Food Living Outside Play Technology Workshop

Plywood Floor Lamp

by John Induna AD on June 1, 2012

Table of Contents

Plywood Floor Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro: Plywood Floor Lamp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 1: .................................................................................................................. 4

Step 2: .................................................................................................................. 4

Step 3: .................................................................................................................. 6

Step 4: .................................................................................................................. 7

Step 5: .................................................................................................................. 8

Step 6: .................................................................................................................. 8

Step 7: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plywood-Floor-Lamp/
 Author:John Induna AD John Allen
I love to build stuff

Intro: Plywood Floor Lamp

I have enjoyed this site and community for a long time and have wanted to contribute for almost as long.
I have finally got something to post.

Here is something I worked on last summer. ( well not really, it is a rendering I did last night ) Keep looking, you'll see.

The challenge, make something out of one piece of 4'x8' - 3/4" Plywood. Sounds simple enough,,,one thing I added to that was I wanted to see if I could do it without
mechanical fasteners.
Challenge on.

I have included a PDF of a drawing package that I made for this instructable. It has some of my original design revised with "as built" modifications.
Also included, DWG and DXF files of the profiles.
finally, STL files of a simpler but still articulating version of this. Available for those of you who are lucky enough to have a 3D printer and want to play around with this.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plywood-Floor-Lamp/
File Downloads

JA-Plywood Lamp- Instructables.PDF (1 MB)

[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'JA-Plywood Lamp- Instructables.PDF']

John Allen- Lamp- Profiles- instructables .DXF (186 KB)

[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'John Allen- Lamp- Profiles- instructables .DXF']

John Allen- Lamp- Profiles- instructables .DWG (64 KB)

[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'John Allen- Lamp- Profiles- instructables .DWG']

STL files.zip (1 MB)

[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'STL files.zip']

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plywood-Floor-Lamp/
Step 1:
Step one cut out a bunch of parts....well maybe not so fast.

I first sketched out some ideas and modeled some part on the computer.
But then I really just started cutting.

The strait parts were cut simply with a table saw and jigs.
I printed out "size as" (1:1) drawings of some of the profiles for cutting. I spray glued my 1:1 drawings on to some 1/4" M.D.F. to make template for flush trimming with a
router.
For the circular parts, all outside cuts were made on a band saw with a circle jig, inside cuts with a jig saw. I did a few test with a jig but found cutting free handed worked
better for me.

Image Notes
1. These little part where the trickiest to figure out

Step 2:
Now here is the best thing I figured out building this thing

The angled notches in the lamp shade ring were done on the table saw. (Those of you who spend more time on a table saw may say duh, or even have a better way to
do it.) But for me it made my day.
I place one of the rings flat on my table saw and set it up as if I was going to cut it right down the middle into to halves. I then raise the blade till the radius of the blade
matched the angle on the ring I was cutting into. With my paper drawing spay glued onto the ring to show me the material to take away I did it by eye just using the 1/8"
curf of my saw blade. Of course a dado blade, fence and stop may have been more accurate, but the time to set that up I was done. Besides, you see the pictures, can
you tell?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plywood-Floor-Lamp/
 Image Notes
1. Cutting these notches on an angle might have been the hardest operations to
figure out, but turned out to be one of the easiest things to do.
2. Mmmm, Ribfest

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plywood-Floor-Lamp/
Step 3:
Easy parts first

These parts were just ripped on my table saw, cross cut to length and with an extra wide dovetailing jig I made some cuts.
forstner bit for the holes.
The round parts that look like pucks was solution number one for avoiding mechanical fasteners. I ripped two pieces of ply (about 1.5"X24" with the blade tilted at 30
degrees) and glued them together. ( which was a bit of a hard pill to swallow because I was trying to do this with out glue too) but I made these parts more structurally
sound. this made a longish stick that was a hexagon in cross section. Long story short...I turned it on my lathe to be a snug fit in the holes I drilled with the forstner bit and
cut it up into 0.75" pucks.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plywood-Floor-Lamp/
Step 4:
Optical illusion alert

The rectangular holes on the disks are the same size...they have to be in order for this to work. check out simultaneous contrast for an explanation.

Since I gave in and used glue on the other parts I used it to make the wedges as well. I could have made them with out but I thought the design came up with is the
strongest I could think of. A lot of forces are applied to this simple part. The notch or hook I put on the wedge was to make it easy to disassemble.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plywood-Floor-Lamp/
Step 5:
Okay here is proof that I am a hack.

This "stepped notch" foot design comes out of the fact that I did not want to put notches into both disks. Reason being, I wanted this to go together any way or orientation
and to get the notches to line up in all instances is very difficult to do by hand and by eye. As it turned out when these feet slip in they really lock in nicely....ahem, just like
I planed it.

Step 6:
Beware pets and small children

Largely due to the fact that I wanted to get all cute and fancy with the no mechanical fasteners idea, this design needs some help.
To defy gravity this lamp relies on friction to stand up. If I were to use some hefty spin on lugs to connect the side plate to the arms I would have enough clamping force to
confidently leave this standing and know it won't wreak havoc and terrorize my two schnauzer. There is also way to use spring force to counter the effects gravity.
All that being said, whacking those little wedges into the trestle connector works quite well, certainly does the job.

I am curious and would like to stress test these joints some time. Maybe when i get sick of it hanging around.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plywood-Floor-Lamp/
 Image Notes
1. See that hole there? That was my idea for wire management if I was ever going
to install a light in this.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plywood-Floor-Lamp/
Step 7:
Well there you have it.

That's all I got for now folk.

If you made it the far I would like to think you enjoyed it. Thanks for looking.
I am happy to answer any questions you might have about this project.

So long for now,

John

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plywood-Floor-Lamp/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Plywood-Floor-Lamp/
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