A quick easy way to make a customizable night light on a laser.

Materials needed:
Access to Corel Draw (thanx TechShop)
Access to a laser cutter (thanx againTechShop)
A 1/4"X6" led strip (thanx lumenedge)
1/8" thick 24"X18" clear acrylic
1/4" thick 5"X24" wood (i used mahogany, no reason why)
digital calipers
wood glue
clamps

- the picture shows more stuff, but I didn't need it all after all

I made this at TechShop

Step 1: Design Your Night Light

For my design I used Corel Draw. My daughter likes giraffe's, so I made my new grandchild a mom and baby giraffe design with her name at the bottom.

When I designed it, I wanted to make sure all the etching would be on the inside to keep the image clean and finger print free. Notice her name is spelled backwards so that when the night light is sandwiched together everything is facing the correct way. I split the giraffe's up to help the light get through the name on the bottom. I got my width from the led strip I bought and thought the height looked good at 8".

Step 2: Cut Out the Light

Next, I cut out my clear acrylic. I put my 2 pieces together in my led strip so that I could take some dimensions to ensure my base would fit properly with the assembly.

Step 3:

Using what I found out from the prior step, I designed my base in corel draw also. I needed 1 solid piece as a bottom, 1 piece with the acrylic slot cut in and also a slot for the wiring to come out of as a middle, and 1 piece to have an acrylic slot in it for a top. When I was set, I moved over to the laser and cut them out.

Step 4: Put It All Together

With a little glue on each piece of the base, start at the bottom and work up. When the middle piece was done I mounted the night light, then put the last piece down over the acrylic, lined up the bases and clamped them together about half an hour. Plug it in and there ya go - a quick easy customizable night light.