Tesseract - Reclaimed Wood Table Lamp and Night Lamp

Table lamp made from lumber yard scrap. Layers of epoxy resin is inserted so that a separate Led strip may be inserted inside to make the whole lamp body glow. It can double as a night lamp as well

Materials :

Scrap Wood From The Lumber Mill

Epoxy Resin

Color Tint for Resin

Bulb Holder

Edison Bulb

3 Way Switch

Wall Plug

Wire

Tools Used

Hobby CnC (X-carve clone)

Orbital Sander

Tablesaw

Spray on acrylic spray

Sofware Used

Autodesk Fusion 360

The Lamp Was designed in Fusion 360 with the following in mind

1. To have 3 layers of wood and 2 layers of translucent resin

2. Top of the Lamp body would be divided into 9 blocks each separated by a layer of Translucent resin. These lines would extend down along the sides till the bottom

3. Bottom of the Lamp body to be hollowed out to hold the bulb holder and conceal the Led Strip. The Resin should be exposed in the inside so light can pass through it to the outside surface

The sizing needs to be done taking into consideration the piece of wood available, In my case the wood layers would be 120mm X 120mm and thickness 20mm. The resin layers would be 10mm thick and the segments would be separated by 6mm resin

The Wood was prepared in 3 steps

1. A square piece was cut first . I cut it 140mm X 140mm so i would get 10mm of wood extra on all sides

2. The top surface was surfaced with the CNC removing as little as possible to get a level surface

3. The piece was flipped around and surface milled again to get the desired thickness

The bottom 2 layers are initially cut as per the drawing above. This is done so that the holes can be filled with the epoxy and will form the lines cut that extend vertically down the sides. A small pocket was done in the center for better adhesion for the cast resin. Registration holes maybe made in the corners to help align during final

A 10mm deep grove is made in the wood as per the drawing. This groove is to be filled with resin in the next step.

Registration holes are made in the corners to align the pieces during the final gluing

A wall is created with scrap poly-ply or any suitable material around the bottom 2 layers for the Resin pour. De molding was is applied to the sides of the Wall so it becomes easy to de mold. The resin should be be poured to at least 11mm above wood surface

For the top layer resin is to be filled till to cover the groove

I've used 2 part clear casting epoxy for this. You can use any resin and pigment. Follow the manufacturers instruction for mixing ration, procedure, curing time etc.

After the curing time is up the walls are taken apart to reveal the resin layer

Depending on the bulb holder it may have to be modified to make it suitable for this project. I used a regular drop light holder and cut the outer shell to expose 5mm of the screw part where the bulb screws on to.

The holder is now measured and a recess is machined behind the top wooden piece so the holder fits snugly

1. Top Piece

A square of 120mm has to be machined in the bottom face of the top piece till a depth of 11mm thereby exposing the resin cast inside the grove

2. Bottom two pieces

In the bottom two pieces a square of 120mm is machined all the way

Align and glue the 3 pieces making sure the lines on the sides match. For the glue epoxy or cynoacrylate can be used

The edges are trimmed 10 on the tables saw to expose the vertical lines on sides

The Cube is sanded with 400 600 and 1000 grit sandpaper and sprayed with an acrylic clear to reveal the grains and add gloss to the wood and epoxy

The bulb and Led strip has been wired in such a way that they can both be turned off or turned on individually.

Refer to the diagram for guidence

Screw on the bulb and you are ready to go