This project was born when I was fooling around with a laser pointer. Shining it at the wall and moving it around would produce patterns, but the patterns were pretty limited, so friends suggested I should build something to automate this process. The final result is a laser that reflects off four movable mirrors. I built a circuit that would control the speed of four mirrors, as well as the laser flash rate and duration. Two of the mirrors produce horizontal and vertical movements, while the other two produce two different sizes of circular motion. Combining these at different speeds leads to an infinite number of patterns (of course, the number of patterns that are actually interesting are rather fewer than infinite). I built the body of the box from Walnut, glued and pinned together. In order to get at the innards, I made hinges that allowed the lid to open a full 180 degrees (inspired by European hinges for cupboard doors). The hinges are made from Boxwood, a very nice tight-grained wood that is fairly strong and holds detail well - like the threads for the screws. The curved lid was made with the traditional Norwegian flex technique, where a thin piece of wood is steamed and then hammered into the desired shape, much like bodywork on a car. Care must be taken to limit the amount of bend so the wood does not split*. The lid is held closed with magnets in the base, with matching metal discs in the lid, and pins for alignment.
| Material: | Box: | Walnut |
| Floor: | 3-ply walnut |
| Hinges: | Boxwood |
| Pins: | Toothpick |
| Knobs: | Maple burl |
| Finish: | | 2 coats spray-on Varathane Professional Clear Finish, semi-gloss |
| Size: | | 7.25" w x 6" d x 2.75" h |
| Done: | | June 10, 1999 |
*B.S. I just started with a thick piece of wood and sanded away everything I didn't need.
