shoji-style table lamp

Step 5 Lastly

Of course this is mains electricity (so standard safety rules and disclaimers apply etc. etc.) but I think it should be fairly safe - the lamp itself is wood, and there is no metal anywhere that it's possible to touch: in some ways it's safer than a socket. I haven't found that the CFLs get too hot for the bamboo holders either, especially since they don't hold them too tightly.

Not using sockets does make it harder to replace the bulbs when they fail, but CFLs last for years, I can see the paper getting torn before the bulbs are dead... Replacing them would only mean hacking new bulbs and wiring them in, though, but using proper sockets would be a better permanent solution!

Oh, just for an idea, here's what I spent on this:

2 euros - 20 chopsticks (I had mine spare already though)
1.50 euros - A3 tracing paper
1 euro - 1.5m mains cable (2-strand)
the bamboo, plywood, terminal block and mains plug I had lying around

4 euros - two compact fluorescent bulbs (probably not normally this cheap, I got them at 50% off)

so maybe 5 euros in total not including the bulbs. That might be 7 or 8 if you had to buy all the parts. I'm happy to have something that looks like I wanted it to, for the same price as a cheap lamp from IKEA :)
My 1st instructable btw so hope you like it - comments welcome, especially because as soon as I put it on the speaker I knew I should make a matching lamp for the other.. so it'd be good to hear any suggestions for improvements before I start on it!

Comments

[Ben The Builder]

 As long as you keep using Compact fluorescents you don't have to worry about heat, Fluorescent light bulbs don't work the same way incandescents do, Incandescents heat up a filament in a cloud of argon I believe, the resistance through the wire releases energy in the form of both heat and light, when you use fluorescent bulbs the gas inside them is excited by the energy (which is vamped up inside the base of the CFL) and the gas actually emits UV radiation but when it hits the coating on the inside of the bulb it is converted to visible spectrum light, no heat released, unless it's from the amplification circuit

[los cerezos]

That's what SHE sayd!

[Wrisk81]

*said

[truenos]

Nice!!

[gulshan20]

yeps...use of bulb holders would be lot easier....:D

[NikkyG]

I think you have a lot of work on your hands when it is time to replace the bulb. It might have been better to have used 2 lamp holders instead?

[ATG]

agree....tht wud be a lot easier....

[Ultimatebrut]

I love it, planning on making one.