For my last post, I had some pics and a video of the POW block sign I made. I didn’t have much time to write about how I built it, so here goes…

Concept

I love neon and illuminated signs, and for awhile have been thinking about making some sort of POW block sign inspired by the POW block floating above the  middle of the ground floor in Mario Bros:

I made a 3D mockup for inspiration before starting:

I discovered El Wire online, which is an electroluminescent wire that has the appearance of neon and comes in different colors and thicknesses. The wires need to be powered by a driver to work, and that driver can be powered by batteries or a power supply. Drivers come in different types, and you can also use sequencers to get some serious blinking action going. I opted to use a sound activated driver, which can pulse the wires on and off to whatever music or other noise is going on in the room.

Materials

1. Black 10″ x 10″ x 10″ acrylic ballot box, $46 ish on eBay

2. 20 feet of white 2.5mm high bright El Wire and an audio activated driver – $40 at CoolNeon.com.

3. 10 feet of blue 2.5mm high bright El Wire with attached harness – $20.50 at CoolNeon.com.

I made the mistake of buying 5mm El Wire first which looks awesome lit, but was too thick to hold a good bend:

4. (2) POW vinyl stickers – custom made by Brian Jones at GameStencils.com

I figured that the sign wouldn’t look so hot when turned off if the design was only made with the El Wire, so I wanted to have a background for the wire to sit on. I made a vector representation of the POW block using a screenshot from Mario Bros and sent it to Brian who made some awesome stickers (thanks). Here’s the file if you need it.

5. Power switch – I got this one at Ace Hardware for a few bucks:

6. Fishing Line – again, got it at Ace Hardware for a few bucks. I believe I got the 8 lb line if I remember correctly.

7. (2) rubber grommets:

8. Screw hooks to hang from ceiling:

Tools

1. Drill or something else that can be used to drill holes. I’m guessing a drill would be best.

2. Superglue (or Krazy Glue if you are feeling crazy)

3. Gorilla Tape

4. Small lengths of wire to wire switch. No pic for this one…you’ll have to imagine how wires look.

5. Masking tape

6. A file smaller than the opening for the switch

How to Build It

1. First thing I did was to stick the custom stickers to opposite sides of the ballot box. Here’s what they looked like with the mask on:

Here’s one side positioned with some masking tape:

and finally, stuck to the box:

Repeat on the opposite side.

2. Next, I drilled 1 hole for each rubber grommet. One on the left side of the box and one on the right. Each hole is about 3 inches down from the top edge. Be VERY careful drilling, as this stuff is fragile. If you drill too close to the edge it will crack just like mine did. I had to fix the piece that cracked with some superglue. After you drill the holes, work the grommets into them. The one on the left here is in:

I put these in to pass the fishing line through for hanging later, and figured they would releave some strain on the acrylic to prevent cracking and also to prevent wear on the fishing line.

3. Drill a hole slightly smaller than the switch wherever you would like to place it. I chose the bottom right corner of the box.

4. Use the file to gradually make the hole a rectangle. When you get close to the size you want, you can use some masking tape to mark off the exact edges of the desired hole so you don’t make it too big. Here it is about 80% done:

5. Once you get the hole the correct size, work the switch into it. This was a bit tricky, and I ended up hitting it (gently) with a rubber mallet:

6. You should now have plastic crud all over the place. Clean the box the best you can inside and out, but don’t go nuts as you will be doing more drilling shortly. Keep in mind acrylic should not be cleaned with Windex as it will leave marks. If you don’t have any Novus, water will probably work better.

7. Grab a drill bit that will be big enough to pass the El Wire through twice. You’ll be feeding in and then back out that same hole. I’d recommend practicing to get the size right on a scrap piece of wood.

8. Drill a hole in the upper right corner of the letter P. You can see that hole here:

9. Put the entire length of white El Wire inside the box, and feed the end that doesn’t have the connector on it through the hole. Pull out almost all of it, leaving enough of the wire inside to connect to the driver later. Secure it to the inside of the box with some Gorilla Tape.

10. This is the tricky part – work the wire around the outer perimieter of the letter P, bending it at the corners. When you get to a bend, before you continue to the next one lift the wire up and put a few drops of super glue under the wire. Use it sparingly, as when it dries it turns white and less will look better. Push the wire down on the glue, and hold for 15 seconds. When it dries, continue to the next bend, following along as you see in the pic above.

11. When you get to the hole, feed the wire back into it. Pull it all the way back inside the box.

12. Tape it inside again with Gorilla Tape to hold it tight

13. Drill a hole in the corner of the O, and repeat the whole process, in and out of the box as you go to each letter.

14. Repeat for the light blue line, using the blue El Wire. Here is one side done…click to zoom in and see how I ran the wire along the edges.

15. I haven’t done this part yet, but the plan is to repeat the process for the opposite side

16. You’ll need to take the battery pack for the driver, and cut one of the wires going to it. Splice in some short pieces of wire, and run them to the switch. You should be able to figure this part out if you are an arcade geek. The driver has it’s own switch. I just left it on, and then use the switch I wired to turn the battery pack on and off.

17. Locate a ceiling joist using a stud finder, being careful to not get a false positive should the stud finder get too close to your manly self.

18. Screw the hooks in, 10″ apart making sure you catch the joist

19. Feed some fishing line through the grommets. I started on the right side, fed it through the inside of the box, and back out the left side.

20. Tie some loops in the line, one on each side

21. Hang it!

That’s about it. View my last post prior to this one to see a video of it. I’m sure I probably left something out. If you have any questions, post a comment and I’d be glad to help.