Introduction: Cartoon Figure LED Lamp
Follow me and you'll get a nice toy: a funny monster with the power of brightness in his eyes.
It will scare ghosts out of your bed!
Or, you can use it as an unusual flashlight.
Step 1: Materials Needed
- Oven-bake polymer clay. Mine was by a brand called FIMO
- Two LEDs
- Two resistors (not pictured). For this project anything between 82Ω and 470Ω will work
- 1.5V batteries. Button type, AAA or AA
- A latching switch
- Electrical wire
- An oven to bake the clay
Step 2: Modeling the Body
Warm up some clay with your hands.
Be sure to have enough material to make a body as large as you need to contain the batteries.
You can wrap the clay around a thick marker, so when you take it off you're left with a hollow figure.
To make the eyes, first squash a small ball of clay and then use the back of a brush to stab it in the center, poking the eye sockets. Make holes slightly larger than your LEDs as clay might expand slightly.
Smooth out your fingerprints!
Step 3: Bake the Clay
Follow the directions for your specific brand of clay.
Place the tray on the higher step of your oven, or you'll melt the bottom of the figure like I did to my poor yellow guy.
When your figure is ready, let it cool down before touching it. Watch out, it retains heat for much longer than the metal tray.
Oh, and remember that having baked it doesn't mean you can eat it!
Step 4: Build the Circuit
Stack the two button batteries and tape them together, placing two wires in contact with the positive and negative poles.
Connect the switch to the positive wire.
Place the resistors as shown in the schematic. Resistors (which I did not include in my first build of this Instructable) are there to prevent LEDs from burning out.
Step 5: Finishing Touches
Paint the mouth and other facial features using acrylic marker pens. You can get a finishing glossy effect with a clear spray varnish.
Place the circuit inside the body. Close the bottom with raw clay, leaving out the switch.
Your new magical helper is ready, you can now face the darkness!
21 Comments
13 years ago on Step 5
How hard does the clay turn? Nice instructable btw.
Reply 13 years ago on Step 5
Hard like a piece of pottery!
13 years ago on Introduction
sweeeetttttt!!
13 years ago on Step 5
Wery nice instructable, just made one of these, and attached some images.
Mouth is green because we couldnt find any other color, but i think it looks good anyway!
I also used sand paper on the led so the light is not so concentrated.
Gona make a few more for friends in a few days. Thanks for the great idea!
13 years ago on Introduction
wow i love this! great ible!
14 years ago on Introduction
It is interesting
14 years ago on Introduction
i really like this instructable the only thing that i would say should be updated is to create some sort of a dock for the batteries this way it would be easier to replace then unntaping everything just to change two little batteries also i tried the double and triple a batteries they didnt work at all
15 years ago on Step 5
nice tutor..like it...
15 years ago on Introduction
This is great. I had a quick comment about the clay baking aspect. You mentioned that your baking time was less than stated on the instructions. This could be because your oven is not accurate or it fluctuates. I have read that is a common thing for household ovens. Anyway, an oven thermometer will let you be sure you are heating your oven to the proper temperature.
15 years ago on Introduction
first of all...COOL FREAKIN INSTRUCTABLE!!! and second of all theres been this little guy showing up in all of my sketches and i wanna make one of these but i have a question or two...when you poke the holes for the eyes do you go all the way through or what? and do you leave a space for all the parts inside? and how do you change the batteries?
15 years ago on Introduction
kool i have to make one
Reply 15 years ago on Introduction
you could make an plushie like in this linkhere
and have the leds in the plshie.hmmm.... i have an idea.
16 years ago on Introduction
Great!!!
16 years ago on Introduction
Love it! What if you put in a three-position switch so that you could set it for off, on, and put a photocell circuit in it so it would act as a night light?
16 years ago on Introduction
I think it would be smart to add Resistors to your circuit; otherwise it can happen that the LEDs get broke in short time. But your figures look very funny; I'm thinking about making some too (with resistors ;) )
Reply 16 years ago on Introduction
I tried with 1/4W 150Ohm resistors, but after all we want LEDs to be as brighter as they can. The LEDs I used have a voltage of 3.6V, the batteries together output 3V. Do you think resistors are needed in this case?
Reply 16 years ago on Introduction
In the case of LEDs it is not (only) about the voltage, you have to use resistors in front of a led because it is necessary to limit the current.
If you don't include a resistor into your circuit the LED will take way too much current (I don't know about specific values but I already heard about 500mA) this will kill your LED over the time!
To limit the current you can take very small resistors (for example 10 Ohm (I think even smaller values are possible). This will not decrease the Brightness visible.
Some people say that Batteries got a own resistance but you don't know how much this is and if it really works.
If you include resistors you can be sure that your LEDs will glow for years without any damage.
I hope you understand my worst german school english
Reply 16 years ago on Introduction
The LEDs themselves act as TINY resistors, but your batteries will last MUCH longer if you use a real resistor. Use a current limiting resistor ;)
16 years ago on Introduction
You should turn this into a Pummer!
16 years ago on Introduction
This looks really nice. But I don't think blue is the best colour for eyes, red or green? L