First things first: I straightened each fiber with a heat-gun on a very low heat setting. They come from the manufacturer with a curve to them due to the packaging, and they need to be straight :) I'll talk about this again later I attached the base to a pulley so I could raise and lower it as needed and it ended up being a great decision, saving me quite a bit of hassle and potential damage while building it. The top section of bare wood is just a section of 2x3" that I had laying around. It eventually gets mounted to a stud in the nursery ceiling. The bottom bare wood is just a simple "T" shape I made out of some scrap 3/4" plywood, attached to the base with some 1/2" wide by 2" long right-angle brackets. They are small enough to mount between the holes I drliled. To connect the base to the ceiling's wood, I used a 5/8" threaded rod between two appropriately sized pipe flanges. This allows me to adjust the distance of the base from the ceiling and get it tight just by turning the base clockwise and thread the rod more. I originally attempted to use flush-mount brackets to attach base to ceiling, but they were more trouble than they were worth
sandusky_hohoho on July 26th, 2017 at 23:09 UTC »
Awesome!
You might want to spend some time reading about the effects of colored light on circadian rhythms. It's not all completely nailed down yet, but there is evidence that exposure to short wavelength light (blue/purple) can disrupt sleep cycles - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_effects_on_circadian_rhythm
(i.e. be careful shining blue light on a baby that you're trying to put to sleep!)
Yago20 on July 26th, 2017 at 19:07 UTC »
Why didn't my parents love me?
Auram on July 26th, 2017 at 18:43 UTC »
OP Here
My wife and I are expecting a daughter (our second child) in a few weeks and I wanted to do special lighting for her nursery like I did for our son with his Fiber Optic Star Ceiling: http://imgur.com/a/bzwDp
In total, there are 225 fiber optic strands in this chandelier and maybe $170 in materials all told. Most of that cost is in the fiber and illuminator but due to time constraints, I had to go with 'off the shelf' options from Amazon
In planning this project out, I found a few people that have built their own fiber optic chandeliers but details were sparse, so much of my process I had to figure out as I went or piece together from various sites. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone might have, post them here or PM me!
The phrase "Labor of Love" comes to mind for this project, mostly due to the time necessary to complete it, but seeing the finished product installed above her crib made it absolutely worth it.