Wooden Sabbath Lamp

As Jews who observe the Sabbath (or people afraid of light switches) know, it can be a problem on the Sabbath when you can't turn on or off light switches. Most people will just leave on a light that's out of the way like a bathroom or closet light, but that doesn't have the same ease and functionality as a normal desk lamp.
One solution is the Sabbath lamp: a lamp with a rotating shade that can expose or cover the light bulb within, all without flicking a switch. (This is not an original concept although my design is.)
This Instructable will show how to make a nice looking Sabbath Lamp that works and looks better than most commercial ones (plus, why buy when you can make?). I will also include some mistakes that I made in my first version that you should keep in mind when making this one or your own.
Even if you don't observe the Sabbath, you can make this without the rotating aspect and just have a nice desk lamp.
*Note: This instructable is being made after the completion of the project. For those things that I can't get a picture of (because they're already built), I will make a picture using SketchUp or similar source. As a great man once said: We are sorry for the inconvenience.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams

I would be happy to include my SketchUp model if someone could tell me how. (When I add the file it won't open.)

Step 1 Tools and Materials

These are the tools and materials that I used. Look through the instructable to see if you need to make some adjustments.

Tools:
- Scroll saw
- Miter saw or Table saw
- Drill
- Screw driver
- Rotary tool with metal cutting bit, grinding bit (sanding bit is also useful)
- Soldering equipment (iron, solder, goggles, etc.)
- Wire strippers/cutters
- Scissors
- Glue gun
- Normal glue
- Sandpaper
- Compass (the circle making kind) (not shown)
- Paint, varnish, or stain (optional and not shown)

Materials:
- Many 1/4 inch dowels
- 3/4 and 1/4 inch wood
- Inner cylinder (I used an old macaroon container) - should be cardboard
- Very thin cardboard or black construction paper
- Lamp (cheap one)
- Diffuser (thin, opaque material that will make the light shining through it look like a solid "wall" of light rather than a pinpoint; see picture)
- Wire
- Switch
- Screws: 1-1.5 inches
- Florescent bulb (they don't get as hot and will not melt the diffuser/catch the whole thing on fire)

Comments

[kikiclint]

I don't mean to offend your religious beliefs, but turning the lamp to shade it is less work on the sabbath than turning off a switch? If so, you could also build in a breaker that turns the light off when the lamp is rotated to the closed position, thus turning off the lamp with the same amount of effort. Less waste of energy causing people at the power company to work harder.

[cowmanpoke]

No offense taken. The issue with turning on or off electrical devices isn't about doing work, because, as you said, it's not exactly the hardest thing to do. The issue is (I'm pretty sure) with building and destroying, two other things you can't do on the Sabbath. There wasn't a complete circuit there before the Sabbath and now there is. It's like you "built" it.
About the energy thing: another thing you can do is put the lamp on a timer to turn off at, say, midnight. You can still control when the lights go out and don't waste electricity when you definitely won't be using it, like really late at night or during the day.

[Mumfi]

If you use a timer, is that not the same as using a tool to do the same building or destroying? You initiate an action before the sabbath with the understanding that the tool will complete its work during. It doesn't seem right. If that's ok, you might as well install movement sensors, they operate of their own also. Or one of those lamps that are touch sensitive, no switches there. Are transistors considered switches. Are you allowed to use any electrical equipment that changes states at all?

What do you do about the refrigerator light?

Also, you are changing the state of a simpler light circuit instead of the slightly more complicated electrical one.

Sorry, I had never heard of this and I got genuinely curious.

[Mandrew]

My understanding is that it is that during the advent of electricity, it was decided that electricity was fire.

[Johenix]

The problem arises from the fact that the Talmud has not been revised for about 500 years and the assumption is being made that making fire would always be a laborious process. In the mean time we have replaced flint and steel tinderboxes with Zippo Lighters (artificial flint and steel with a volitile tender). Thus the Yshevas (Hebrew Seminaries) need to have a real world course on the sciences so that they can understand the world we live in.

Nobel Prize winning Physicist Richard Philip Feynaman in his book "Surely You're Joking Mister Feynaman" tells of being asked by students while he was staying at a Ysheva "Is electricity fire? If electricity is not fire, what is the spark when a switch is opened?"

The answer is electricity is not fire, and the spark is air heated to incandescance by the passage of electricity is not combustion (fire) because it can occour in an inernt gas such as helium, neon or argon.

The spark can be eliminated by placing a capacitor across the switch contacts.

I would dare each Ysheva class to have a Friday picnic where they make fires by old fashion methods like flint and steel tinder boxes, or fire drills or baboo fire saws, and then roast a few KOSHER hot dogs and discuss how hard it was in the old days to make fire.

[cowmanpoke]

interesting you mention that because when electrical lights began to be used more, a group of prominent rabbis actually got together with a scientist (or group, I'm not sure) and discussed in detail, including learning all about electricity and what exactly is happening in the bulb, and decided that it did in fact fall in the categories of actions not allowed on the Sabbath.

About the timer issue: you (Mumfi) are right in that it is because the action is initiated before the Sabbath starts. A motion sensor does not work the same way because although it is turned on before the Sabbath, you activate it (thus starting or breaking a circuit) during the Sabbath. The issue is what you are doing before and what you are doing during.

About the refrigerator lights: many Jews unscrew the bulb so it doesn't go off. Side note: great way to save a little bit of power. You don't notice after a couple of days.

I don't understand what you (also Mumfi) mean by this:

"Also, you are changing the state of a simpler light circuit instead of the slightly more complicated electrical one."

[kelseymh]

This is a great Instructable! Well written, and the SketchUp pictures make things much clearer than the usual blurry macro photos ;-)

Besides Sabbath observance, this would be great for smaller children (though my daughter loves it that she can do the switches all by herself!).

It's still a bit of an energy-waster with a CFL (not as bad as an incandescent), if you leave it on Friday to Sunday. Perhaps one of the new LED lamp bulbs?