Monkey540's Engagement Anniversary Present, Beast's Enchanted Rose Build Thread

Monkey540

Sr Member
Well, here it is, my first Build thread.

I guess the one thing I'll have to remember is to take lots of pictures as I go.

Last year, Oct, 2012 I proposed to my girlfriend at DisneyWorld, it went a little something like this:
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Yes we are dressed in Harry Potter robes, it was the halloween party. And yes those are real fireworks.

So I've been trying to think of something I could do or make for her as an anniversary of our engagement that was maybe Disney related. I stumbled across the floating rose thread here that was many years old, but I got some good ideas. So I've started work on my Enchanted Rose. It will not be floating, but I'm making it glow.

This is the target
Beauty-and-the-Beast-rose.jpg


The idea is, I will put an LED in the centre of the rose and with a simple circuit, it will be lit up.

Here is a prelim schematic I did, very simple:
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Ok, so all the materials minus electronics came from Micheals.
Fake Flower: $2 I also got one from walmart to see which one I liked better:
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Next was the glass bell dome. $29.99 at Micheals, with their normal 40% off coupon, it was $20:
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Finally the base with I found in the woodworking area $8.5 down to $5.75 with coupon, not sure what it was meant for but here it is at the base of the dome:
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Then I had to get the electronics.
I decided to try a few things, I picked up :
1 AAA battery pack holder
1 disc battery holder
1 2-way switch
a red and a white LED 3mm LEDs I think.
and some heatshrink, all under $10.

So far we are at approx $40.

So I decided to tinker with the LEDs to see which one I was going to use, here are the circuits with Red and White LEDs:
006_zpse6ebf428.jpg

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The AAA battery didn't even light up the LED, so 1.5V was no good, moved up to the 3V coin battery.
I decided the Red LED was the better way to go, as it worked better to light up the flower.

Also tested the flower to see how I am going to run the wires. They will run like this but heatshrunk:
004_zps321c3728.jpg


Onto the woodwork:

Firstly, used a hole cutting bit to make the pocket for the battery:
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Used a dremmel to remove the material for the switch, and dry fitted the pieces:
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Then the channels for the wires:
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Now it was time for a test fit:
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You can see the stem sticking out where I made the channel.

Then I made a channel for the stem to allow the flower to stand upright:
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And here we are:
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Next to work on the channel on top to allow the dome to fit into the base.
 
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A bit of progress from last night:

I picked up some veneer in roll format. Unfortunately I needed to get the 10" roll as my base is 8.5" dia. And of course, the roll only comes in one length, 99". So add $15 to the cost of the project for this item.

Currently at $55.

I screwed the switch into the bottom to see how it would fit, and I am very satisfied, the wood cracked a bit, but nothing major:
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Then I laid out the top channel, and started carving it out:
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I got half the circle done in one sitting, it takes a long time, as I'm cutting chips out with my exacto knife. I plan to get some small chisels to clean it up after the initial gouging.
 
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Another update:
Finished the slot, but I need to chisel it down some more.
Installed the LED, it turned out exactly as I wanted. The red LED appears white in all the photos though.
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Also, a small video I did trying to show the colour, it's not too much better.
Short Video
 
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More Progress:
I did a bunch of soldering, and heatshrinking, I think the flower looks great:
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Then did a bunch of woodwork, and started staining:
First coat:
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Just finished second coat:
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Awesome build, can`t wait to see the finished project. not bad for a first build thread :)

Thanks

Some progress.
Finished the last bit of soldering/heat shrinking
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Screwed the switch back in, and here's how it looks:
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And with the veneer piece covering:
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View from the top:
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And, with the light on:
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I made a short video of the rose display with the glass dome on, turning on the light, the led still appears white for some reason
http://s1361.photobucket.com/user/sk8r540/media/20130907_171926_zpsc2977c61.mp4.html


Will need little feeties to allow it to sit flat given the battery clamp is so large.
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Next step is hotglue the flower stem and wires then glue the veneer down
 
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Yea! my Image hosting site was able to recover all the images, I am complete again!

Also, last night, I hot glued the electrical portions in, a solder came undone, I resoldered it.
Here is the bottom:
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I also glued the veneer:
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Started with 2 clamps, but the piece kept moving and separating, so I had to run to the store to pick up a bunch more clamps. Hopefully it won't need too much adjusting.
 
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Almost finished, after the gluing, I had the piece clamped, check out my spidery clampage:
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I did a bit of trimming, and looks like a bit of the veneer didn't sit well, but it won't be seen so I'm fine with it, and here's what's left:
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Just a little bit of staining touchup.

Also, I dropped some pedals from the flower to see how they would fall, and I superglued them in place, but I found a bit of an issue. Where the superglue is holding the pedal to the base, there is a large brown spot, as the pedal material is very thin and the superglue made it transparent.
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I tried out some pink acrylic paint to see if it would fix the dark patches, here was the result.
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So, this is now the final look for the prop, I'm very happy with the results, but the camera still doesn't show the LED as red.
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This is easily one of the coolest romantic projects I've yet seen. Simple, but instantly recognizable!
I may have to try this myself!
 
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