I have a young friend who has a passion for the ancient Japanese Samurai Warrior. Japanese tapestries hang from the walls of his bedroom and his most prized possession is a series of Japanese swords that are displayed on a shelf in his room. I helped him build a Samurai costume for Halloween this year and boy, was that intense! Talk about details! Since a lot of my projects are actually gifts for people, it should come as no surprise that this one is no different. After the Halloween costume project, I decided that this would be his Christmas gift. Japanese is NOT my native language and I don’t know anyone who speaks Japanese so I had to rely on Google Translate and a variety of other places on the world wide web. Fortunately, no matter the resource, his name translated to these characters quite consistently. (To this day, I’m really, really hoping that my research paid off and I got it right. His name is Tyler, so if you’re reading this and understand Japanese, please let me know if I’ll be building another one in the future and secretly swapping with the incorrect version. Thanks in advance!) Since he loves LED lighting (what kid doesn’t these days), I incorporated some RGB LED strip lights into the sign, complete with a remote control that allows him to change the color, brightness or strobe of the light. The sign measures approx 23″ wide by 8″ high. At the core, it’s really just a series of layers, 5 to be exact, that make up the entire sign. Enjoy the build sequence below!
The design process begins in Adobe Illustrator.I pull the vector artwork in Cinema 4D to build a 3D model of the sign so that I can work through any potential issues.A render just to convince me that I’m on the right track!The outer face of the sign is cut first. The material is roughly 3/8″ thick.Once the interior characters are cut, the outer shape is cut.The next two pieces are cut from 12mm baltic birch plywood.The center piece is cut first and requires two separate tool path programs.Once the middle piece is cut, I adjust the CNC over the back half of the material.The outside shape of this piece is identical to the middle piece. The second tool path will allow for light to escape on the back of the sign.I glue and use light gauge pins to tack the pieces in place while they glue.Just a small bead of glue will do…All glued up!Time to sand the edges.I use a spindle sander to get into all the tight radiuses of the sign.Preparing the mounting brackets for the back panel.The circles represent the locations of the brackets.The brackets are held in place with a little glue.The sign is masked off for painting the front face.Always prep the surface with a wax and oil degreaser!Good ‘ol Rustoleum spray paint is up to the task!I always spray a minimum of 3 coats.Flat black looks good!The tape is removed…The sign is read for a few coats of matte clear.I spray the entire sign with the matte clear so that everything has the same sheen.Each of the Japanese characters is made up from two separate pieces of acrylic. First we cut the top….…and then the bottom.The pieces are glued using acrylic cement.Test fitting the acrylic pieces…I picked up this roll of LED lights from Walmart for $10.The lights come with a multi-color remote control that controls an infrared sensor.The infrared sensor has to be in clear view of the remote for it to work so that’s critical to its placement.I glue in the main circuit board and solder extension wires to the sensor so that it can sit on the outside of the sign.Then I solder the USB cable back to the boardI remove the adhesive backing from the light strip and carefully place it against the interior wall of the sign.I’m careful to press it tight and smooth it out as I go…I press the acrylic characters into into place and secure with a little dab of hot glue.I cut 1″ PVC tubing and slide it over the mounting brackets.The PVC serves as a standoff for the back panel so that light can glow through the back of the sign and against the wall when its mounted.The back panel is secured into place with 1/4″-20 threaded rod and nuts.Finished!Finished!Finished!
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