A Meteorite Gift Box

[Justin Cole] was looking for the perfect birthday gift from for his wife. After some pondering, the answer fell from the sky in the form of a meteorite. The problem was how to present it. They don’t exactly make meteorite gift boxes, so [Justin] decided to build one of his own design. The box has a Russian space age theme reflecting the meteorite’s country of origin. The theme also made it a perfect entry for Hackaday’s Sci-Fi contest.

The gift box started life as an old steel film reel box. Some of us may still have boxes like this in our basements, protecting old 8mm family movies. [Justin] modeled the box in Solidworks, then added in his custom modifications. An angled walnut platform forms the stage. In the center of the stage is a 3D printed cone. The meteorite itself sits on a platform in the middle of the cone. A magnet keeps the iron meteorite in place.

A Neopixel ring provides indirect lighting below the meteorite. The ring is controlled by an Arduino, which also drives a couple of vibration motors. The motors create a hum in time to the changing colors of the ring. The whole package creates a neat way to present a rock from space.

We really like that [Justin] didn’t go over the top with sound effects, smoke, or bright lights. More importantly, [Justin’s] wife loved it, and couldn’t wait to share a video of the box with her friends.

It’s not to late to get in on the Hackaday Sci-Fi contest action. You have until Monday evening to enter your own creation.

10 thoughts on “A Meteorite Gift Box

  1. My wife’s expectations of her gifts is not as expensive as [Justin]’s. She prefers compressed carbon or the metallic remnants of Supernovas rather than nickel-iron-metal-from-the-sky.

  2. “[Justin Cole] was looking for the perfect birthday gift from his wife.”

    I read this typo and assumed that he was one of those “hard to shop for guys” and was asked by his wife to go find his own birthday gift.

  3. Or, you can slice it and etch it to bring out the widmanstätten patterns which is both beautiful and unique to meteorites due to the way they form when cooling over eons, then form it into some shape that doesn’t look like a blob in a funky box and is wearable as bespoke jewelry.
    Imagining my wife’s face if I presented her a novelty blob in a tin box for a birthday present instead of the etched polished pendant that was edm wired out of a sample. We’re all different though, what makes things interesting.

  4. Walter and Eric said they’d put him on a network t.v. show.
    The white house said, “put the thing in the blue room”.
    The Vatican said, “No, it belongs to Rome.”
    And Jody said, “It’s mine and you can have it for seventeen million.”

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