Pagoda Light & Shadow Box

[Walney Col]

Hi.

I've just started cutting my latest creation. It's a light and shadow box around in a roughly 8" cube featuring a pagoda top and traditional japanese themes on all four sides. This is what the sketchup plans came out like.

The vertical and horizontal box frame is going to be made from some bits of beech I had laying around that were too bent to do anything else with. I've planed them down to 12mm square and will be grooving them with the router to accept the panels.

The panels are cut from 3mm ply from the local model shop and measure 170mm square.

When mounted the panels will by backed with tracing paper and back lit probably with a good sized LED setup in order to cast shadows of the cut-outs on the walls. I'm toying with the idea of colouring the tracing paper on the front panel just to highlight it but need to experiment with some LEDs first to see if colouring the paper will drastically reduce it's ability to cast shadows.
The pagoda top is probably going to give me a spot of bother. I'm no joiner by any stretch of the imagination so making a 4-way compound mitre joint is going to be quite a challenge. I plan on attaching the top with dowels that are a loose enough fit to allow it to be lifted off to get access to the light which I plan on running off a phone charger type power supply.

Thats it for now. In theory I'm routing 16 off 3mm wide 4mm deep slots slap bang down the middle of the frame pieces tomorrow which ought to be fun.

That's all I've done so far. Hopefully more to come soon.

 

[Stooby]

Good luck Col, looks like a great project. Well be checking for your updates.

 

[Claymore]

Excellent Colin! regarding tracing paper ... you can get very thin opaque plastic sheets from Hindleys (www.hindleys.co.uk) might last bit longer than paper, they also sell other goodies that might be useful for your projects aswell as tools/machines.
Cheers and look forward to updates
Brian

 

[RobinBHM]

You could consider an octagonal centre boss for the top, then your hips would then not require compound cuts. The boss could also act as a finial. Timber roof lanterns are generally made this way.

 

[Walney Col]

Thanks for the tip Brian. I've got an e14 (screw in) mains powered LED Bulb and holder on it's way to me but I'm going to have to experiment a bit with backing for the panels to see what projects the sharpest image possible onto the walls. My guess is that tissue paper would give the best results and the setting it's in ( a little old ladies bedroom haha) it's not likely to get damaged.

 

[Walney Col]

You could consider an octagonal centre boss for the top, then your hips would then not require compound cuts.

Thanks Robin. That's not a bad idea, most real pagodas have extraordinarily elaborate finials on top so it'd not look out of place in the least.

 

[lanemaux]

Hi Col, nice idea amigo. Regarding any colouring , it has always struck me that Japanese decorative art is at it's finest when it is at it's most stark. A pure black and white approach would serve best to evoke the touch of sadness that the Japanese excel at showing up beauty with. Sort of a yinny-yangy thingy if you follow, just my opinion of course.
As far as a finial is concerned , I wonder if mirroring the pagoda roofline and ploughing a cross on the underside to attach the beams to might not serve as a solution to mitering lapping or other such. You would have to relieve the middle some , or you could level off the peaks of the beams to form a flat top. Again , just my two cents.

 

[Samfire]

This looks like an interesting project, I'm looking forward to seeing the finished article.
Sam

 

[Walney Col]

Hi Col, nice idea amigo. Regarding any colouring , it has always struck me that Japanese decorative art is at it's finest when it is at it's most stark.
snip

I know exactly what you mean and for bowls and vases etc. I'd agree 100%, but pagodas almost seem to have an unwritten exemption to that rule in how elaborate and brightly coloured they often are.

 

[boysie39]

Lovely Idea , cain't wait to see the finished piece .

Good luck

 

[Walney Col]

Been doing a bit more today.

Next up is to thoroughly sand seal and finish all 4 panels. The reason I'm doing that now in is so I can avoid any tricky last minute sanding once they're fit into their frames.

 

[Claymore]

looks great so far Colin!

 

[nadnerb]

That looks brilliant, great idea
Regards
Brendan

 

[Scrollerman]

Col.
I like the idea and am really looking forward to how well the lighting element (pun intended lol) works out for you.
Your update posts/pics are like watching an episode of a TV series which leaves me wondering what's to come next having enjoyed the last episode !
Looking forward to the next episode. =D>

 

[Walney Col]

Started glueing up all the panels today.

 

[Walney Col]

I've now glued the 4 panels together and done a bit of experimenting with different light sources.

A 15w incandescent clear light bulb gives a reasonable amount of light but gets incredibly hot which probably isn't such a good idea within inches of tissue paper. Also, having quite a long filament the shadow it casts tends to be blurred in a sideways direction so it's not exactly ideal.

A 5W LED candle light runs as cool as cucumber and gives of almost the same amount of light as the 15W incandescent but having multiple separate interior LEDs quite a distance apart it casts multiple shadows on the wall that look even worst than with the incandescent bulb so that's no good either;

The next photo was top-lit by a 12v LED with 24 separate diodes all facing downwards. Being top-lit it wouldn't be able to cast shadows upwards onto the walls although there might well be enough light shining out from the sides and under the bottom to light up an entire display cabinet quite nicely.

A couple of overview shots of what stage it's up to. There's still no sign of the roof but at least I think I've figured out how to make the central joint so it won't fall apart the first time it's taken off.

BTW: Tissue paper over any given side completely eliminates any chance if it casting shadows (it diffuses the light too much). So assuming the lamp would be be located say on a dresser within 2 or 3 foot of a light coloured wall the general idea is that only back would be left open for use as a shadow caster otherwise all 4 sides would probably be given the tissue paper backing.

I'm toying with the idea of giving the light box away complete with a range of coloured (and white) tissue paper plus a sheet of instructions giving tips on tailoring it to suit your own particular taste.

I'm now going to have a play with combining some individual 10mm dia LEDs so there's 4 of em situated low down in the middle (with one LED facing directly at each wall), at least with that sort of setup any of the 4 cutouts could be used to cast a shadow without having to mess about with the location of the light source.

 

[Walney Col]

Just started on the roof by cutting the curved beams on my bandsaw the doing the joint detail on the scroll saw.

This is what it'll look like when it's finished.

And this is how it's put together to give the strongest glue area I can think of without adding a central post or any kind of bracing.

 

[Scrollerman]

Quote : "There's still no sign of the roof but at least I think I've figured out how to make the central joint so it won't fall apart the first time it's taken off."

I must say I quietly agreed with others suggestions of adding a boss to solve the roof beams jointing problem so was looking forward to what you would come up with.
Your solution for joining the roof sections is very clever indeed and the wedge design adds to the strength overall.
If you make it as the drawing, I doubt it will fall apart unless you forget to glue it lol !
Looking good.

 

[boysie39]

Must say that from what I have seen so far that this piece is going to be a must try for many .
Your design for the roof looks fantastic and will no doubt be copied by many.
Your Wip will be a great help to others ,I look forward to seeing it when you have it finished .

Thank you for taking the time to give others Ideas ,and others like me pleasure .

 

[Walney Col]

Thanks Eugene.

I almost went with a halflap joint for the roof but really wanted to see if I could come up with something a bit more interesting.