Introduction: 12 Foot Long Menorah for Community Event

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I thought that I had published this in December, but for some reason, I had not.

I had the opportunity to volunteer to make a Menorah to celebrate the eighth (last night) of Chanukah.  The Menorah was made out of 5 1/2 sheets of 1/4" Plexiglas that were cut on a Trotec 80 watt laser at Tech Shop.

The menorah was designed so that as people came to the community celebration, they would take a can of food and place it on the Menorah.

The Menorah was designed using slots and tabs so that it is easy to assemble and can then be knocked down.  It just goes together with pins and slots -- no glue what so ever,

I made it at Tech Shop!

Step 1: 9 Inch Prototype

Step one was to make a nine inch high prototype.  I cut it out of 1/8" thick acrylic.  It is basically two pieces with a slot half way up / down the vertical.  There are tabs on top of the verticals and slots cut into the horizontal pieces.. 

Step 2: Make a Full Size Model Out of Cardboard

To make sure that the proportions were correct, I took some u-haul boxes and cut the parts out of corrugated cardboard boxes.

Since the plan is to have this hold 16 cans of soup on each shelf, I took the cardboard mock-up to a grocery store and stacked it up with cans of soup to make sure that it would support the weight of the cans, hold together, and not fail.

Step 3: Cut the Plexiglas to Fit the Laser

The bed of the laser can accommodate a 27" x 17" piece of Plexiglas (acrylic).  I used a panel saw to cut up the 6 4' x 8' sheets of material.

Step 4: Cut Out the Parts Using the Laser

This cart contains 5 1/2 sheets of 4 x 8 Plexiglas that has need cut using the TroTech laser.

Click here to see the laser cutting the slots: http://youtu.be/ZE9LRQT7aCs

Plexiglas comes with a protective covering that is removed after it is cut out.

Step 5: Glue the Bottoms

For added strength / appearance, I used Weldon-3 to glue to sheets of 1/4" Plexiglas together to make a 1/2" thick bottom.  The project is designed so that it will fit into 3 small u-haul moving boxes.

Step 6: Peel the Protective Cover and Assemble

Each "candle stick" has 12 parts that are almost 16 square feet of 1/4" Plexiglas.   It takes a little bit of time to peel the paper off of 24 sides (12 parts * 2)  for nine candles.

After the pieces are peeled. start assembling them together.

Step 7: Celebrate Chanukah and Collect Food for the Food Bank

This is what the Menorah looked like set up in Tech Shop and also what it looked like during the celebration with 500 people bringing food for the food bank

Step 8: The Lighting of the Menorah

Here's some video of people lighting the candles floating in water on top of the Menorah.  There were also smaller Menorahs that were light by the families that came to celebrate the last night of Chanukah.

Watch the video: http://youtu.be/bun57xh8zFw