Folded Lamp

In this inscrutable you will learn how to make a 3D lamp with folded base. It can then be 3D printed or recreated with different material. The base of the lamp in meant to looked folded or bent like a paper fan would look.

The only needed materials are Auto CAD but there are many ways to recreate the design in real life. It can be created with cardboard, paper, metal, a 3D printer or any other materials that you have.

The first step is the make a triangular cylinder. Then, make a cone and place the trangel pieces around creating a folded pattern. You can do that in CAD by making a solid wedge shape and using 3D rotate and the move command to make the pieces fit to the surface of the cone. It should resemble folded paper almost like you would see if you folded paper to make a paper fan. This folded cone shape will be part of the base of the lamp.

To create the full lamp base, duplicate the cone shape from the last step and then flip them one of them 180 degrees so the widest part of the base is facing up with the 3D rotate command. Now you should have two cones that are able to be stacked. Insert 3 cylinders and shape them so that they fit and the top, bottom, and the seam on the two cones. Now you have the full base on the lamp.

Before adding the lamp shade, add the neck of the lamp by, first making a small thin cone and grouping it to the top part of the lamp. Then insert a 3D cylinder and use the move command to place it evenly on the top of the lamp. Now you have the neck of the lamp and can add the shade.

to make the lamp shade, insert a cylinder next to the lamp so that you can choose the width and height that you want for the shade. I chose a tall drum lamp shade for simplicity. Next, create a second lamp shade perfectly in the center of the first and half a centimeter smaller. To make sure the lamps are lined up, turn on snaps. to ensure even size, do no drag the second cylinder to scale, instead type in the radius to ensure accuracy. Then, use the shell command to remove the smaller cylinder. When using the shell command, first select the smaller lamp and then select the bigger lamp to hollow it out.

Finally, make a thin cross shape and place it at the top of the neck of the lamp.

To 3D print the lamp, group the whole lamp and send it to a printer.

To create the lamp with other materials, fold the materials to make the base of the lamp and attach a lamp shade.