Week of fail...

in my buisness there are always setbacks... Everything is custom made and or trying to fit things that where never intended to fit into an xbox go simply because it will look cool... One of my problems is China. I only buy from china when I absolutly have to and I have little or no other choice (I try to get all my parts through ebay as well just because not only am I protected through ebay, but paypal as well) anyway China is hit or miss, sometimes I get lucky and sometimes what I get is so far from what I needed. I end up spending twice as much money either trying to make it work or compleatly having to go a different direction. That long drawn out explanation out of the way... on to the "Week of Fail" (you have to say it like an anouncer with like an echoie voice) anyway...

I  am trying to find a good light source to illuminate the Identity disc on the side of the xbox... I'm not using led's because you can see all the individual lights & I need perfect glow... Tried el wire... not bright enough, tried el panels lights up great behind a flat surface but not so much in a 3D space like the inside of the ID Disc. So I found a 6" round neon tube in china yay prayers answered fingers crossed I buy it... 3 weeks later it shows up... the damn housing is just short of six inches 145mm and I need 155mm so I tear into this cheap frosted case and the tube inside is just under 5 inches in diamiter... What does this mean for me? an ass load of work creating an enclosure that will house and amplify the light... the whole reason for this is to make the center ring and the x glow... problems facing me are that I only have 1/8th of an inch to play with inside the case and 1/4" outside and I have wiring and a 2x2" board that runs the neon with a huge transfomer to hide... The base may end up having to get bigger to house these inverters and transformers... So the reason I call this the week of fail is because I've gone through about 12 different design changes to make this thing light up... (a lot of foam core) anyway I think I just about have it figured out, but I'm gonna back off and take a break from it, before I get impatient and fuck something up... Anyway I'm gonna start working on the base, and hopefully gonna have a few pics to show ya for flynn fri. Gonna go see christmas lights tonight... I would love to thinkk it will put me in a good mood, but I have a feeling these 3 boys are gonna drive me crazy...