My Flux Capacitor build (mostly wooden)

Hi everyone!

This is my very first build.

Take a look at my photobucket to see pics, Ok I know I'm not as good as some of you are and I'm on a tight budget.
http://s1313.photobucket.com/user/evy-74/library/Flux Capacitor?sort=3&page=1

I'm used to working with wood so I used 5/8" MDF boards for the cabinet & door, 1/4" MDF boards for the backing & inside panel, 1" thick pine for the three solenoids, 3/4" thick pine for the silver balls on top of the solenoids, I also used Halogen bulbs that I slightly modified for the top clear tubes, I used "U" brackets on the solenoids, I probably won't use 1/2" thick acrylic on the LEDs, I don't have access to those materials, I have 1/8" thick acrylic pieces that I will shape kinda like the real prop.

As I'm posting this I started painting some of the finished parts but I'm stuck trying to figure out how I'll do the LED display, I haven't found a window gasket and the spark plug boots yet. Money spent = 20$

For the LED display, I would like to keep it as simple as possible since I don't know much about electronics, drilling holes in my backboard and hot gluing LEDs then soldering everything up behind it, I don't need a motion sensor, or sound effects or many special lighting patterns, I kinda just like one lighting pattern : the flashing LEDs from the outside to the inside at the same normal speed on the three branches.


For the window gasket I think this model would do the best job, keep in mind that my door is 5/8" thick MDF, although I will trim it down to 1/4" thick around the opening with a router so I can install this gasket, I just have to find one at a good price.




If you can help me out it would be greatly appreciated.

very cool!

lookin good. the flux is definately on my list for this year and builds like this using different materials to get a good result is good reference material for me. keep up the good work and looking forward to seeing some progress

Quick update

Ok I just bought a Arduino Uno board, 100 wide angle leds 5mm, 100 resistors 200ohm, I need to buy a 110v power supply adapter because it will be running all the time in my man-cave.
I didn't do a lot of research yet and I don't know much about electronics but here's a first sketch of the leds, like I said earlier I don't want any fancy paterns just the "regular" like this gif

Anyways if you can help me with my sketch I would sure appreciate it.

Almost done.
Only missing the labels.

Don't judge me please, this is my first circuit soldering and it wasn't easy, I didn't get the Arduino board finally, but I isolated the LEDs like my diagram sketch. each row of LEDs is on a separate circuit so if I get the Arduino in the future I can still do it without starting over. But for now they are always on in my man-cave, it would've been really cool to have them blink towards the center, but I didn't get any feedback on the Arduino code forum.

The rubber gasket for the window was the hardest part of this project, finding one and installing it was complicated, and it was the most expensive part, everything else was either wood I already had or small parts under 2$, this project cost me 30$ and the gasket was 20$ on amazon.

Another thing that was pretty hard was the three 1/2" thick acrylic blocks over the LEDs, I bought a 3"x5" acrylic piece on ebay (2.50$) and cut them using a good blade on a good table saw, I tried using a blow torch to clear the edges of the lines left by the blade (like some videos on youtube) but that didn't work very well, so I ended up sanding the edges by hand, first with a #320 grit then a #800 then a #1200 and finally on a newspaper to polish a bit. I know I should have used a polishing wheel and some cream or something but when I put the block in front of the LEDs the small lines left didn't really show from a couple of feet so, it was ok for me.

I will print the labels on a standard 8.5x11 sticker sheet, I'll cut out the labels and stick them on.

When you look at the final product, you can clearly see that the opening in the door is not as big as the real one, so that's my biggest mistake, I realized it once the gasket was cut and installed so it was too late.

You can click on my pictures and go directly on my photo bucket and browse all the others.

For the relays, did you just use inverted tea lights?

KicktheDarkness said:

For the relays, did you just use inverted tea lights?

Click to expand...

Do you mean these things?

Nice work! Looks really good.

QCWolf said:

Nice work! Looks really good.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Here are the last pics for this project.

evy74 said:

Do you mean these things?

http://i1313.photobucket.com/albums/t547/evy-74/Flux Capacitor/2016-02-19 12.56.13_zpsyplfcmf8.jpg

http://i1313.photobucket.com/albums/t547/evy-74/Flux Capacitor/2016-02-18 22.10.10_zpscawwmoqw.jpg

Click to expand...

Those are the things.

Thanks so much.

Your whole project just looks fantastic.