Here’s my final design for the upcycle project, an LED lamp made from laser cut sections of wood veneer. The earlier stages of my design process are documented on previous blogs, so I’ll pick up where the last one left off. I went to assemble the paper prototype that I made, and quickly realized that I had numbered the cross sections wrong, and I had no idea what order the 60 pieces fit into the slots. But with the few that I did have correct, I realized that the form I had made was too tall and skinny to fit anything inside, especially a light. And also I didn’t have enough of any one color of wood in long enough sections to make it. So I changed my design to be shorter and wider, with fewer sections. Here’s my model from slicer:
I then arranged these sections closer together in Corel draw so that I could fit as many as possible on each piece of wood and sent them off to the laser cutter.
I made sure to label them as soon as the laser cutter was done so that I wouldn’t accidentally mix any up. Then came the tedious process of fitting the right piece to the right slot and gluing each one in place
After I had a few pieces in, the structure started to hold itself together and it was much easier to put the rest of the form together. Here’s the final form after assembling all the pieces:
I used the three spokes I created to weave in a bundle of LED lights to act as the light source for the lamp.
Overall I like the way it turned out! the wood gives it a nice warm glow and it casts cool shadows on the walls. I think it achieves the natural, flowing aesthetic I was after. And now I have a cool lamp!
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Great exectution! Does your asthetic have a name? Googie perhaps?
Great design Jack. If it was for sale, I would buy it. The one thing that is bothering me is the numbers written on each strip. I know it is necessary for the assembly process, but you could have used sticker notes or maybe just wash it.
Jack, this is one of my favorite projects I’ve seen for upcycle. You really repurposed the materials you had and made such a nice decorative piece that you can put next to your bed as a night light, It is very nice to look at. I really liked the style of your presentation a lot.
Wow. That looks great! You mentioned having used the software before; have you made something similar before, or was it unrelated?
This is awesome. Its very intricate and has a great aesthetic. I will buy this from you, if you want to sell it. Well done!
Very unique project Jack. You are probably the person who used the laser cutter in the ITLL most creatively. I’ve never seen anyone make something like your lamp from the laser cutter. all-in-all very cool project and great presentation. I think adding a moving element to your product may make it look nicer.
This is a great project. I like how you were able to make this entirely out of scrap material. The final product is awesome, but I feel like there is still a lot of possibilities to iterate or add to the design. Do you have any plans to do so?
This was such a cool project! The adapted rounded corners on the lamp that were laser cut make a unique lamp that I would never have imagined. The sliced images when assembled give a good overview of your project. Great job!
This is super cool. It is clear that you put time and effort into this project and I love it. I want one for myself! You should sell them! During the presentation the final product seemed to be kind of fragile so would you consider adding glue or something to make it more durable in the future?
The natural aesthetic is very evident in the product and the soft glow of the LEDs shinning through it rounds off that aesthetic. With the flowy nature to it have you considered having it spin to draw the attention to that part of the design?