Paper Picture Lamp

Hi there,

Glad to finally be at the point where I somewhat took photos of process and am ready to make my first instructable! :)

As you can guess from the picture - the instructable will be for making your very own battery powered paper lamp, which, in my configuration is battery powered with LED as light source.

There are no real requirements for tools or skills as long as you have some patience and can gather the needed electrical components.

Step 1: What's Needed and Recommended

The components you will need are:
Patience
Sheet of paper with a print of your choice (you can draw on a blank one too if want to!)
A single 9V battery
A socket for that battery
LED strip (I used 10cm of 4,8W strip)
Several single LEDs (not sure about power, 6mm diameter, actually optional)
Block of wood to stick them all on
Glue (for paper)
Switch (used the tiniest tumbler I could get, but it doesn't really matter)
Some thin wires
Resistors!

Tools recommended:
Scissors/X-Acto knife for trimming paper if needed
Insulation tape
A solder iron
Hot glue gun
Something to strip wires with
Dremel tool/Router/Whatever gets the wood job done
Sandpaper
Shrink tubing & a heat source
A cup of tea

Step 2: Paper & Wood

Cut the paper to your preference.
The picture I used can be found here. And no, I didn't ask the author about using it, nor do I intend to profit from it, just found it on google and it felt like THE thing for this project. Thank you for understanding. Thanks to the author for making such a wonderful piece too. :)

The base was made from a birch parquet floor piece I have plenty here. They would've been burned otherwise. Ouch.
The opening in the middle is meant for the small block next to bigger one, so it's more stable. The pocket in the end is for switch.

Made both of these with a router bit in my drill which was not too smart, but did the trick and since router was a cheap one I needed to try it. Then sanded a bit. Improvise on this step. Could've done the same with dremel, regular drill, or even knife, if necessary. Use what you have.

Step 3: Wiring & Assembly

For wiring I used the thinnest wires I could find at home. I believe these to be 0,25mm^2 cut area.

I decided to hook the LEDs in parallel after looking at equations for both parallel and series circuits. Then decided to test if I decided right the previous time, so using some electrical tape I hooked up 3 LEDs and a LED strip to battery, turned it on and voila!

Due to this getting featured unsuspectedly I must add that you should not wire your LEDs to a 9V battery without resistors. In my case of white LEDs I'd need a 270ohm resistor for each of the LED's. The strip has its own built in, hence no need for that. This instructable can help you find the resistors needed for your LEDs and understand the basics. I was a virgin in electronics when I wrote this so pardon me.

Since everything seemed OK and working I soldered everything needed, sealed off the main soldered joints with some hot glue and glued the wooden thing, battery, strip together, switch in place. After this step you just need to but this in paper.

Don't have any pictures of assembly of paper shade and putting this in, but it's no big deal as you might guess. Make sure to choose where you will put the switch out and punch a hole there. If it's too far for hole punch as was for me, use whatever you have for the hole - I used a 5mm drill bit for it (not in a drill of course), don't cut yourself.

Step 4: Side Notes

Of course I wouldn't have done that with a little help from my dog, who is always where things happen if you let him.

As for battery life I have no idea, since this is a fresh project and the lamp is one for some ambient lighting not something serious.

Feel free to ask if unsure and criticize if I could've done better (say how though).

Expect more instructables in a while, since it seems like there will be more projects.

Edited out some outdated links.

Have a nice day!
Raitis