X-Cube Prism Becomes Dichoric Disco Ball
Youâve likely seen an X-cube, a dichoric prism used to split light into its constituent coloursâyou know, those fun little cubes you get when tearing apart a broken projector. Have you considered that the X-cube need not be a cube for its entire existence? [Matt] at âMattâs Corner of Gem Cuttingâ on YouTube absolutely did, which is why he ground one into a 216-facet disco ball.
Thatâs the hack, really. He took something many of us have played with at our desks thinking âI should do something cool with thisâ and⊠did something cool with it that most of us lack the tools and especially skills to even consider. Itâs not especially practical, but it is especially pretty. Art, in other words.
The shape heâs using is known specifically to gemologists as âSantaâs Little Helper IIâ though weâd probably describe it as a kind of isosphere. Faceting the cube is just a matter of grinding down the facets to create the isosphere, then polishing them to brilliance with increasingly finer grit. This is done one hemisphere at a time, so the other hemisphere can be safely held in place with the now-classic cyanoacrylate and baking soda composite. Yes, jewelers use that trick, too.
We were slightly worried when [Matt] dumped his finished disco ball in acetone to clean off the cyanoacrylateâ we havenât the foggiest idea what optical-quality glue is used to hold the four prisms of an X-cube together and were a little worried acetone might soften the joints. That turned out not to be an issue, and [Matt] now has the most eye-catching sun-catcher we think weâve ever seen.
We actually have seen suncatchers before, though admittedly itâs not a very popular tag around here. The closest build to this one was a so-called âhypercrystalâ that combined an infinitiy mirror with a crystaline shape and dicloric tape for an effect as trippy as it sounds.
We also featured a deep-dive a while back if you want to know how these colourful, hard-to-pronounce coatings work.
youtube.com/embed/5I7LdqpNolY?âŠ
hackaday.com/2026/01/28/x-cubeâŠ