Pop LOVE Lamp With Gas Bottle

I decided to renew the experience of the gas bottle lamp, which makes great light and shadow patterns, but with another pattern: hearts and the famous 'pop' icon LOVE from the sculpture of Robert Indiana on 6th avenue in Manhattan.

The start of the project is the same than on my other instructable gas bottle lamp : empty the bottle, unscrew the valve in open air, ensure all gas is gone out filling the bottle with water.

To be able to access the inside of the bottle to paint it and to install the lamp, it is necessary to cut the bottom.

To mark a regular thickness I only used a wood part as a shim and marked the bottle all around while turning it. Simple and efficient.

Then I cut the bottom with a grinder.

I was inspired by the models of a french sculptor Michel Laurent which creates sculptures with metal and in particular gas bottles, he has a heart model, and a lot more of nice designs, but he doesn't make lamps with them.

Michel Laurent

I decided to use my Plasma cutter to cut the heart. In order to still see the marks with the dark protective gloves, I used a white marker.

Then I 'tried' to follow the line, with the plasma cutter - free hand. Not so easy, but at the end, since the hearts are irregular in shape on purpose, it is not so important to follow the line as long as you close it.

Sometimes, you need to hammer a little bit to separate the cut part.

I found the image on internet, and printed it on paper with the right size, then I cut it, sticked it on the gas bottle, and marked the contour with the white marker.

Then the process is the same than for the hearts, but it is more important to follow the line. Some areas need to remain uncut to maintain the inner part of the O.

The plasma cut leaves a small metal lip that I grinded from inside. I also grinded the outside to remove the paint and to remove sharp edges.

I protected the outside with tape and painted inside with a red paint. 2 layers were necessary.

When removing the tape there was some extra paint, on the edge of the hearts, that I decided to leave since I thought it would be too difficult to get a clean edge.

I used a cheap led outside led projector and attached it simply through the hole of the gas bottle. I grinded some paint in the contact area to ensure the gas bottle body is grounded through the light.