Introduction: Colour Pencil Lamp

By pam harris
About: I love working with wood. I make bandsaw boxes and just lately ive got a lathe and now enjoy woodturning.

In this Instructables i will explain how i made a lamp using wood resin and colour pencils. I was asked to make this by a friend who wanted a one of a kind lamp.

I will show you how i made this you can follow these instructions and make to any size you want.

Step 1: Item List

You Will Need

6 inch round by 2 inch deep wood.

2 inch x 2inch x 10 inch wood

700 colour pencils

Epoxy resin

plastic bin

10mm drill bit short and long

Centre finder

Elastic bands

10mm dowel

wood glue

woodwax 22

sanding sealer

yorkshire grit

sand paper

Tools

Drill

lathe and (woodturning tools)

saw (bandsaw)

Step 2: Lets Get Started

First we need to get the wood ready.

1) Take the round 6 inch by 2 inch blank and using the centre finder mark a cross in the centre.

2) Using the short 10mm drill, drill a hole in the centre of this blank.( i used 10mm as it needs to be big enough for the cable to get through).

Step 3:

1) Take the 2x2x10 wood and mount in between centres on lathe.

2) using a bowl gouge take the wood down to round.

3) mount wood in chuck and using the long 10mm drill drill the centre all the way through.

4) now its time to join the two bits of wood together

5) glue the dowel half way into the round base when dry place the long round bit of wood to the top half of dowel.

6) let dry

Step 4: Adding Pencils

1) Cut enough pencil in half to go around the base about 3 layers thick hold these in place with an elastic band.

2) Above the half pencils, place 3 layers thick full length i used cellotape to hold these in place.

3) Now place this in the bin.

4) Now fill the rest of the bin with pencils placing them tight in so that their is no space left you can use an elastic band to hold in place.

5) Now mix the resin as instructions for your resin. Pour resin into bucket till nearly at the top of bucket i did this in 2 pours. (when pouring resin, pour close to the centre so that the upper pencils get resin on them cover drill hole with cellotape so no resin goes in).

Leave to dry i left for 1 week but a couple of days should be fine.

Step 5: Time to Turn

I used a base plate to mount this on the lathe and used the tail stop.

This lamp is really heavy so please be safe at all times wear safety equipment you have been warned the pencils can fly off and could cause injury.

Ok now we are ready to start turning

1) The video shows the steps in more detail. Well start shaping to you get the design you like.

2) drill a hole in the side if the 6x2 base round for wiring.

3) using colour pencils in a project can be tricky first off the pencil led breaks off when turning if possible find the leds and super glue back in place. This takes time but the end result is worth it.

4) when you get the shape you want coat all the leds with superglue to stop the colours running into each other when sanding.

5) sand the whole thing to 180

6) Do two layers of sanding sealer being careful that the colours dont run into each other.

7) apply yorkshire grit to a smooth finish.

8) apply two layers of wax 22

9) apply a layer of shellawax to a shine.

Step 6: Electrics

I am not going to go into any great detail about wiring as your country might not be the same.

1) I used the items in the photos for wiring so this was very easy to do i fed the wire to the top and wired to the bulb holder very easy to do for me. ( please be safe doing wiring get someone who knows what they are doing to do it if your unsure).

2) I used red felt on the bottom to cover centre hole.

All done i hope you enjoyed

Woodworking Contest 2017

Second Prize in the
Woodworking Contest 2017

Lights Contest 2017

Participated in the
Lights Contest 2017