Concrete LED Light Cube 

I'm making this right now. I'm making 2 garden-lights. So the bottom part is 30cm and I have to say, It's really easy to do and the results are fantastic! Everyone who likes this video should try this project! Thanks for the amazing video!

Love this book! ru-vid.comUgkxpCNxqmAkyjN6NPx1fyB7QiEFWyO5mUWL it is simply one-of-a-kind! I really love it, because karah explained all tools required to have the job done, not mentioning the fabulous diy pallets ideas. I'm pretty sure this will be a fresh start in my new endeavour. Amazon was great, they delivered on time. Thank you!

Beautiful as usual! Thanks for the share. A humble tip about concrete, you can use vibration sander over the wood mold to achieve super smooth surface as vibration removes air bubbles on the surface. 😉

The light is absolutely stunning. For future projects, you might want to know that there are premade micro USB breakout boards that consists of a small piece of PCB that takes all the pins and spreads them out a bit to standard through hole pads with the standard pitch, found in LED legs and pin headers. Some even come with male pin headers that you can solder in.

Very, very, cool design. I could see a similar but taller design with a central support made of PVC pipe, a 12 volt LED strip with a wall wart, and an in line dimmer. Or even an RGB LED strip with one of those trick controllers. Very cool as is.

Wow. Lots of things one could do with this. Tint the concrete, put texturing sheets in the mold for a textured surface to the concrete surfaces. The possibilities are near endless.

Perfect! I think sinking the lexan into the wet concrete was a great call as you can't see a gap. Wasn't sure why you'd want to go through the trouble of using a mini-USB connection, but when you looked it up to the power bank it made sense. Not that a concrete lamp is super portable!

I love this. Just the way it is. It's a beautiful mix of industrial, practical, modern, geeky, minimalistic, inexpensive and utterly functional... plus it's cute. An easy project, low in materials count, and looks great when completed. I wouldn't change a thing, were I to make this exact version. So I think I shall. But I I'll also make a taller, skinnier cylinder to match. Bravo, Ms. Orvar.

I like what you've done with your lighting projects using LEDs. LEDs puts out a rather harsh and unpleasant bright light, but you have a way of treat the light and pairing with concrete here, and wood in your desk lamp that creates a softer tone of light and inviting ambiance. Great project. Thanks Linn!

Lovely design! Thanks for inspiring us! To save on power consumption, eliminate the paper, frost both sides of the lexan, spray silver/white paint on the inside surfaces of the concrete, and use fewer LEDs. If the individual LEDs still show, create recessed cavities in the concrete and embed them there.

Using multi colour LEDs to get different colours of light along with the other suggestions of putting designs behind the lexan and using wood instead of concrete would look nice.

Search for usb breakout board. They are premade connectors on a tiny pcb with solderpoints, much easier to handle than the bare pins :)

The best cement for casting is tile cement, it dries relatively fast and makes a very smooth cast. As it is a wet mix it can get into very intricate shapes

That's a gorgeous light! I'd recommend a couple of slight design tweaks to improve longevity: 1. Don't encase the connector/wiring in the concrete. Reasoning: As soon as the connector wears out, the light is functionally "bricked". Maybe carve a channel through the concrete and feed the wire through. 2. Go with a 12V system instead of a 5V USB system. Reasoning: there's more power available. It's less versatile, but you're also not limiting yourself to 2.5W, and 12V adapters are easy to find. 3. Instead of coiling up the the LED strips, stick them to a thermally conductive surface (for example, thick gauge steel/aluminum sheet metal or PC heatsinks. Reasoning: LED longevity is highly dependent on keeping the diode junctions cool. By conducting away the heat, you keep the junctions from overheating over the long term. Keep up the good work!

Great project. Just wanted to mention, if you sand down one side of the plexi you are using and put the sanded side facing the led strip, it will go from clear to translucent and you won't need to add the paper.) Nice job Darbin!

Yes I would like to change it. Instead of using direct power. I would embed a power bank in the concrete slab and use a push button to turn it on and off and use the micro usb pin to charge the power bank. Making it truly portable.

The lamp is very cool, straightforward designed. An idea came form your last scene in which you can see some blue remained inside the concrete pores. A thing that should be tried is to play with air bubbles by mixing the concrete with more water and more power. Then paint two different ways the pores and the surface. This could be obtained by sprying the inner paint, sanding the surface and then painting it by a different technique like stamping or somewhat similar.

I would calk inside joints with silicone, let dry, then add concrete mix. this gives pre-rounded edges on blocks, saving sanding time and preventing the edges from chipping.

Great job! To get a smoother finish with your concrete a wetter mixture is better and also try vibrating the mould with an orbital sander or similar, this will remove the bubbles. You could also line the mould with cling film (Saran wrap in the USA).

That looks super cool. It would be interesting to do it with some blacked out stripes or maybe blacked out corners.

This project is SO GREAT. I have done some mortar work myself - I made a salt cellar and lid using LEGO for the mold. LEGO is great for prototyping but I'd probably go with plywood if I was going to make more than one (Great idea to spray paint the inside). I like Karl's comment about perhaps using a small piece of PVC to support the lights - it could be molded in to the base for stability.

Still don't understand the thumbs down for an original and unique idea. Nice job!

I enjoy the variety of project types that you explore. I probably won't build a concrete accent light but your creativity opens my mind. Thanks for sharing!

I would not change it. Perfect simplicity design and very cool with concrete!

Great idea. Thinking larger version would be nice as outdoor pathway lights. Maybe even larger ones that can double as a place to sit.

Really cool project! I'm going to try and make a smart one with usb C. Good hint for the concrete molds is use cooking spray instead of paint. Comes off really clean.

Loved the idea that you used a USB port for powering the light it would be a good light for taking camping as well using the power bank

Girl with soldering iron is "something"!!! Keep on!!! Thumbs up, all 4! Hello from Siberia! 🙋

Nice! For future reference, if you apply the orbital sander to the mold with the wet concrete, the vibration should help reduce the small voids in the concrete. This includes the obvious bubbles, but I think it will also bring more of the fine particles out so the sides are smoother, even with drier concrete.

Very cool build! Paper behind the lexan was very clever for diffusion. I've made some lights with opaque plexiglas, but unless the glass is about 5 cm or more away from the LEDs the single light sources are visible.

Turned out nice! You can also use super plasticizer or water reducer to increase the workability of the mix without losing much strength as you do with adding more water.

Very nice! What a great project. Now, if you added a Joule Thief circuit in there, you could run it off of dead batteries that other have thrown away. Well done.

You even moulded the concrete yourself!!! That's what I call dedication to the task.

Such a versatile design and would be great for making decent solar garden lighting too. Thanks for making this video.

Fantastic. I'm going to give this a go this weekend. I think I'll embed a copper plate in the top which, with a microcontroller will allow me to simply hold my hand over it to turn it on/ dim it.

That design is nice; I wouldn't change a thing. But I wanted to mention a sort of funny story, that might also be cautionary. When hot glue guns first became available, decades and decades ago, my dad started using his new one for everything in his shop, including lots of little pine screwdriver shelves, small boxes, and so forth. All was good until a severe heat wave in mid summer, when everything "let go". (So I recommend that you use some malleable wire or epoxy putty or instant cyanoacrylate, such as FastCap 2-P10, or some other such thing to hold the LED coil in place, and perhaps in other places that you have been using hot glue lately that could conceivably become warm at some point...)

Very cool. I'm think I will make some for my Italian terrazzo, but I think I will integrate a power bank into the build so that I don't need power to use them. Of course this will require a different USB for power and charging. Thanks for a great channel with lots of good ideas.

Very nice indeed. A tall cylindrical one would be nice for a living room.

Very, very cool design! If you already have 12V led strips lying around: 5V USB -> boost converter -> 12V. Not as sleek, but probably cheaper since 12V is so common.

I do a number of lighting commissions for clients, so I watch of a lot of lighting projects on RU-vid. This one I really liked.

It's brilliant, the USB jack was a great touch. I never thought of sanding the lexan to achieve frost. Well done, I wouldn't change a thing.

I'd make 3 Hexagonal lights all different heights, and I'd control them with an arduino using PWM outputs to allow dimming, oh and I'd use RGB LEDs to allow for colored accent lights, but that's just me :-) yours looked great too!

As you mentioned color. A black concrete would be very cool.

A note on casting concrete, water based lube makes a great release agent. Cheap, easy to clean up, and accessible.

Excellent project. I am thinking of many variations, none better nor worse just different.

Very beautiful. I have also rebuilt it, but something bigger for the garden. 40x40 cm (15,7")

Hi, I like your idear. One cool addition would be to add a powerbank to the lamp and a Switch near the USB connection. Then you can power it by battery and recharge it later. With this you could take ist to your garden desk or use it inside.

I like the idea of keeping the top removable so that you can place different color filters around the LEDs to change the color of the light. Also, using RGB LEDs would be cool too.

I had a thought about the diffusers for this project. Home Depot and other big box stores sell several varieties of acrylic diffusers that are normally used for the grid dropped ceilings under fluorescent lamps. They are 24" x 48", are available in frosted and clear material with a variety of molded in textures, and sell for about $10.00.

Thanks! Gonna do this but with a longer bottom to use them outside for the pathway!

Hey, this is really a brilliant idea. I think the mini USB plug represents an extra point. I come from Germany and here we have to comply with much more stringent guidelines with regard to working with electricity. But this solution is easy to implement. Thanks for the Insperation. Just awesome

Looks great Linn! I like it. Although it could throw off the symmetry of the concrete sandwich, you could use a dark or intensely colored wood (such as wenge, bloodwood, padauk, or desert ironwood) for the top of the cube. Either way, the light looks great! Keep up the good work.

You could add epoxy mixed with colour dye or other additive to fill in the air bubbles and give it a nice accent

Nice job! Btw. for projects like this, I like using self-leveling mortar, usually sold for floors. It floats like a thick syrup. No need to sand.

Great idea. I would use a standard light bulb socket and household wire so an enclosure safe LED bulb could be used. Of course the dimensions would be increased and I'd figure out a way to have the top removable.

You should have added an internal battery and a switch that activates the light when you turn it over. Sit it one way and the light is on. Turn it over and the light turns off. Just have the connector in there for charging the internal battery.

It is a nice finished item. I would suggest to wrap the led strips around a cardboard tube, ie, paper towel or toilet roll for stability.

Easy tip, use a micro USB brake out board for the power you evade having solder cables directly to that female port since you solder to the pads of the brake out boards

Interesting ideas. A few comments: 1. A heat gun is better than a cigarette lighter for use on heat shrink tubing. 2. Don't worry about which kind of concrete is stronger. Everything other part of that lamp will break before those two concrete blocks break. 3. "You can make it portable." Well, yes you can, any time you want a bulky, 10-pound flashlight that doesn't put out much light.

Wonderful idea, Lynn! I have to try this, but with some acid stain on the concrete. I will likely have some mortar mix left over from fixing the stucco on my house this summer. And thanks also for the links to the components as well! I really appreciate the diligence you show in providing links to all of the necessary parts.

Love this project and the look of industrial simplicity.

Nice project. I like how your project videos are not only about the end product, but also about the step to the end.

Very nice and easy to replicate or modify. Might be fun to add some color to the concrete itself, like titanium dioxide pigment etc.

I think it would look good with the concrete colored different colors like some kind of pattern. you could even seal the concrete and then airbrush stuff on the concrete that is really nice.

you know what , after watching this video I got an idea to make light box like this project . Nice❤ project, I appreciate your idea .Keep posting. So we can improve it with changing led light with remote .🤘

I like how it has the little air pockets in it maybe with LEDs have different changing colors.

This is video that will make boredom go away .i made circle one with glass stand to hold it took my whole day for this project but its really cool now although the led you used are not sticking to my usb neg side so i used the whole wire so i can wrap that wire inside or out.

Simple yet beautiful

Nice project. Will make them for outdoor garden and will send pictures .. Thanks

I do actually think that's the best build you have ever done Linn, it look's soo nice :D

Yes, this is so cool! Yes, I would do this differently. No, I have no idea how differently I would do it. Looks great!

First love this idea!! I gotta learn soldering... suggesting maybe pvc pipe to wrap led around and add 3/8" strip of lexan (plastic) to the cement form ... this will allow your cement to have seating for the plastic

Wouldn't change a thing. Looks Awesome!!

I used led lights that change colors in a cycle. It's really nice.

I sub cause it kinda rare to see a lady who have such interest in this kind of stuff.

OMG, another amazing project!!! Congrats in yours skills and amazing creativity, you rock!!!

looks so cute and gorgeous. i think it could be formed in triangle by example thanks for this! maybe i’ll try to do domething like that

Love this project! So easy imagine modifying to either scale up (or down) or mix/swap concrete with wood or even add some facets to change the geometry. Oh my gosh... might be my favorite thing I've seen in 2017 so far!

I've found that parchment paper also makes for an excellent light diffuser. I think the only change I would make is to use plaster of paris as I get tons of coupons from Michael's and JoAnn's that make it pretty cheap to source and once heated to remove the water, it is pretty stable. And maybe RGB LEDs just because I like colors.

You can also buy those USB ports with an adapter pcb so you can solder to them easier. Nice idea :)

Really neat idea. Seems it would be a good way to use some scraps of wood too.

If you want to reduce the bubbles, you could put another piece of fitted plywood on top and use a weight or spring clamps to press it down while the concrete is wet.

Nothing to change! Looks very nice!!

I really really liked this idea and video. I found a stained glass spray paint at Lowes and it could be added to the frosted lexan for color splash. Paint is translucent.

This lamp is so simple and beautiful!

Perspex is not readily available in my city, but striated polycarbonate sheets of all colours (& clear) are, so I'd suggest it as an attractive option which can be cut carefully with a box knife. Also a mix of wall-board jointing compound and fine sand would produce a creamy-coloured option to grey concrete, as would Plaster of Paris in a 50/50 mix with sand, (or alternatively, red Australian gravel, since today is Australia Day)!!

Nice project! You can alos buy usb sockets on a breakout board for easier soldering! It also makes it slighly beefier making attaching it easier.

A more accessible variant of this may be to make the light enclosure to fit the LEDs inside of an acrylic tube instead. You can purchase extruded hallow portions of clear tubing which should accommodate a suitable size for an ambient lighting fixture. This would also mean less feet are required to prop it up (3 minimum @ 120 degrees apart) and one can use slightly larger (and more readily available) opaque PVC tubing to make the outer enclosure. Lube the inside, vibrate some rather moist mortar smooth and enjoy the result. It would look rather striking to have a sliver of light, but for that to work you'd need to bodge together a bunch of strawhat LEDs into a ring and hope you don't break the acrylic by cutting it so thin.

Nice! Maybe use a small section of PVC pipe to support the LEDs inside the lamp?

Good diy, I would include a variable resistor such that the knob comes out of the concrete and yahooooo I can control the intensity of the lights!!!!!!!!

I think this is awesome! When I first saw this I thought of it as coffee table size, I think that I may try one.

Would be interesting to do as an outdoor accent lighting project, but of course would need to make the electrical connections waterproof.

Cool project! I appreciate the mixed mediums.

I'd use your sander (without sandpaper) to vibrate the molds and release some of the air pockets from the concrete mix (wetter mix works better). That would make for a smoother finish.

Looks nice, only thing i would change is the usb connector, i would go with a micro usb breakout much more durable and easier to solder

Just a thought (design thought): If you press your polycarbonate square a bit deeper into the wet concrete of the top, then skip the epoxy for that joint, you could later on a whim remove the top and replace the white paper with a coloured sheet, or a different white sheet with patterned design, etc....

Nice work Linn! Simple with great results. I didn't know about the 5 volt LEDs. That's a great solution.

It is a beautiful piece of art with a resistent material. And you are very creative with good ideas. Thanks for sharing.

The only thing I would suggest doing is to trim the data pins off the USB jack. If you connected this to a computer and say one of the data lines got shorted to either the VCC or ground that could be bad for the computer it was plugged into. I might also include a protection diode to insure this doesn't get connected backwards but only if I were to use a standard barrel plug instead of a USB socket as not all wall adapters are the same polarity.

Lynn i love how you think outside the box....sometimes way out of the box...but this is cool 😎