My attempt at some side art. I did the designs in Canva some months ago. These are satin photo prints attached to mounting board and then to some magnetic sheeting.

IMG_9228.jpg IMG_9229.jpg

Overall I'm really happy with this. It's almost exactly what I was aiming for, which was something that more than one person at the same time could easily see inside and interact with. And with as many customization options as possible.

This version is sturdier than mounting board for sure, but it's still kind of rough. I could definitely see going thicker on the side panels than 1/4" (it's actually closer to 3/16"), because it's still too bendy and uneven at the top.

I would stick with acrylic sheeting vs. glass for the two-way mirror. The sheeting weighs a lot less, which is another point in its favor. My side channels are 1/4" wide b/c I used 1/4" glass in my previous version. I may have to shrink the gap down a bit because at 1/8" the acrylic is a little wobbly in there.

I love putting a neon treated piece of artwork inside and looking at it! 😵‍💫 If you had this at an office desk somewhere, you could display a message or logo and swap it out when you wanted a different one.

IMG_9139.jpg IMG_9140.jpg IMG_9141.jpg

I showed this wood version to our piano tuner about a week ago and she said, "Are you sure you're not tripping on anything while you're working on this?" :ROFLMAO: I said, "Nope, not necessary!"

Groovy enough without chemical refreshment. :)

Still more to come...
 
I should preface this post by saying that my main interest has always been with the cabinet and the mirror illusion itself and how to make the most of them. Some of the questions I tried to answer were: Does the cabinet have an interesting form factor? Can two people easily see the illusion at the same time? How can I make the illusion as convincing as possible? How can I make the cabinet interactive and customizable?

And of course...can I cut all the pieces using equipment I barely understand without injuring myself? Well, I'm typing comfortably right now with all nine fingers, so that answers that. 😅 Did the Maker Space add additional warnings on the wood shop door after I had been using it for a few days?? Maybe.

With all that said, all the elements are in place for groovy, mirrored gaming. It would just take a collection of retro style games running on a mini tablet. Something like Arcade Mania on the app store, for example (was just reading about this today). The games would need to be flipped to account for the mirror and played with wireless controllers. Artwork could be customized for a specific game or game genre.

I also never had in mind using actual controls - like mini joysticks and such - on the control panel, thinking that the panel would be strictly cosmetic. And I don't have little speakers anywhere. Not ruling either of these out, but I'm trying to keep it really simple and keep potential costs down for now.

These are some pics of gameplay videos (YouTube), running on the mini tablet. Any game with a black background is ideal, because the black tends to hide the screen borders for a more convincing illusion. I really wish you could see this in person. It's very, very cool to see the Qbert screen floating in front of a background, even if it's backwards! And all the other games, too. 🤩

IMG_9184.jpg IMG_9185.jpg IMG_9197.jpg

IMG_9198.jpg IMG_9200.jpg IMG_9202.jpg

IMG_9206.jpg IMG_9207.jpg

So thanks again for looking. Depending on if/how this develops, I may have to continue it in the console etc. sub-forum. But for now, it's a one-of-one mirrored tabletop wood "prototype" cabinet with multiple potential use cases that I wanted to showcase.

I may have more updates to share here as I tweak things like the marquee assembly and work on a couple of additional design ideas.(y)
 
Last edited:
So I've also been working on a wood prototype of the smaller version of this design...

Just today I picked up some pieces that I had cut at the library's maker space. The original plan was to use this older cnc desktop machine called the Carvey, by Inventables. But the library recently bought a 20W X Tool S1 laser cutter, and the folks at the lab wanted to try that instead. As of yesterday I hadn't even heard of the X Tool. But it did an amazing job, and I'll have some more pics to share soon of my progress with this version. In the meantime, here's one!

IMG_9449.jpg

That carved-out rectangle is for something I'm planning on trying with the control panel. More on that later...

Obviously the larger design would benefit from the X Tool treatment as well. So my work ahead on both of these will be with this machine in mind.

The way I'm doing this is I import my existing dxf files into Easel, which is browser-based and intended for the Inventables line. I find it super easy to use. I clean up those files and send them to the library. Then I slice and dice some 1/4" and 1/2" wood at the wood shop, drop those sections off, and wait for them to tell me when they're done cutting.

Incredibly, this is all free. There's no charge for the file work or for the laser cutting. 😲 They only charge for materials if you don't bring your own.

Stay tuned!

(EDIT: and free apparently now means a dollar an hour for use of the laser cutter. Still a bargain.)
 
Last edited:
A couple more. Test fitting the sides, back, base, and viewscreen. So far, so good. Always trying to improve it in various ways...

I'm excited to be working on this. I set it aside for a while to focus on the bigger version. Now I've set that one aside!

IMG_9451.jpg IMG_9452.jpg
 
Some more pics of recent progress...

My base / side blocking pieces and getting them into position. I eventually put one screw into each side and two coming in from the bottom.

IMG_9453.jpg IMG_9458.jpg


Acrylic mirror piece arrived, from T&T Plastic Land. Man they ship fast! Waiting to get this cut down to size, not sure when that'll happen. There seems to be an issue with one or both machines and their ability to cut through this material. In the meantime, I have my original glass mirror piece in the cabinet, which works great.

(Everyone loves a pic of something arriving safely in bubble wrap.)

IMG_9464.jpg


My back piece sandwich - stealing my own idea, from the bigger design. This lets me put screws in the sides and the base. I had to add extra screws into the exterior piece b/c it was so warped.

IMG_9466.jpg IMG_9468.jpg IMG_9469.jpg


I added mounting board to the side panels. The notches were supposed to be 1/8 deep, not a complete cutout as seen in other pics above. Let's blame the laser cutter on that one. ;) No problem!

IMG_9470.jpg IMG_9471.jpg


Painting, sanding, etc...

IMG_9482.jpg

Next time...more cabinet progress, learning from mistakes, and testing out an underwater environment with artwork from Canva. 🤩
 
At first I was really excited by the idea of cutout letters for the marquee, with neon paper behind it. Looks fine straight on (pic), but it doesn't look very good at an angle, b/c it's hard to read the words. So I put all the laser cut letters back inside and covered them up with wood filler, sanded, and painted.

I finally realized that a printout / sticker would look much better.

IMG_9508.jpg


These are the front and control panel pieces. I figured out an easy way to put this all together in one piece that doesn't involve cutting angles / miters or using hinges. At first I wanted the control panel to angle downward a bit, as it does in many games, but I decided to leave it flat. And the whole front was gonna hinge downward from the bottom, to open up for inside access. But that would've been kind of complicated and the front would still get in the way of hands trying to get in there and move stuff around. So my idea now is to put a small metal handle in the center so I can pull the front completely out and push it back in. As of now, it's possible to do that anyway by just wiggling it out. But a handle would be a nice solution, or at least something to try.

IMG_9513.jpg IMG_9514.jpg IMG_9515.jpg

IMG_9519.jpg

The recessed section at the top is for artwork to sit in, maybe on magnetic sheeting so it can be swapped out for other designs. The blocking on the back side helps keep it stable in the cabinet and it fits into a notch design I have on the inner sides.

Next, the roof. This is basically the same as with the bigger version in that there's three sections - back, center, and front. The back hinges up for access to the background art piece. The center is 1/2" thick so I can put screws in either side, for stability. And then the front section hinges up for access to the marquee and the led panel / mirror.

First two pics are of the front and center (test fitting), third is with the back section. I ran out of hinges, so I used a mounting board flap for the back.

IMG_9526.jpg IMG_9527.jpg IMG_9528.jpg

Okay, going backwards a bit...

I've thought a lot about all the different layers of imagery you can have in a mirrored cabinet. You have foreground elements and background elements, and then it's a matter of how to separate those out to make the final viewing environment.

So in Canva, I started with a project page that was meant to help me visualize it all. I had this page that compiled all the imagery I wanted...

IMG_9497.jpg

Coming up on the 10 image limit...d'oh! I'll keep this going for a few more pics tonight. Next post soon...
 
Last edited:
As I was saying, I separated those images into different pages and printed them out, mounted them, etc., and added the neon effects. The side panels are repurposed sections of the background piece.

1) overhead view that shows most of the elements in the cabinet
2) front view with bezel and side pieces
3) inner art piece close up

IMG_9504.jpg IMG_9505.jpg IMG_9506.jpg

Forgot to mention earlier that I had to touch up my inner sides with some wood glue and clamps...you can see in that second pic they were peeling loose a bit. All fixed now!

A couple of early pics with the led setup. I think the blacklights + mirror make my phone camera go nuts! Hard to get everything as seen with the naked eye.

IMG_9511.jpg IMG_9512.jpg

I have some better pics on the way. At any rate, the result is three main layers of imagery - the reflected bezel layer, and behind that is the inner art layer, and then the background layer. The device imagery is the main attraction, of course, but everything around it and behind it adds to this wonderful immersive and fun environment to stare at, contemplate, etc.

Some more pics of how it's looking now...

IMG_9538.jpg IMG_9539.jpg IMG_9541.jpg

IMG_9545.jpg

Last pic there is a bit garish, but more what you actually see in person. Also in these brighter pics here, I'm using the acrylic mirror piece instead of the glass mirror piece. The acrylic lets you see the imagery behind the reflection better than the glass does.
 
Last edited:
This is my cheapo device stand, made out of mounting board. I have a backstop at the far end and there's a small gap for the charging cable. Black duct tape all around helps give the surface some texture so the phone doesn't slide around as much. This one is fine for my older smartphone, but it's still too high for my wife's phone, which including the case is about 5/8" thick. So I'll have to make another one that drops the height down another 1/2" or so.

I may go ahead and make a wood version of this. It'd be nice to have it open and close for cable storage.

IMG_9535.jpg IMG_9537.jpg

My son was gracious enough to let me borrow his phone to take a few pics of GL School from XScreenSaver. Schools of fish swimming around, really great. Lots of other savers are fun to look at through the porthole, too. The image can be centered and adjusted by moving the cheapo stand and the foreground art piece, which slides forward and back on the side notches.

IMG_9556.jpg IMG_9557.jpg IMG_9558.jpg

Here's my small handle for the front section. Woodpile Fun! for the win. One of their antique brass plated handles, with teeny tiny nails. Unfortunately it didn't come with a ball peen hammer. :) I put it right smack in the middle, and the maze design I hastily added makes the whole thing look like a light switch plate. :LOL:

IMG_9553.jpg IMG_9552.jpg IMG_9559.jpg

Anyway, the handle works great and I thought it was a better match than the other choices on the shelf.

I guess that wraps it up for now. I'm really happy with how this smaller design has turned out! Thanks for looking. I'll keep nerding away and post updates as I'm able.
 
Back
Top Bottom