Bubble Wall Infinity Mirror

Welcome to the project of the bubble wall infinity mirror.

In this project my partner in crime and our new addition, Kayla, created a bubble wall infinity mirror. We used an Arduino for this project. Enjoy!

Parts:

motors (10)

acrylic

plywood

spray paint (2 colors)

stain

tubing

3D printed parts

mirror

Arduino

fan

corn syrup

privacy film

valves

ps1 keyboard

LCD screen

misc. hardware

fish tank pump

LED strips

silicone

So, we took some pieces of PET-G and some HIPS to construct the wall. We started by cutting out slits for the columns. Then taking silicone to adhere the pieces together and letting it dry. While the front and back dry we took the top and bottom and drilled holes in the tops as pictured above. The took the silicone and connected all the sides. We let it sit for a few days.

After everything is right and tight we can water test to see if there is any leaks. Before we water test we have to screw in the valves to the bottom and use some plumbers tape to seal up the valves. Then we can test!

There were a couple leaks the first couple times we tested it. If this happens to you just add more silicone to it until there are no more leaks or holes. The you can move on to the construction of the box.

To build the box we had to get some professional help, so we used my father. He has been woodworking for years and years. So, to start we laid out a sketch of the dimensions and what we wanted as well as a group consensus. The next step was picking out what wood we wanted to use and cut the pieces. We had eight pieces total. The next step was to cut out the holes for where the LCD screen would go. We then started clamping and gluing pieces together.

On the inside we had to make sure that the bubble case would fit and be supported. As seen in the last photo. We had to put a couple shims to stabilize the case. After this it is just gluing and making sure everything is stable and aligned properly.

The next step is doing the electronics portion. Later on we will be uploading a circuit diagram that we used for this portion.

For the motors we had to try and figure out a way to have all of them fit in the box. So, pictured above is the layout we chose. Tubes running from the motors to the valves were pretty tricky. In the video at the beginning of this page it shows all the tubes behind the bubble case. This is probably the most difficult part of the project. For those who care, these motors were ordered from Ebay. Any motor will do as long as it's powerful enough.

For this step we just had to figure out a way to mount the pump. As you can see the pump was pretty big. We had to put a piece on a bottom since the bottom is open, for the pump to go on.

We took a STL file made from AutoCad. With this file we then took it into the program Cura which was hooked up to a Lulzbot mini 3D printer. We printed it out and then sanded it with 250 grit for maybe a minute. Then we took Rust-oleum spray paint, gold and midnight blue, shook it ready. We then took the blue and sprayed the entire 3D print. After the blue dried a little bit, we put tape on where we didn't want the gold. Then we took the gold and sprayed those parts. We let it dry over night. Wala!

We took some red wood stain and stained the entire box. This took about 6 coats. After the six coats we put the clear coat to make it shiny.

For the infinity mirror portion we took a small mirror, like pictured above, and stuck it on the backside of the bubble case. Then took the privacy film, which you can get at Menards, and stuck it to the front of the bubble case. These final images will be added later on.

Here we're going to put the code in text format for you guys to use.

To add on to the bubble wall we added a stand for it to go into an art show. This is not a necessity but very nice when coming into presentation.

Just add some 2X4s as the stand and take some spare pieces of wood and screws and stick them together.