Lithophane Cube Base with lighting / power

Last crawled date: 4 years, 2 months ago

Edit: 11/10/19
Posted my latest design. Fattened up the mounting ring and lighting plate. Thinned up the base as much as possible. Slightly modified the battery compartment measurements. Just a general clean up. Plus I added holes to insert a Q tip (cotton swap) which locks the base and cube together.
I designed a pin to go in the hole but frankly I like the Q tip. If I get a chance, I'll work on adding the pin.
Shout out if you like my design!
It has taken me about a year to post this because when I was employed it was hard to find the time. But sadly since I'm out of work, I find myself with some extra time.
Lithophanes were one of the first projects that drew my attention to 3D printing. What a beautiful way of remembering a moment or event.
I was new to 3D printing and looking for an elegant way to display those precious photos I spent so much time trying to convert into lithophanes.
I choose "Lithophane Cube" by "refleks" published to Thingaverse on Jan 6, 2018.
It can be found here:https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2748023
After printing reflek's awesome cube, I pondered how best to light it and display it. What I came up with is a design that is my one solution approach to a multi-faceted problem.
Lighting is provided by a 3 LED keychain light. Power is from a 3 AA battery pack which is hidden in the base with a on / off switch.
Here are the parts I selected for lighting and power:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C6XC3MP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H36HLAK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It came out so well, I gave it to my daughter for Christmas with all of the grand-kids pictures in it. I hope you enjoy it as much as they do.
EDIT 10-3-19 Since I printed this a year ago, I forgot a few things:
For those of you printing on a MP select mini, I printed the Lithophane cube "base_square_100mm" at .828 scale. Same goes for the top. My base can be printed at 100 scale.
I've added a few pictures to help with these next few:
I had to drill out the center hole. I used a step drill to open to 7/8". This fits the base just right.
In order to keep the battery holder in place, I added 2 pieces of the velcro fuzzy side to the opening.
The LED board should be mounted so that the LEDs are about middle of the lithophanes.
Edit 10/5/19: I took a little time to slim the base down to 25mm from 28mm and reposted the file.