Cheap LED Color Changing Halloween Lamp Made Only From Sheet Metal

Here's something that's a bit different from my original posts. This is a table top lamp that can be made from a single sheet of thin metal (Steel or aluminum). I wanted something that looks a bit natural from something that looks industrial. There's also some added flare of it being able to CHANGE COLORS! Do be careful as this involves some simple circuitry and modification of metal which both can be dangerous.

SAFETY GOGGLES!! (there are sparks and metal shards)

SAFETY MASK!! (Burning galvanized steel can release toxic fumes)

Dremel with Cutting disks (will take a good few) with Sanding attachment

Drill with 1/2 inch Spade/Hole Cutter

Venting Pipe

Plug

LED Party Bulb

Light Socket

Switch

Electrical Tape

Exacto Blade and Knife

Scrap wood

This idea stemmed from this amazing chandelier I once saw that cast tree shadows all across a rooms walls. I wanted a little lamp that would do something a bit like it and came up with this. I soon learned I could not make it nearly as intricate as I wanted because of the tools at hand. Eventually I arrived at the design shown in the second to last photo.

The actual lamp is made from a 6 inch diameter insulation tube (easier cause its already bent but can be made from sheet metal) and seven by fourteen inch extra sheet metal. The tube will first be cut down to six inches, you will need to use the dremel in order to do this. Find and use a good strong cutting wheel for this and try to make it as straight as you can. Second get the 7 X 14 sheet metal and draw two 7 inch diameter circles into it to be cut out.

The design is one I reused from a previous Instructable. I drew and cut out the trees and used it to trace onto the metal tube. You can then use the dremel to cut out the pieces I chose to use some high strength cutting wheels, the more you used them them smaller they got, the smaller they got the more precise the cut could be. The first picture shows three blocks together, putting the metal on top of this will help the cutting immensely, Put something heavy on one side of the work to keep it from shifting. Cutting out the shapes can be difficult so go slowly, if you rush you can mess up the piece or worse, hurt yourself.

This is where you take those two circles you cut. For one of them you can make some notches into them, I chose to make eight and cut slits in between them. Cutting the metal with the dremel in the format allows the metal to be bent in such a way that it will fit in the tube, but be flared out enough to make it stick.

The bottom is a bit different.There are more slits on the outside (not notches) so that it will look neater seeing as it is going on the outside this time. A 1/2 inch hole will be cut in the direct center with two small holes on either side to allow the light socket in. The edges will also be bent like before but should fit together neater and nicer.

The holes being drilled you should be able to easily pop the light socket into it and screw in a bulb. The wires are easy to understand but make sure you have a way to cut the electricity to it and make sure no wires are crossing!!! I tested putting the switch first on the white wire with the wire from the plug going into the one on the switch and the wire attached to the plug plugged into the number two on the switch. I plugged it into a surge protector because it has an easy on/off switch, first turned on the switch then turned on the surge protector to make sure everything was safe. It was so i made everything permanent and taped up any exposed wire.

With everything wired up properly, all the pieces put in the proper place and put on top of some small wooden blocks you can flip the switch so see the light bulb automatically changing colors. This specific LED bulb also has a small button on it the can make the transition of colors slower or stay on one color in particular. Hope you enjoy this don't forget to vote for my Instructables.