The Woodpunk LED Desk Lamp is the result of being inspired, perhaps more than a year ago, by a design I saw on a design blog. It's a bit of a pet peeve that all these fantastic ideas are flaunted but never produced. So, I set about making my own wooden desk lamp, and I am extremely pleased with the results. The lamp that served as the inspiration for the Woodpunk actually has since gone into limited production, but of course it's ridiculously expensive. And besides, I still like mine better!
The majority of the lamp is made of 1/4" and 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood. I love using this stuff to make things - a quick skim of my other instructables will confirm that! It's strong and stable and easy to cut - and it's made of a renewable resource! What's not to love? Wood dowels serve as the joints. The springs and socket were stolen from two old lamps; one skillfully located at a thrift store by my wife, and the other was just taking up space in my house (and also "donated" by my wife). The LED lamp draws just 3W to produce 180 lumens, enough to illuminate a small work area. It was bought at DealExtreme, but nearly any LED bulb with an integrated reflector would work just as well.
Total cost for this project was $25-$30.
Now, you may be thinking, "Hey - this looks ideal for a laser cutter or CNC machine!" Well, you're right. At the moment my designs need a bit of work so they're actually compatible with an automated system - anyone willing to do the conversion? There's a 3-month pro membership for the first person who does!
So, have you got access to a scroll saw and drill press? That's pretty much all you need to make this awesome lamp!
UPDATE: KChappers generously converted my designs to .dwg, .dxf and .cdr formats for your CNC, laser cutter and 3D rendering pleasure. Thanks so much!!
The majority of the lamp is made of 1/4" and 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood. I love using this stuff to make things - a quick skim of my other instructables will confirm that! It's strong and stable and easy to cut - and it's made of a renewable resource! What's not to love? Wood dowels serve as the joints. The springs and socket were stolen from two old lamps; one skillfully located at a thrift store by my wife, and the other was just taking up space in my house (and also "donated" by my wife). The LED lamp draws just 3W to produce 180 lumens, enough to illuminate a small work area. It was bought at DealExtreme, but nearly any LED bulb with an integrated reflector would work just as well.
Total cost for this project was $25-$30.
Now, you may be thinking, "Hey - this looks ideal for a laser cutter or CNC machine!" Well, you're right. At the moment my designs need a bit of work so they're actually compatible with an automated system - anyone willing to do the conversion? There's a 3-month pro membership for the first person who does!
So, have you got access to a scroll saw and drill press? That's pretty much all you need to make this awesome lamp!
UPDATE: KChappers generously converted my designs to .dwg, .dxf and .cdr formats for your CNC, laser cutter and 3D rendering pleasure. Thanks so much!!
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1: The Design
I designed "Woodpunk" in Adobe Illustrator. The patterns as attached are meant primarily for cutting by hand. If you want to use them on a CNC machine or laser cutter, they will definitely need to be modified!
When designing the lamp, I took measurements from an existing lamp I use at my workbench. I noticed that all of the "arms" are made of equal-length sections, connected by triangular "joints." This made the design relatively easy - just two parallelograms with a "shoulder" at the base, an "elbow" in between, and a "wrist" where the arm connects to the reflector. Indeed, you will notice that is exactly how I labeled the parts.
In addition, there's the base and various spacers.
Everything is designed to be cut out of either 1/4" or 1/2" plywood. Since there are many identical parts, you can stack the 1/4" wood and cut it in pairs. Not only is this faster, it also ensures that the joints are precisely aligned (this is important for the arms and joints especially).
The patterns are intended to be printed out on 11x17" paper - if you don't have this capability at home, any business supply store or print shop will be able to print the patterns for you. I printed mine at work.
Also note that you may need to modify the design of the reflector section to suit the lightbulb socket you've got - the diameter may need to be increased or decreased, for example.
Included below are the preliminary patterns - I plan to clean them up soon, to make the whole thing easier to build!
A HUGE thanks to instructables user KChappers, who cleaned up, organized and converted my designs into .dwg .dxf and .cdr for me!
When designing the lamp, I took measurements from an existing lamp I use at my workbench. I noticed that all of the "arms" are made of equal-length sections, connected by triangular "joints." This made the design relatively easy - just two parallelograms with a "shoulder" at the base, an "elbow" in between, and a "wrist" where the arm connects to the reflector. Indeed, you will notice that is exactly how I labeled the parts.
In addition, there's the base and various spacers.
Everything is designed to be cut out of either 1/4" or 1/2" plywood. Since there are many identical parts, you can stack the 1/4" wood and cut it in pairs. Not only is this faster, it also ensures that the joints are precisely aligned (this is important for the arms and joints especially).
The patterns are intended to be printed out on 11x17" paper - if you don't have this capability at home, any business supply store or print shop will be able to print the patterns for you. I printed mine at work.
Also note that you may need to modify the design of the reflector section to suit the lightbulb socket you've got - the diameter may need to be increased or decreased, for example.
Included below are the preliminary patterns - I plan to clean them up soon, to make the whole thing easier to build!
A HUGE thanks to instructables user KChappers, who cleaned up, organized and converted my designs into .dwg .dxf and .cdr for me!
Woodpunk Counterweight.pdf(612x792) 164 KBWoodpunk reflector.pdf(612x792) 180 KBWoodpunk Template 3.pdf(1224x792) 179 KBWoodpunk Template 2.pdf(1224x792) 175 KBWoodpunk Template 1.pdf(1224x792) 191 KB
Woodpunk Counterweight.ai(612x792) 1 MBWoodpunk reflector.ai(612x792) 1 MBWoodpunk Template 3.ai(1224x792) 1 MBWoodpunk Template 2.ai(1224x792) 1 MBWoodpunk Template 1.ai(1224x792) 1 MB
WoodPunk.dxf3 MB
WoodPunk.cdr118 KB
WoodPunk.dwg957 KB
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
and I have access to my schools laser cuter. (Trotec speedy 100) I am extremely interested in this project and think it is an amazing idea. I have autocad and am planning on designing this in the program for cutting with 1/4" wood and will just glue identical pieces together were 1/2" is required. I had a few questions though. How easily does it tip over? Maybe I missed this, but are there dimensions anywhere? I reeeeely need these to be able to make the file. If I finish the file I will gladly upload it. I realize that someone else has already uploaded a file, but it is not to scale. Thanks for helping everyone!
Yup, definitely cut from1/4" wood and glue together as you've said. The bottom half of the arm can be extended up to 90 degrees with respect to the table, after that the lamp begins to tip. If you made the base heavier then you could extend it further.
There are templates in five different formats. My originals fit on 11x17 paper, to give you an idea of scale. So, the .pdf and .ai files are 1:1 scale.
The only holes whose diameter matters are the joints; they are supposed to be 1/2". All the others are just for show, so if they look about right then they'll be fine. You might want to measure the diameter of the wood dowel used for the joints since 1/2" wood dowel can vary a little bit, especially when choosing between softwood and hardwood dowel.
The critical dimention on the arms is the distance between the pivot holes. Mine are 12.5".
Put a finish on it.
Glue the parts.
Find lead for the counterweight.
Buy a mount for the bulb.
Recut one of the arms
Very Cool ! -Lee
Suggestions:
* mark centres of holes with a dot on patterns for drilling point location and state part to be 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch plywood and how many duplicates.
*attach patterns to MDF blanks 1/2 inch thick , cut and sand to create master templates.
* sticky two sided tape to birch ply and MDF template and rough cut.
*flush cut to master with a bearing flush cut router bit and router table.
Save masters for other material experiments.
And style the actual lamp differently.