Assemble a Super Mario Brothers Coin Block Lamp

Intro: Assemble a Super Mario Brothers Coin Block Lamp

Ah, the classic Super Mario coin block. So tantalizing with its mysterious question mark - just a gentle bump with your fist will reveal its unknown contents. Will it be a

lowly coin, the rare vine, or perhaps a power up? If only such a thing existed in real life...

WAIT - IT DOES!

OK, so it doesn't actually spew coins and mushrooms, but it does light up and play some sounds that are sure to make you smile.

This Instructable assumes you've bought one of the kits for sale on Etsy . Here's what it will contain:

- 6 yellow acrylic laser-cut exterior pieces

- 4 white acrylic laser-cut interior pieces

- a number of black "shadow" elements for the interior

- custom printed circuit board

- 4"x4" touch sensor plate

- ATTiny85 microcontroller

- 10 extremely bright LEDs

- 10 68-ohm resistors

- 2 NPN transistors

- an 8-ohm speaker

- 2 100-ohm resistors

- 1 10M-ohm resistor

- 5v USB wall wart

- 12' two-prong extension cord

You're going to need some tools and supplies to get this build done:

- a soldering iron and some solder

- a hot glue gun (preferred) or some double-stick tape

- superglue - the brush kind is best

- a pair of diagonal cutters or wire cutters

- a wire stripper or a knife

- a few short pieces of wire

- masking tape (optional)

- spring clamps (optional)

- a vise for holding things in place while you work (optional)

Step 1: Prep the work space

You're going to need a few outlets and a bright light source to make your job easier. Soldering produces some fumes, so it's good to have ventilation as well. Also, I found

it very helpful to have a garbage can handy, especially once I got into the soldering phase.

We're going to be working with superglue, hot glue, and solder, so there's significant opportunity to ruin the kitchen table your wife so carefully picked out. I covered my

whole table with butcher paper to make sure that wouldn't be an issue... again.

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Image Notes

1. not pictured: tragic acetone stain from another project.

Step 2: Assemble the box faces

Before you get started, remove any contact paper from the acrylic pieces. The pieces ship this way to protect them from getting scratched up in transit.

The first thing we're going to do is assemble most, but not all, of the exterior of our lamp. The reason to do this first is that how you choose to assemble the sides will

effect the rest of the construction.

If you look at any of the four side pieces, you'll notice that opposite edges are opposite of one another so that all the sides will fit together and form a box. It doesn't

matter which side of the plastic you choose to use, or which direction the bigger squares in the corners point, since the box will fit together regardless, but the important

part is that you have to be consistent ! Otherwise, the only way the box will fit together will leave you with upside-down or mirrored question marks.

I like to have the square corners in the lower left and the upper right. Lay out your four yellow side pieces in a row, making sure to align them all the same way.

Locate one of the large white outline pieces. To get the best-looking result, we want the white piece to be nice and square with the yellow face. A neat trick for doing this

is to take the L-shaped black "shadow" pieces and use them to frame the opposite corners of the face. If you get them nice and square with the edge of the face and then

clamp them, they form the perfect guide for adding the white outline.

Orient the white outline so that the hook of the question mark is facing to your left. The side you're looking at now is the side you need to glue to the yellow piece. Using

your superglue, put a few spots of glue in the corners of the white piece. When working with superglue, a little goes a long way, so don't feel the need to go crazy. Then,

flip the white piece over so the glue side is down - the hook of the question mark should now be facing right - and apply it to the yellow piece. It should fit nice and snug

between the L-shaped pieces. Press down firmly for a few seconds and it should stick.

You should immediately remove the L-shaped pieces, since if you applied too much superglue to the white piece, it's likely some will have squished out and could sneak

under its neighbors. You won't want those L-shaped pieces inadvertently glued down!

Repeat this process on the other three faces.

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Step 3: Assemble the box faces, continued

Once you've gone through and glued all the white pieces to the yellow exterior pieces, adding the rest of the detail pieces is easy - the white piece should provide you

with the template you need. Simply apply a little glue to each of the pieces, then place them into the outline where appropriate.

The one tricky part is the floating white piece at the center of the question mark. Do this piece last, after you've put in the long shadow that hugs the "inside" of the

question mark's

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