Laser cut LED Bauble, Christmas Tree, Rocket

thingiverse

This was made for an upcoming Christmas workshop at work. SInce we'll be giving these away, I've designed it for 1/8 '' (3.175 mm) MDF, as it's dirt cheap. It would probably look spectacular in acrylics, but please remember to adjust the slots to the width of your material for a tight fit if you go that route. And please, please upload a picture. I'd love to see the result. Each model comes in two parts that slot together. There's a cutaway in the press fit slots to allow the pins from a standard 5 mm LED to fit snugly against the 3 V battery, lighting it up. The drain on the battery is quite high, as I haven't incorpoated any room for a resistor in the design. It had to be quick and easy to asemble. Using a blinking RGB LED looks appropriately garish for a Christmas ornament, so I've chosen to go with those. Or possibly the other way around. I got a bunch of these LEDs from a friend and thought they were perfect for something like this. To assemble, fit the battery in the 20ish mm hole first, slot the two pieces together with the battery in place and manoeuvre the LED into the smaller hole, making sure that the polarity is right. Gie the pins a slight inward bend, a pair of needle nose pliers are great for this job. Getting the LED pins into the slots can be a bit fiddly. I suggest using a tiny flat head screwdriver for this. It's one of the few jobs they're suited for. I strongly dislike flathead screws, so these old screwdrivers don't see much use. But I digress. If the LED lights up, you've done it right.