Laser cut LED Bauble, Christmas Tree, Rocket

thingiverse

This was designed specifically for a forthcoming Christmas workshop at work. Since we'll be giving these away, I've crafted it using 1/8 '' (3.175 mm) MDF, as it's extremely budget-friendly. It would likely look stunning in acrylics, but please remember to adjust the slots to the width of your material for a tight fit if you choose that route. And please, please upload a picture. I'd love to see the finished result. Each model comes in two pieces that slot together seamlessly. 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, illuminating it. The drain on the battery is quite high, as I haven't incorporated any room for a resistor in the design. It had to be quick and easy to assemble. Using a blinking RGB LED looks appropriately garish for a Christmas ornament, so I've chosen those instead of another option. Or possibly the other way around. I received 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, then slot the two pieces together with the battery in place and manoeuvre the LED into the smaller hole, making sure that the polarity is correct. Give the pins a slight inward bend, as a pair of needle nose pliers are great for this task. Getting the LED pins into the slots can be a bit fiddly. I suggest using a tiny flat head screwdriver for this job. These old screwdrivers don't see much use because I strongly dislike flathead screws. If the LED lights up, you've done it right.