Mechanical expanding cardboard lamp - This way up!

Step 5 The finished design

First decide on the size of lamp you want. This version is made with 30cm struts, which is actually a pretty good size. This makes it around 60cm tall when fully squashed, and 150cm tall when fully extended. I built four cells high, to house two 20W halogen low-voltage capsules and two 35W ones. The fifth cell is the one below the main pivot, the one that has the counterweight attached to it. After looking at possible wiring diagrams, I settled for one which lit the four lamps independently, depending on how tall the lamp was. This decision turned out to be pretty key for me, since it forms the main justification for the whole up/down concept and seems fairly genuinely original. When you want more light, instead of going and twiddling a knob, you just add more "lamp" and make it bigger. When you want less, just squash it away back into it's box.