Exploded View

     For some time I have been toying with the idea of creating an electronic sculpture out of a circuit board by creating a 3 dimensional exploded view of the components raised from the board. Today I finally got inspired and built the project with this circuit board.

This is a circuit board from a Dental Composite Cure light. Dental composite is a white putty like plastic that is used to fill cavities. Once the dentist has the composite in the proper position a high intensity light is applied and the plastic goes through a process called polymerization by which it hardens. This board controls the power and timing that the light is applied. I have several of these boards and they are the right size so they made a good candidate for my Exploded View sculpture.

The first step in the process was to strip the board of components.

The next step in the build was to begin to return each component to a position above the place where it was originally mounted. I used various gauges of brass wire to bring the components up off the board. I used a heavier gauge wire for the larger components and around the edge of the board where the board would be more vulnerable to wear and tear. The idea was to raise the components into a spherical pattern above the board giving the appearance that they had all been lifted from the board by an explosion. The components at the center of the board were raised higher and the ones near the edges were raised less but placed at more of an angle to the board. Here is a picture of the finished sculpture:

The second picture shows the original board in the foreground with the exploded board in the background.

This view from the side gives a little perspective on how the components form a shell above the board.

However, it is very difficult to take a picture that shows the proper perspective on the sculpture so I have also taken a brief video to show the 3D effect better:

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Project14 | Winners Announcement: Beautiful Works of Electronic Art! Exploded View Project14 | Volunteer to Judge the Electronic Art Competition! Project14 | Electronic Art: Meet the Projects that Add Beauty to Electronics!

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The Covid 19 has afforded me a lot of extra free time to play in my shop and explore new ideas. This project has crossed my mind several times in the past but the seven hours it took to put it together were always too high a price to pay until today. It seems I like to work with electronic components even if the end result is not functional electronics.

Thanks for checking it out.

John