Anybody use el wire on their cabinet?

[TheOtherBob]

Hi, I picked up some el wire and temporarily (affixed it with Scotch tape) ran it along the edge of the side panel on my cabinet.  I rather like the look, kind of gives it a Tron look.  I was thinking that this might be neat to use for a cheap neon effect for the name of my cabinet down the side.  That could be a bit of work but the effect could be quite cool.  Anybody do this and have pics of the outcome?  And tips maybe?

Thanks!

[radiator]

welcome to the boards...

not tried el wire before...but el sheet is very cool - i built a mini-pc a while back (more than half the size of a briefcase) and covered the whole thing with blue el sheet...looks awsome when turned on!

 

[Brax]

Quite a few people use it to light translucent joystick handles. Other than that there hasn't been many examples of other uses yet.

[Pixelhugger]

I've been planning on doing the same (using glow wire for a logo on the side) for a while. I hate tipping my cards on this since I was hoping to be the first, but since you're thinking of doing the same PM or email me and I'll give you the details.

[Brad Lee]

I hadn't thought of using the el wire(I have seen it in some pc mods and it can look very nice) but what I had thought of doing was getting 1 or 2 of the sound reactive cold cathode tubes, either behind the marquee and under the CP or on the sides of the monitor(between the tv and the sides of the cabs), and riggingthe sound sensors 1 to the main speakers and the other to the sub, so it'd be somewhat coordinated

[Frostillicus]

I was gonna use glow-wire (same as el wire?) for my tron control panel overlay and backdrop but decided against it for various reasons.
It could look cool if you used a lot, but I don't know if just outlining a cab would look very stellar.

[grafixmonkey]

Does that stuff heat up?  it might look awesome behind smoked plexi, long as it won't melt anything.

oh, and what do you have to do to make it lite up?  DC or AC, high voltage?

Tron is my favoritest game evar...  I looked at EL wire a bit.  If I could get my cab to have those glowing Tron traces like in the movie, I'd crap my pants for joy.

[TheOtherBob]

Does that stuff heat up?  it might look awesome behind smoked plexi, long as it won't melt anything.

oh, and what do you have to do to make it lite up?  DC or AC, high voltage?

No, it doesn't heat up.  At least not enough to where you can tell.  You do need an inverter.  Mine runs on 12 vdc, so you can use your pc power supply.  I got my elwire off of ebay.  I think I paid like 29 bucks for a 20ft section that included an inverter and also shipping.  Do a search on elwire at ebay if you're interested.

Go here for more info on the stuff: http://www.elamusainc.com/faqs.htm

I like the look, it's definitely a matter of personal preference.  Have fun!

[Smittydc]

I use this stuff in a lot of projects.  www.coolight.com has a great selection and good prices.  

They even have a new style of wire with a "wing" on one side to make it easier to attach to surfaces -- probably wouldn't be hard to sqeeze it underneath the edge of your overlay.

[grafixmonkey]

I thought it'd be pretty cool to use thicker wood than you need in the cab, and use a router to cut out traces for the wire to sit inside.  Then you could have all kinds of glowing designs without complicated mounting.

[Rom]

I'm planning on using glow-wire on my cabinet. Rather than have it in full view, I want to have it hidden behind an overhanging panel but have the glow come out from underneath.
I'm aiming for subtle illumination with this stuff as I feel that if it's too full on it might distract from the overall look of my cabinet.

[TheOtherBob]

Great ideas everyone....... thanks!  

I thought it'd be pretty cool to use thicker wood than you need in the cab, and use a router to cut out traces for the wire to sit inside.  Then you could have all kinds of glowing designs without complicated mounting.

I think this might be the route (hahaha I'm hilarious) that I take.  But I'm not too hot with a router........ let's say I wanted to go an inch in from the edge...... and route a "trench" for the el wire to lay in.  What's the best way to route that when you get into a corner?  Say like the inside corner of an "L"?  I can see using a bracket/jig that'd keep you at in inch inside for the long runs....... but the corner seems too difficult.  And while I can route....... not sure I can do a good job freehand following a penciled in line......... hmmmmmmm

[grafixmonkey]

hmmm, I don't know, maybe you could get a nice solid straightedge and clamp it onto your wood where it has to be to keep the router in place.  Probably take multiple passes, clamp - route - remove - clamp - route - remove

[RetroBorg]

I was thinking of instead of just making a groove for the T-Molding also have another 2 shallower grooves, one on each side to lay EL wire hopefully to illuminate the T-Molding. I'm just not sure if EL wire has enough lumes to make the T-Molding transparent. I was thinking maybe white EL wire behind light blue T-Molding might have some sort of glow effect. Anyone with experince with EL wire who has T-Molding think this might be workable.

[grafixmonkey]

I've never tried EL wire, but I've never seen anything light up enough to shine through plastic as thick as T-molding and stay cool enough that heat wouldn't be a problem.  (even the LEDs I use in random stuff)

if you have some EL wire you can try it on a spare board and tell us how it goes though  

[HeadRusch]

I got some EL Wire that I'm going to use on my coctail......ORIGINALLY I was going to use 1/2" EL Tape and go around the entire perimiter of my rectangular Coctail Top, that is..until I PRICED how much EL Tape I'd need.

Another thing to keep in mind..this stuff doesn't exactly have "longevitity" going for it......It would be smarter to use UV Reactive paints and use a blacklight instead.

I would still love to do the idea of using the stuff instead of t-moulding, but the fact is, for the 1/2" EL Tape its just totally cost prohibitive....to go around my coctail top we're talking like $100 bucks of tape, and thats just too rich for my blood...for that purpose.

[grafixmonkey]

It doesn't last??      I knew it had to have a downside.

I think he wanted to use EL wire, and put it underneath T-molding...  how much more expensive is EL tape than EL wire?  I thought wire was only a couple bucks a foot.

[Smittydc]

Rusch: El-wire has a life of about 3000 hours -- which is quite a long time, IMHO.  You can find it online for about $1.30/ft.  

I think the strip stuff is more expensive.