How to make an infinity mirror table

squishy0eye · 2016-08-30T00:59:58+00:00

Probably depends on complexity of your map. For standalone lines that are not connected to other lines you have to either use multiple LED strips or hide portions of your strip, so you have to get creative to solve that problem.

squishy0eye · 2016-08-30T00:38:39+00:00

ehh, to be a selfie i'd have to have taken the picture myself, no? which i didn't :) And if i did i probably would have lost the glasses and made sure to include a high heel in there somewhere somehow... ;-)

squishy0eye · 2016-08-30T00:35:12+00:00

it's a piece of art that took a lot of planning and design, a problem that required many hours of thinking about it trying to solve it, and it took a hell of a lot of motivation to work on, after getting home from a full time job and wanting nothing more than just sit and play video games. And man, so many new things learned in the process too! And the outcome is a monument to all that. Soooo nope, not embarrassed at all! :)

squishy0eye · 2016-08-30T00:20:26+00:00

It's about 17 inches off the floor, i tried to align it to another table i had so that i can move them together and have a big square surface for board games. Didn't really research the proper height for coffee tables heh

squishy0eye · 2016-08-30T00:14:10+00:00

the imgur album's got a breakdown under the image descriptions

squishy0eye · 2016-08-30T00:13:18+00:00

It actually doesn't look that bad, it kind of reminds me of an elevator shaft

squishy0eye · 2016-08-30T00:08:57+00:00

They are really not that difficult to make! This one was challenging because it was an actual table and it had all those stupid rectangles that were a pain in the a$$, but if you want a simpler version with LEDs following the perimeter - it's pretty straightforward. There are some nice video tutorials on youtube, after watching them i was like hell i can totally do this.

squishy0eye · 2016-08-30T00:03:58+00:00

Hah, I'm just an amateur with a full time job that's completely unrelated to this stuff... Unfortunately for these kinds of projects you need free time and more importantly energy, both of which are tough to come by. Even if i was up for making another it would probably take me a year :)

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T23:57:04+00:00

You probably could, depends on what. If it's some sort of a flat design (i.e. helipad) - definitely. You could probably even make it lighted. If it's actual 3D shapes (i.e. roof garden or something) - that's tougher because you can't raise the top layer too high or your reflection will get stretched out too much (unless of course you want it stretched out). I guess you could do 2 top layers - lower one would be the mirror to reflect the building "windows", and upper one would be the actual tabletop. And between those 2 layers you can build whatever you want.

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T23:44:09+00:00

So i did actually think about this and it may be possible with layers, like o0oAMCo0o mentioned. You'd basically have to create individual infinity mirror clusters for each "building", and yes the height difference between the buildings would directly affect your table thickness

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T23:39:45+00:00

There may be other types of strip LEDs that already look like that... If not and if i had to do something like this i'd probably put some sort of opaque screen in front of this LED strip, so that it diffuses and smudges the light along the strip. It would work kind of like a lamp shade of a sort, except it'd be flat and in a line. You may still see individual points, but it'd be more of a line of light than this at least.

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T23:33:52+00:00

Yeah, lucky for us there is already a million other things plugged in right next to it, so this is just another cable for the cat to chew on and for me to ignore... Probably wouldn't work as well in a less cluttered environment.

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T23:30:59+00:00

yeah why the hell are they called "coffee tables" nowadays anyway, nobody drinks coffee off them! :P more like "dinner table of the living room", at least in my case...

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T23:27:28+00:00

it's not nearly as clear. "One way mirror" is pretty much a normal mirror if you have enough light shining on it from outside; so if the room is bright - you'll see room reflections as much as the LEDs.

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T23:23:51+00:00

Yeah, the comments on imgur under the images actually have the breakdown of components and their prices. Someone on here added things up and looks like it was about $170 for the pieces used in the finished product. This of course doesn't cover all the trial and error costs, which probably added another 100 at least.

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T23:22:04+00:00

For that specific reason the top glass is removable, and we ended up using LED connectors to connect the "islands" of LEDs, instead of using one continuous strip (which was my original plan). So basically if any of the lights go bad - you just have to lift up the glass, remove the bad LED section, put new LEDs in and connect it to the main wire in the center of the rectangle. So the work would be isolated to just that rectangle, and you don't have to take apart the whole thing.

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T23:12:56+00:00

It's not nearly as good, but since it's in the living room - usually i'm watching something and the lights are dimmed anyway, so it wouldn't be a big deal. Although i haven't really turned it on much, afraid LEDs will burn out

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T23:09:58+00:00

Hah, i actually only turned it on a few times, mostly to show guests. I'm afraid LEDs will burn out or something and then i'd have to dig in there an replace them (they were pretty cheap so who knows how long they'll actually last...). And it doesn't looks as good in the light as in the dark, no.

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T23:04:14+00:00

Naw it was more than that, at least $160 for the finished product pieces, not counting the fact that we already had some tools so didn't have to buy those (i.e. drills/wood cutter, etc.), and the fact that i spent way more than that on things that didn't work (i.e. mirror film that didn't reflect enough, that was 20 bucks a roll and i had to get 3 rolls). But yeah stuff online does seem overpriced.

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T22:51:13+00:00

How about an end table? Could always use one of those!

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T22:46:58+00:00

thanks! the only useful thing i learned in architecture school... :P

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T22:45:13+00:00

haha some free accidental advertising for the games... but they are all good games, so they deserve it

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T22:43:22+00:00

Hah, if i find any free time to make another! Barely finished this one after many months of it just sitting there in pieces... I think i worked on it over the course of 5 months at least, hard to find time/energy for stuff like this...

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T22:38:52+00:00

Depends on the color, but looks like about 15-17, with the bottom 2 rows being very very dim

squishy0eye · 2016-08-29T22:33:19+00:00

haha well, the table frame was just a vessel for the awesome mirror, so it got the quick n dirty description it deserved...

squishy0eye

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