Lamp made from translucent 45 records

I salvaged a few thousand 45 records from the landfill a few months back. The radio station had tried giving them away but it seems that nobody really wanted a huge pile of mostly country 45s. I went through the pile of them with my friend Earl (who tipped me off to the pile of records) and we pulled out all of the music we were interested in listening to. We also pulled out a stack of different color translucent records. What to do with a bunch of blue, green red and yellow 45s? Well, they reminded me of the lamps i have seen made out of compact discs so that's what i went for.

A few things...

Please, if you are going to mention this project in print or other sites please give a nod and link to www.zieak.com as well as instructables.

Also, these records served a very long life at a public radio station. I understand that they did everything they could to find them a good home. I salvaged them from the baling facility where they would have been compacted into a bale and shipped to a landfill. Don't hate me for doing this to a record. I have a large collection of LPs but these artists and songs have no interest to me. But if they ever do - i didn't drill through the audio part - just the label - so they can still be played!

Step 1 Materials

To do this project you'll need a number of things...

50-75 translucent records plus a few that don't need to be translucent
a light bulb, fixture, switch and cord
a base
threaded rod, washers, fender washers, nuts and acorn nuts

Comments

[agis68]

very cool...i have about 1200lps but none is red or blue....anyway.....my question is for the led lamp you used....please give us a link to find it or the exact type of it

thanks

[lesizz]

This could be done too with all black 45's. Then you'd have light coming out of the slits. It would be a different lamp, but still quite cool.
Another thing, you could put a motor to rotate the records, then add a tone arm and cartridge and have a turntable that would play the top record. That top record better be something you reallllly like!

[kz1]

Nice lamp! I like that you retained the original functionality of the records to boot. Back in the day I passed by a local radio station that had cleaned out their archives; stacking literally hundreds of colored & black vinyl records on the curb.

We were just kids but went home, got our wagons, and returned to haul those treasures home. This was before the Frisbee was even thought of (or so they thought)....the air was alive with flying vinyl for many months thereafter. :>)

Thought about stacking CD's with copper spacers but hadn't decided on a light source just yet. Nice work.

[mechaninja]

You do understand that you're completely ignorant for using actual records, people pay good money for those.

[andybuda]

for the black vinyl project
im thinking spacers between each vinyl
something like frosted perspex if moneys no object
would be abit retro, black n white
maybe 2 ft tube. low heat and could hide transformer in the base. i did see some coloured covers on ebay for tubes so any desired colour

this is a banksy canvas i got and put a tube behind, its crappy neon light that give off next to no heat so no fire.

[taoybb-TH]

AHHHHHH! I feel deplore a vinyl record........

[brandoedmo]

Nice work.... any chance you have some more of those records you'd be willing to sell or would you be willing to make me one?? Also, nice ETSY store... LOVE the mustache pacifiers, I'm gonna have to buy a couple of those!

[zieak]

I only have maybe 8-10 more of these kicking around. I was thinking about making one with black 45s to see how that turns out. I also am considering selling this lamp because it really doesn't fit the decor anywhere in the house anymore.

Thanks for the props on the pacifier mustaches!

[brandoedmo]

I would be interested in buying it if you put it for sale online, that is if no one you know is interested.... What would you want for it??

[Green_Primus]

love this idea, but a want to scale it down a bit, aka CD/DVD's (more importantly, FAILED burning CD/DVD's) some glue/epoxy them together (& clap duh) and run a "rope light" through them. The disks are clear have a reflective side (awesome) and by NOT bolting them you can get wavy designs in there if you want. Now im just in the process of collecting enough disks, I'm considering hitting up used cd stores with a discard "fail burn's box."

[drummonkey92]

also, you can use free 'internet disks' (duno the real name but they're basicaly like sorta demos for different service providers) - they used to have them all free by the doors at PC World

[TechDante]

a pc cold cathode tube will fit nicley down the centre of a stack of cd's, you hust need to find a way of powering it from a 12v sourse

[BunnyMacSteam]

maybe if your a lil creatif with convertions you can make an actual record player of it .??? just put the recordplayer in the wouden shell and run an axe trough the center whole , and convert the needle and needlearm to a longer arm and you can let it maken a sound to :p lol greetzzzz

[=SMART=]

Awesome !

[Re-design]

I did this using unwanted cd's and dvd's. Ran a thing flores. tube down the middle after drilling them out to make the center hole larger. Made a great desk lamp.

[justinhyp]

Nice!

[79spitfire]

The large washers are commonly called "fender washers". Calling them that will make them easier to find.

[strangebike]

in England they are sometimes called repair washers or penny washers. but if you ask then you will find what you are looking for.

[zieak]

Thanks! I'll make that edit.

[porcupinemamma]

Now this is Wayyyyyyyy COOL!!!! I can't hink of anywhere I could access coloured records. Any other suggestions besides a land fill!

[zieak]

I checked eBay for "45 colored lot" and was really surprised at the amount people wanted for just a dozen. Some thrift stores perhaps?

[porcupinemamma]

Geee. Thanks a lot for checking-I kinda thought they'd be pricey. I'll just have to keep looking at your beautiful creation :0)

[Seanex]

where the heck is that

[Seanex]

what time will u have them done esatern time

[zieak]

Check your PM inbox...

[Seanex]

can u get led lights that are blue

[zieak]

Absolutely. I'm sure you can get them online. You probably can get them at a local store too.

[Seanex]

can u make pictures of the bottom and how to do all that wire stuff

[zieak]

Sure can... I'll do that tonight.

[PresidentAnybody]

should put it on like a post/ pole, make it more lamplike

[zieak]

Not a bad idea. I have a lot of floor lamps already though so this was the most practical for me.

[Seanex]

so could i just use a normal lightbulb

[zieak]

I do not think that would be a good idea. Only use a bulb that you can safely handle even after it has been on for a while. If it gets too hot it would be a fire hazard.

[Tommyhzy]

RBG automatically colour-changing LEDs! (But after about 2 minutes all the colours of each LED is misaligned, some change faster, some slower, but it'll add a nice effect!) :) But I don't have enough of these or CDs or anything to make one... ):

[Seanex]

do u think that blue would work?can you make some more clear pictures

[Seanex]

what could i use as spacers?

[zieak]

You could use nuts that are larger then the threaded rod, perhaps cutting sections from cheap pens or other round tubing that is slipped over the threads...

[Seanex]

is there a way that you can change the color of the lamp?

[zieak]

If you used a white light bulb that would give a better set of colors off the vinyl. You should definitely make sure you use something very cool (as in temperature) though. Browse your hardware lighting section or look for something online. I initially planned on a fluorescent bulb but couldn't find a fixture in town to use it with. Incandescent bulbs will get too hot for certain - as would halogen i believe. There are some neat LED products that change color that you could probably modify to work with it.

[Seanex]

zieak do u have to use that many records