Simple Moon Lamp
For my wife, what can I do if she says, "Please bring me moon from the sky?"
Well I am no astronaut, nor do I have heaps to money to hire one..
An Engineer always finds a way !!!
In this instructable I will share how to make a Paper Mache Moon and bring moon from the sky in your room
What Do We Need
Material
- Tissue Paper ( preferably non textured 2 ply)
- PVA glue / Fevicol
- Led Strip
- LED Driver
- Wires
- Electrical plugs etc
- Basket Ball Size 5
- Paper tape
- Cling wrap
Tools
- Paint brush
- Pencil
- Black Acrylic paint
- Water
- Paper Cutting knife / blade
- Soldering iron
Dome
To prepare dome we will use a basket ball, one can use balloon as well
Cover the ball using cling wrap and use paper tape to mark a reference around the ball. We will cover tissue paper till this reference, it needs to be smaller than the diameter, to enable us to remove the dome easily later.
In a large pan mix PVA glue or fevicol with water ( 1:1 ratio) Using large paint brush spread it over the ball and place tissue papers to cover the ball till the reference paper tape mark.
In my first attempt, I did 5 layers and after paint job etc, it was opaque...
So in the second attempt I covered 3 layers only .... Let the dome dry for 12 hrs atleast
Paint Job
Demold or remove the dome, carefully from the basket ball. If you tear it a little, then use tissue paper and patch it, set it to dry for few hours
Draw a reference carter shapes, one can use internet to get the right shapes.
Using black acrylic paint with excess water, paint the carters.. Caution : Too much of water will melt the tissue paper.
I lost some dome shape here due to water... I let it dry for few hours after paint an then coated a layer of PVA glue or fevicol ( Do not add any water ). AGain let it dry for few hours....
Back Cover
Back cover : Measure diameter of the dome and cut a cardboard circle that slides inside the dome about 1 mm.
Note that I tried to create phases of moon but the cardboard partitions were too small. May be I will make it in next version
Electronics :
Paste few pieces of LED Strips in curved lines as shown. Connect all -ve and +ve to the LED driver circuit.
Connect the AC in to a power plug best suited to your requirement
Note : Usually, I solder all connections and cover it using heat shrink tubes, this give strength to the connections
Final Touches
Using Glue gun stick the back cover to the dome. Hang it on the wall and enjoy moon light indoors
Improvements
- To have moon phases, need to increase height of internally partitions
- Use Acrylic dome to have stronger structure
- Paint job need someone better who could paint it
Please share your comments