My 3D printer (Alfawise U20 One) sits in a gloomy corner, and when I'm looming over it to see if that part I'm printing is still OK, or suddenly spaghetti, I cast shadows over it. I've taken to peering owlishly at my workpieces with an LED torch… but not any more! Inspired by a thin offcut from the narrow side of a 2x3 from another project, I now have my own light bar - made from leftovers!
You Will Need:
- Two copies of the 3D printed mount
- A thin bit of wood. I happened to have a strip roughly 40mm by 4.5mm left over from ripping down some 3x2 offcuts. The model is parametric, so adjust the OpenSCAD file to suit. I cut a length to match the 380mm width of my 3D printer's gantry.
- Some 12V LED tape. I had some of this stuff left over from my ongoing MPCNC Primo project. It's about £1 a metre - I doubled up (two strips) and used less than a metre. Mine still had the barrel jack on it, but if yours doesn't you can either solder on a barrel jack or solder it straight onto the DC wires from the transformer. I think the daylight colour temperature is by far the best for this kind of task-oriented purpose.
- A 12V transformer. I rummaged around in the Big Box of Wall Warts and found 12V 1A transformer left over (I think from a cordless phone we had about 15 years ago!) and it works perfectly.
- [Optionally] an inline switch - I used one of these. It works fine without, but if you have the switch you've got the deluxe version. I bought these for my cheapo filament dryer boxes and had one - you guessed it - left over.
- Two M3x12mm (or thereabouts) self-tapping screws; I have hundreds of these left over from various other projects. They are super cheap (they are actually woodscrews) and self-tap really well into a 2.8mm hole in a 3D printed model - always worth having a few hundred in a wee drawer.
- Some hookup wire to solder the two strip ends together (or just go with a single strip if you don't like soldering).
Instructions:
- I spray-painted my wooden strip with some Plastikote left over from another project, but you don't have to do this. However it does look cool and probably helps the self-adhesive strip on the back of the LED tape to stick better. I should've sanded the strip first, but I am pathologically lazy about sanding.
- Stick the LED strip to the wood. If you are using two strips like I did, solder short wires to join the two strips - positive to positive, negative to negative.
- Screw down through the top of the holders into the back of the wooden strip.
- Slide the whole assembly into the V-slot rail at the top of the Z-axis.
- Plug and play…
I am really pleased with the results - it's highly effective, and I didn't spend a single penny! Nothing but leftovers. Also, I got to tell my wife, “See, this is why we keep that Big Box of Wall Warts”. Great success!
Adam Oellermann
