DIY PIXAR: Luxo Jr. Lamp

Step 7 Z-Shaped Bar

Whoo, boy, I remember this part.  Creating this part of the lamp was easily the most difficult of the project, and the most time I spent on it.  Not necessarily because it that hard to make, but just grabbing the specific dimensions for this unique piece was nearly impossible to find.  If you haven't noticed, the two leg sections that connect Luxo Jr's V-body hinge to his leg V hinge, is this kind of stretched out Z shaped metal bar.  It what holds his inner springs together, as well as his lower V- Hinges.

Anyway, long story short, I did a lot of image searching and finally used this as the basic template for my image.  It gave a really nice detail of that specific leg shape, so I was able to create a template from it on graph paper.  I cut three individual metal parts from the remaining Straight Brackets, and filed them down to the specific angle.

The entire height of the bracket should be the same size as your  3 1/2'' straight brackets.

By the way, I don't know how to weld so I originally had no idea how I was going to attach this leg together. What I finally ended up doing was cutting out a Z shaped leg out of sheet metal and then attaching it to the back with some Gorilla Glue. That stuff is AMAZING for gluing metal.


Once you are gluing the pieces together, drill three holes into the bar (one at either end, and then one on the inner most side).  Two will be for the Screw Holes, and the middle will be to hold the Metal Dowel, which connects the springs together.   The metal bar separating the two Z Bars should be around 3'' across.

Comments

[jeff-o]

JB Weld would probably do an even better job of gluing the metal together!

[RichardBronosky]

I 2nd the recommendation for J B Weld http://jbweld.net/products/index.php

[SHIFT!]

Hmmm never heard of that one before. But sure! I just used Gorilla Glue because it was highly recommended to me.

[jeff-o]

JB Weld is like gorilla glue for metal. Definitely pick some up if you see it in a store.