Lighted trim options? (i.e. "Ghost in the Machine")

[Mysterioii]

Hi all.  I don't know if weisshaupt is still active here, I don't see any posts from him more recent than like 2009, but I came across his "Ghost in the Machine" project a while back and I like the lighted trim he used (links below). 

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/The_Ghost_in_the_Machine
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=75411.msg784913#msg784913

I actually bought some of the UHMW polyethylene trim from McMaster-Carr that he had used, but man that stuff is hard.  It came rolled up (the wrong way) so even just straightening it out would be an undertaking, much less getting it to curve around the contours of my existing cabinet.  I tested things out with a heat gun and have been unable to get it to curve adequately without it distorting in an unattractive and essentially unusable manner.

My question is, since it's been about 4 years since his project, has anyone come across better materials to use for edge lighting like that?  For my purposes I was thinking a nice 3/4" wide half-round extrusion, like a gasket material, in a soft translucent/frosted silicone or something like that would be great.  There are places on the web that do custom extrusions but I'm sure that costs an arm and a leg...  I've been able to find 3/4" half-round gasket material but only in opaque rubber. If it was a half-round WITH a t-molding flange on the back, that would be pipe-dream perfect.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks!

[Mysterioii]

93 views and no replies...  so is nobody doing lighted trim?  There are options out there now that are perhaps more interesting than EL wire...  I just need a clean presentation...

[bhays]

I am interested. I just don't have any ideas of what to use other than el wire.

[yaksplat]

Sideglow fiber optic lighting should work, light wise.  It's just a matter of how to make it look good on the cabinet.  I've used it before and it glows very bright with an LED source.

http://www.fiberopticproducts.com/Sideglow.htm

[rockyrocket]

Sideglow fiber optic lighting should work, light wise.  It's just a matter of how to make it look good on the cabinet.  I've used it before and it glows very bright with an LED source.

http://www.fiberopticproducts.com/Sideglow.htm

This stuff looks great!, definitely going to try some.
Do you have any pictures of your usage?.
Also Mysterioii what happens if you heat that trim in boiling water to soften it?.

[yaksplat]

Unfortunately i don't.  When i set it up though, I didn't spend any money on their wpecial connectors, but i used shrink tubing to hold the fiber to the led without letting any light leak out.

[Mysterioii]

The edgeglow fiber optic looks good...  I've got something else in mind but I'd like to try to implement it myself first before I let people know what it is...  I'll definitely share the concept if I can get things to work out but I'd hate to see someone get my idea working before I have time to...     And my free time is extremely limited now.

3/4" half round translucent silicone extrusion would be great if I could find it someplace without having to pay for custom tooling or some huge fee for a low-volume run...  One thought though, since such a thing would be watertight maybe someone could implement a jukebox-style lighted bubble trim if it was translucent enough... that's not what I'm going for, but would be cool if someone else pulled it off.

Haven't tried softening the mcmaster-carr stuff in boiling water...  might be a problem logistically since I'd have to boil it in the kitchen but the cabinet is in the basement...  I might give it a shot with a short piece just to see if it works.  I am skeptical... that stuff is tough as nails.  Not sure how he got it to work for his Ghost in the Machine cab but I notice he had much gentler curves to his cabinet, and the inward curving sections on his actually go in the same direction that this stuff comes coiled up in, so he had a lot less straightening to do.  Looks like he made a few cuts at some of the angles too, which is an option, but might not be as clean looking as I would like.

I will keep everyone posted if I find what I'm looking for!

[yaksplat]

A heat gun may work as well.

[Le Chuck]

I've been toying with an idea that I'll share for doing some juke style bubble tubing.  Instead of trying to find 3/4 half round I was thinking of just using 3/4 round, cutting the sides of the cabinet 3/8" shorter all the way round and covering both sides with fullsized sheet metal (or stips that are routed in about two inches to save on metal.  Either way this would give you a chanel in which to lay the tubing.  Then use some of that flat LED stip lighting in the bottom of the channel to glow through the tubing.  I think you can get the strip lighting in multitude of color mixes but I'm not positive, if it's white only then some superglue and gel inserts will fix that.  After that it's a matter of installing a gasket up top, running the tubing in the cabinet from the bottom and hooking eveything up to a bubbler unit.  One could even frost the back half of the tubing for better light dispersion.  I think you would separate bubblers for the back and front on each side or at least some splitters so you have bubbles going all the way around.  Once you get the sideart or vinyl on the sides it'd be party time.

If you frost the whole tube you could just do without the bubbles and probably get some sweet glow, or do the same chanel and stick Yak's side glow stuff in it.  That'd be pimp.  Either way i think doing a chanel is the simpliest and cheapest answer.       

[Mysterioii]

Good ideas...  I don't have a ton of time so I'm looking to tweak my existing cabinet rather than build a new one from scratch, and your plan seems a lot more involved, but I like it.  BTW since you mentioned it, the RGB strip lighting is where I'm going...  there are TONS of varieties on ebay and elsewhere, but I have some that has good possibilities...  RGB capable, 60 LEDs/meter which is a pretty good density, 1cm wide which would fit in the center of a 3/4" half-round pretty well.  Man, now somebody's gonna beat me to it...   

There are many different types of RGB strip.  Single color, obviously.  With RGB there are probably three main types...  the crappiest type uses single-color LEDs and just alternates them... Red, Green, Blue...  spaced out like an inch apart.  Doesn't look that great.  Much better ones use actual RGB surface mount LEDs, and there are still 2 subtypes there...  The more basic type allows full color control but ALL the leds in the strip are always the same color.  That's not bad, would make a nice trim.  The swankier ones use little shift-register IC's and are "addressable" meaning that each LED can be lit a different color.  I have some plans for those too...   

There are also waterproof and non-waterproof varieties, the waterproof ones either being embedded in a clear rubbery material or sheathed in a silicone shell.  Neither is particularly trim-attractive by themselves and I don't really want the flex circuitry showing, which is why the half-round silicone would look good.

You did give me an idea though... I might be able to find some 3/4" "squared-U" trim, maybe in black, that I could tack to the edge of my cabinet.  Then maybe find a full-round silicone tube about .5"-.6" in diameter that I could put my lighting in and wedge down into the squared trim.  A little black caulk along the edge to hold them together, might do the trick.  *IF* I can find the squared trim...