LED Strip Light Brackets

Some time ago I designed an indicator light system for our parts department. It blinks to alert them when a parts request prints on either of two printers in their area. The lights were single color LED strips just tacked up on a wall. It worked great, but looked pretty hobo.

Recently I came across a clear 56mm acrylic tube and thought i could use it to spiff up the look of the lights. "mingthemad" uploaded a customizable pipe mount ( https://www.thingiverse.com/th... ) that I used to make a 56mm mount. Then I brought it into 123D and modified it to work on a vertical surface, and smoothed out the embellishments on the sides. I added mirrored  hanger holes in the mounts so you can hang it vertically on screws, and the mounts have holes on the sides that you could put screws through to secure the tube to the mounts if needed.

Recognizing that someone else might not have a 56mm tube just laying around, I modeled a simple tube that fits the mounts. You can use your slicers' Z scaling to make it longer or shorter as needed. As far as that goes, you can use scaling to make the whole mount larger or smaller to fit an existing tube you may have on hand.

Printing help: 

When printing the tube, I made use of the "choose start point closest to specific location" option in Simplify 3D to put the Z change scar in a single line on the cylinder. I suspect Cura and other slicers have a similar option. If you then install the cylinder so that line is in the back, you will have no visible Z scar and the tube looks much better. 

Depending on how well your printer handles bridging, you may want to use supports inside the holes. Both the bracket and cylinder were printed at .3mm layer height on a 4 year old Printrbot Metal Plus printer. I used Push Plastic PETG black and natural filament.

Diffusion ideas:

The tube I used was clear, and I wanted a diffused look. I used a rough Scotch Brite pad to scuff the interior and exterior surfaces of the tube. You could also use fine sandpaper. Additionally, I put a sheet of diffusion plastic on the interior to further smooth out the light. The effect is neon-like now.

Scavenger Tip: I got the diffusion sheet from a broken LCD display. If you take apart the display panel itself, you'll find several diffuser and polarizer sheets that help transform the light from the backlight assembly.  I find that they are really handy to have for light projects.