Hello again
the other day I finished assembling an improved version of a CD lamp which I made before. I've been collecting cd's to be thrown out for like a year and I collected quite a stack. Had few left
from my previous attempt, it was ok, but not good. That previous article I wrote in Lithuanian language, can't remember why, it was probably easier for me at that time
Anyway, the new version I made is more than a meter high and uses RGB LED strip. I figured it's not going to be used to light up a room, so I made it as a decoration instead and I think I got it really good... still not perfect, but... that'll do pig
I didn't count how many CD's I got stacked, but there should be around 680 of them... so apparently it takes 680 CD's to have a 62cm tower.
The whole cost of this was about 37€. The most costly part was the LED RGB strip - 14€.
Here's how it looks like finished:
So now that I got your attention, here's how I did it.
For this lamp I needed a custom base, I couldn't use a metal can like before, so I got some plywood, cut out circles and glued them together.
Of course it didn't look smooth, so I sanded the corners down to make them flat.
Next I glued the CD's together, I did it in separate blocks, and then glued those blocks to get a solid tower. Used long-setting transparent glue, so I have time to adjust it and simply used weights to push them down.
Once I got the whole tower glued, I had to let it set for a few days. In the mean time I began working on the top and the base. At this time it was only glued together and sanded down. So I centered a CD on the whole block of plywood and drew a circle where I'd cut out a hole. Here I made a mistake by gluing whole surface when I only needed to glue the edges. It would of been much easier to cut out a hole that way...
I made my design so I can easily disassemble it later if I need to do maintenance, like replacing a transformer or other electronic components, so I didn't use glue where I didn't have to. Therefore I cut through the base and used one layer of plywood to have a bottom cover, which is held together with screws.
I did the same with the top, but I glued the top shut.
The hole I cut in the base was a bit larger than a CD, so I can fit a transformer and an RGB controller in there, so I needed to somehow hold that whole stack of CD's (which weights quite a lot) on top of everything, for that I used some things I don't know how to call from a furniture department.
Now I have a top and a base half done. Next thing I did was drilling holes through them. I needed to drill the holes on the sides, so I can have it as a reinforcement as well as a part of the design, as they would pull the CD's together holding them in place even tighter as I screw the aluminum. It would of been more accurate if I had a drill stand... when I drilled the holes I enlarged a bit one side so I can hammer in the nuts to hold aluminum bars.
Finally that I drilled holes for aluminum bars, I proceeded to fill the gaps between plywood layers around the blocks to make a smoother surface.
Now those two parts were ready for painting. I used brown spray paint. I used a lot of paint on the top so that I had a glossy and smooth, glass-like surface.
Ok, so the top and the base is now fully finished. I can cut up aluminum bars and make a thread like a screw. I used 6mm aluminum bars.
Setting those aside, I brought the tower home to assemble electronics. I could have used a 12v plug for the RGB controller and save space, but I wanted to have it all in one place which was inside the lamp and only have a wire that comes out of it for convenience. I bought 3m of RGB LED strip to have it on all four sides and glued it on a thick wire to have some base, as it turned out I had to use some force and twisting to get the whole thing inside of a CD tower. Would of been easier if I had enlarged the middle like I had done previously building the first version.
Now I have it all ready for the final assembly. I put in the transformer and the RGB controlled (was a tight fit!), connected it to the CD tower, drilled a hole on the side of a base for the wire, screwed in the aluminum bars and put the top on. To screw the top I used a nut with one side closed and a washer below the nut. For the bottom I used rubber feet.
And this is how it looked fully assembled:
It may look a bit skewed, and it is a little. CD tower looks bent, I didn't align the CD's properly, but it's hard to notice. However the bars can be seen as skewed, that's ugly but I had to drill those holes by hand as I didn't have any drill stand... though I am happy with the end result, it's quite impressive.
Thanks for reading
