Eggbot LED Lamp

I’ve had it in the back of my head for a long time to make some type of lamp with LED’s.  And with the arrival of the Ostrich Egg-Bot and its diamond etcher, I had the concept of spray-painting some egg-like object, and etching away a pattern to let light through.  Below is my first attempt at such a thing. Did it work out just like I had envisioned?  Not quite.  But it was a great learning experience, and I’m in a much better place if I decide to do it again.

The finished product

I started out by purchasing a simple glass vase at the dollar-store, drilling a hole through its base for the power-cord (which was surprisingly hard even with the special ‘glass drillable bits’ I purchased).  I spray-painted it matte-black on the bottom, and sort of faded the paint up the side so it’d be more transparent at the top.  I designed a simple pattern in Inkscape, which the Ostrich Eggo-bot then etched onto the now-painted glass vase:

Etching in progress...

Upon completion of that, I selected four LED’s for the inside of of the light:  A high-power blue for the middle, and four high-power red’s that would shine out the sides.  My hope was the red LED’s would show off the etching.  As a mounting platform for the LED’s I cut a round piece of wood from a piece of scrap plywood, then drilled holes in it for the LED leads, and the power-cable.  I grabbed an old wall-wart, cut off the end, and threaded it through the hole in the vase and my wood disk. I wired that into a breadboard with appropriate resistors:

Breadboard!

Finding success there, I hot-glued the led’s into the wood disk:

From there I started the process of soldering the resistors to the positive leads, twisting all the positive leads together and soldering to the power-cord.  I used black electrical tape as a simple barrier between the positive and negative leads when I soldered second:

Plugged it in to make sure it worked….

Pulled the power-cord back into the vase (it was a tight fit, so friction is enough to hold it in place) and had the finished product:

Things learned:

  • If I do this again, I’ll put the etching lower on the lamp:  It will be easier to see and show-off.
  • Need to get LED’s that have a wider angle:  These are fairly focused, so don’t diffuse as much in the lamp as I’d like.
  • The lines of the etching itself are very thin:  I’d find a way to make the etched-away areas larger.

 

BAT Hat
Today, I melted metal
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  • Comments (2)
    • Mums
    • March 24th, 2012 6:07pm

    Fun to see what comes out of your mind… and it never ends…!! Keep having fun.

    • Rosalie
    • March 24th, 2012 9:06pm

    Beautiful lamp, Eric. I like LEDs because they do not get hot. I have a clamp on lamp on my computer desk since I have poor eye sight and have an LED bulb in it. That’s what happens when you get old. I use LEDs in many places in my home. You have a great invention. Your cousin, Rosie

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