Accordeon LED-lamp
Intro: Accordeon LED-lamp
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Hi all,
I'm new to this site so this is my first Instructable. I'm studying Interior design in Brussels, i'm in my second year now.
I made this LED-lamp. I found an accordeon cloak rack, and tought it would be nice if I could make a lamp out of it. Unfortunately the lamp is static, it's hard to change the position of the lamp (i mean making it wider or smaller).
This is the reason why I share this with you guys, so someone can help me, give me ideas and hopefully together
we can get to a goodworking accordeon lamp.
Hi all,
I'm new to this site so this is my first Instructable. I'm studying Interior design in Brussels, i'm in my second year now.
I made this LED-lamp. I found an accordeon cloak rack, and tought it would be nice if I could make a lamp out of it. Unfortunately the lamp is static, it's hard to change the position of the lamp (i mean making it wider or smaller).
This is the reason why I share this with you guys, so someone can help me, give me ideas and hopefully together
we can get to a goodworking accordeon lamp.
STEP 1: Materials
To make this lamp you will need:
1 MDFboard (Medium-density fibreboard)
20 nuts and bolts
some spray paint
a U-profile for led-strips
LED-strips
Electrical wire
1 MDFboard (Medium-density fibreboard)
20 nuts and bolts
some spray paint
a U-profile for led-strips
LED-strips
Electrical wire
STEP 2: Cut the Mdf Board
I used a board with a thickness of 5mm
You need 8 slats of 300x35x5mm and 8 slats of 167.5x35x5mm
So just start drawing all the pieces you need on
the mdf-board and cut them out with a jig saw.
After you have all the pieces you can also begin to drill the holes
needed to put everything together.
To help you i created a file, so you can see what to draw and where to drill holes.
You need 8 slats of 300x35x5mm and 8 slats of 167.5x35x5mm
So just start drawing all the pieces you need on
the mdf-board and cut them out with a jig saw.
After you have all the pieces you can also begin to drill the holes
needed to put everything together.
To help you i created a file, so you can see what to draw and where to drill holes.
STEP 3: Cut the U-profile and LED-strip
The second step is cutting the profile and the LED-strip
I used 4 pieces of 250mm long.
So in this case a U-profile of 1000mm is enough.
You can choose to put more LEDs on the accordeons if you want,
I chose to put LED's only in the middle of the structure.
Use a metal saw to cut the pieces of aluminium profile.
I ordered it in a electronic store where they sell accessories for LED.
The LED profile came with a plastic topping that diffuses the light so
you don't see points of light. I also drilled holes at each end of the profiles,
except the last one that needed only one hole, to fit the electrical wire through.
For the LED-strips i bought a pack that included a tranfso and plug, already installed.
It was a strip that you can cut every 50mm so i cut pieces of 200mm to fit in the 250mm profiles.
With the profiles their was the posibility to order plugs that come at the end.
Pretty handy, so i ordered 8 plugs and used them to attach the profiles to the accordeons by
drilling holes to them so the nuts fit trough the hole. This way i didn't need any glue or other to attach the profiles,
wich saved me time and money.
I used 4 pieces of 250mm long.
So in this case a U-profile of 1000mm is enough.
You can choose to put more LEDs on the accordeons if you want,
I chose to put LED's only in the middle of the structure.
Use a metal saw to cut the pieces of aluminium profile.
I ordered it in a electronic store where they sell accessories for LED.
The LED profile came with a plastic topping that diffuses the light so
you don't see points of light. I also drilled holes at each end of the profiles,
except the last one that needed only one hole, to fit the electrical wire through.
For the LED-strips i bought a pack that included a tranfso and plug, already installed.
It was a strip that you can cut every 50mm so i cut pieces of 200mm to fit in the 250mm profiles.
With the profiles their was the posibility to order plugs that come at the end.
Pretty handy, so i ordered 8 plugs and used them to attach the profiles to the accordeons by
drilling holes to them so the nuts fit trough the hole. This way i didn't need any glue or other to attach the profiles,
wich saved me time and money.
STEP 4: Solder the Wires to the LED-strips
Once you have every piece you need, it's time to
solder the wires. If you never did this before don't worry, it's not that hard
and here's a link that explains everything with images: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/h2weld
Just make sure your wires don't cross from - to +
Electrical wire is made of 2 wires that generally come in two different colours so it's easier for
you to know on wich side to solder it.
What i did to solder the wires was, first solder a wire on one side of each LED-strip,
then u place these LED-strips in the profiles, fit the wire into the hole and then solder the strips together.
After a quick test to see if it works it's getting time to assemble everything.
solder the wires. If you never did this before don't worry, it's not that hard
and here's a link that explains everything with images: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/h2weld
Just make sure your wires don't cross from - to +
Electrical wire is made of 2 wires that generally come in two different colours so it's easier for
you to know on wich side to solder it.
What i did to solder the wires was, first solder a wire on one side of each LED-strip,
then u place these LED-strips in the profiles, fit the wire into the hole and then solder the strips together.
After a quick test to see if it works it's getting time to assemble everything.
STEP 5: Assembling the Lamp
After these steps you should be ready to assemble everything.
these LED-strips have a glue-side, so make sure to glue them to the profile
so they can't move, if any wire touches the aluminium profile, you could get a shock
by touching one of them if they make contact with wires.
To be sure that these wires didn't move, i used a silicone paste to keep them in place.
After this proces you can plug in the lamp and normally it should work.
these LED-strips have a glue-side, so make sure to glue them to the profile
so they can't move, if any wire touches the aluminium profile, you could get a shock
by touching one of them if they make contact with wires.
To be sure that these wires didn't move, i used a silicone paste to keep them in place.
After this proces you can plug in the lamp and normally it should work.
STEP 6: Help Me Improve My Lamp
If i put this Instructable online, it's to get constructive comments.
So i hope the design is appreciated and i hope that my instructions were okay.
Sorry if my phrases or such aren't correct.
So i hope putting this online will help me improve my lamp.
Open for suggestions!
That's all,
thanks all
So i hope the design is appreciated and i hope that my instructions were okay.
Sorry if my phrases or such aren't correct.
So i hope putting this online will help me improve my lamp.
Open for suggestions!
That's all,
thanks all
6 Comments
Sasando_Rote 9 years ago
sunbeamtigerv8ti 12 years ago
Another idea would be to use rope style LED string so that the light dispersed will be 360deg thereby giving all round lighting unless you only intended for directional ?
Could also be fitted with solar panel and small rechargeable supply so can be used anywhere anytime :)
Maybe set up with flashing mode in red as warning marker lights.
Ouinch 12 years ago
It was ment to be used as directional lighting, but I'm sure a 360deg dispersed light could be nice too. This is a first attempt, other attempts to improve it will follow once I got more time !
biolethal 12 years ago
biolethal 12 years ago
Ouinch 12 years ago