How to build an Eiffel Tower...

[Erik King]

Phil - I would love to see a photo of yours when you are done. I was planning on cutting one about 50" tall out of 1/4 glass on the waterjet and using some lighting on it. Yours might give me an idea of how it might look before I commit the cutting hours. Thanks.

Might be cool! I'm planning to make another one out of clear acrylic and maybe put some LED's inside it. We're also toying with the idea of adding our own (maybe illuminated) sign letters to it for an advertisement for our commercial sign company (which I also manage). It would be very cool...but I haven't decided if it's worth the trouble just for the grins at this busy time of year.

[James Stokes]

Jack, You have taken my idea, I have wanted to make it out of glass but I do not have a waterjet. I am planning to cut stencil and cut it with my sandblaster. If you do do it in glass I definatly want to see it.

[Phil Garcia]

I got it cut and just kinda held it in place by hand to see what it looks like, and it's unbelievable. The prism effect makes it look like it's made of crystal. When I finish I will post a pic.

[Bob Keyes]

Erik,
Thanks for the tutorial. It's great and the results look fantastic.

Phil,
Can you tell about this prism acrylic? Where to get it etc.?

Thanks a lot.

[Phil Garcia]

I'm using florescent light fixture diffusers that a electrician friend brought over, just to see if I want them to practice on. There are different kinds of diffusers on the market and these are the prism type. Most commerical electricians throw these away went they do remodeling jobs. I have now contacted a couple of community groups that are pushing GREEN(recycle-able) products. Since these diffusers are not ending up at the dump but instead on Christmas trees as recycle-able ornaments and things like Eiffel Towers, Windmills, etc..I think it's a great idea. I am my part of being Green. I'll get off my soap box now....

[Erik King]

Hi All,

As promised here are the files I used that have been cleaned-up and rearranged a bit. I am posting the same file in three formats: CDR, AI and EPS so that you can download the posted ZIP file and have them in the format you prefer. The file sizes are too large to attach to this posting (and for some reason the forum does not allow .ai files!), so I have posted them on my own file server so that you can download them by clicking on this link instead: http://snipr.com/6zcbm-qth1fj

Please note that I did not create these - all credit belongs to the original poster/creator (whoever that was) all I did was get them ready for use a bit.

Please also not that because I use a ULS laser I have everything set to be a RGB red (255/0/0) hairline (.001) so that everything will vector cut. There are no raster engraved items in the file. If you use an Epilog you may need to adjust color and line width to suit your driver. They are also set up in one 32" x 24" sheet - if you have a smaller bed you will need to re-nest them on a couple of smaller sheets instead.

Hope this helps - have fun!

[Don Gares]

Erik,

How 'bout uploading a Corel file of the tower in X3 or lower?

Don

[Erik King]

Hi Don,

If I get a minute I will convert it for you but I don't keep Corel on anything but the laser computer (as it pains me greatly to use Corel on a PC rather than AI on a Mac) which is not near my office, so I may not be able to do it right away...

Meanwhile, why not just import the EPS file into Corel? That is how I do everything (since I prefer to do layouts in AI and just use Corel to "print" from) and it works great.

(By the way - I tried to answer your PM but your ISP said I was spam and bounced the message.)

Have a good one!

[Jim Watkins]

Good evening all,
Here is my tower which I made last year. I saved the file down to an X3 file.

Some of the pieces will have to be duplicated and all will fit onto two 12 x 24" baltic birch panels with the exception of one of the bottom supports, it will have to go onto a third piece. Just rearrange it and it will work.

I would have sent the whole file, but the detail made the file really large, about 411kb, so I could not attach it.

Let me know what you think...

Jim