"Hi everyone, it's Jonny from Woodworking with Five Tools. Today, I’m going to show you how to build this beautiful Oak board with LED lights, which can be used as a room light or a stand for art.
If you want to follow along with me, check out the video where I build the Oak board.
wood board
LED’s
power supply
circle template
Tools:
• drill
• router + copyring
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Time expenditure: 3 hours
Difficulty: 4/5
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You can decide the placement of the LEDs yourself. The only restriction is that you need enough space for the power supply. We've found the best approach is to pick a few glasses, bottles, or any other items you plan to place on the lights and mark where they look best. From there, you can easily mark the center of these spots manually. Once this is done, find a place on the back for the power supply.
Attention:
- remember that the supply is on the bottom of the wood piece.
First, we drill holes into the center of the marked spots for our LEDs. This is to ensure that the cables of the LEDs won't be visible later. Use a drill bit that is wider than the cables of the LEDs you are using, and drill from the top to the bottom. To prevent tear-out at the bottom of the piece, you can clamp another piece of wood under it.
Attention:
- Using a mask while working with Oakwood is recommended.
Here, it is important to determine the diameter of the LEDs you want to use for the project.
Take the circle template and select the appropriate size circle. Remember that the template needs to be slightly larger than the desired result because the copying process reduces the radius that is cut out. Once the correct diameter is determined, use double-sided tape to secure the template to the wooden beam.
For the LED supply, measure both the size and depth of the LED supply. To create a well-routed pocket, you can use tools like a miter saw to craft a template, or you can simply glue together a template.
Remember that the template needs to be larger than the final pocket.
In short: Measure the diameter of the router bit and the copy ring. Then, divide the difference by 2.
- Router bit: 20mm
- Copy ring: 30mm
The difference is 10mm, so we need a 5mm frame all around the pocket in our template.
Now that you know the distance, construct the template and route the pocket until you reach the required depth for your LED supply to fit completely inside.
Attention:
- Remove a maximum of 1mm at a time!
- NEVER start your router on wood. The router must be spinning fast before it comes into contact with the wood.
For the cable channels from the LED to the supply, we use a simple MDF board along which we can guide the router.
First, we mark a direct line from the drilled hole to the spot where the channel meets the pocket for the power supply. Then, we need to measure the diameter of our router plus the distance to the router ring. Using this distance, we draw another line parallel to the first line and affix the MDF along that second line. To ensure the board doesn't move while we route the cable channel, we use double-sided tape. If you think the router will tip over when you use it, use a second MDF board and stick it on the opposite side of where you want to place the cable channel.
Attention:
- If you think the router could tip over, use a second MDF board and stick it on the other side.
- Remove a maximum of 1mm at a time!
- NEVER start your router on wood. The router needs to be spinning fast before it makes contact with the wood.
And you're already done!
We hope you enjoyed our Little Block Guide and were able to follow along with the steps easily. Feel free to share your work with us on Instagram.
If all of this felt like too much, we'd like to remind you to check out our shop where we sell sets or the already finished product to you so we can keep this project running and provide new and fun tutorials for you in the future.
