Home made angel eyes, take 1
So, I went to home depot and picked up some supplies to try making my own halo rings... I won't be doing the real ones for my car until this weekend, but I wanted to do a one or two practice runs to see what the deal is. I'm glad I did this practice run.
Figured out the rings need to be about 4" in diameter. 4" x 3.14 = 12.56" circumference.
So, I went ahead and cut my first length of mini blind rod to 12.56". Put it in the oven at 350 deg for ~5 minutes. Pulled it out, wrapped it around the rim of the 4" diameter cup I happened to have in my cupboard.
Somehow, it didn't make it all the way around! What gives?!
So, I figured out that the plastic must shrink in the oven. So the next one I measured out to 16". Sure enough, it shrunk down to about 12". So I wrapped it around the cup, trying to keep it nice and tight against the table and the cup. I then proceeded to make the small cuts every 1.5mm or so.
I also added the reflective tape on the backside
Unfortunately I didn't have any LEDs laying around to try out in it, but I was able to find an LED flashlight that my roommate had laying around... So here is a pic with the flashlight's LED shoved into the hole I drilled in the end of the ring. Keep in mind, the real one would have an LED on both sides. Also, I think the small cuts I made on the backside should have been more shallow than I made them... a shallower cut will reflect less light and thus allow the light to continue further down the plastic rod.
Lessons learned:
-cheap a$$ plastic mini blind rods (bought at Home Depot) shrink to about 75% the original size you cut it to
-make shallow cuts on the backside
-make sure to be very patient when drilling the holes in the end for the LEDs to go. Want to try very hard not to melt the plastic. This will ensure that it is clear and the most possible light gets through.
-Dremel cutting discs are very very fragile (this is my first Dremel experience)
Hope y'all find this helpful. Cheers.