UFO Nightlight

My daughter loves this alien themed nightlight I made for her bedroom. Although I think its a little creepy, she finds it very funny and turns it on every night.

I like working with wood so i decided to wood-turn this nightlight from an old piece of scrap wood I upcycled from my old kitchen bench during a renovation.

If you have a wood-turning lathe, i know you're probably looking for new and exciting things to turn and this project will give you that opportunity.

If you don't have a lathe don't worry. You could make the UFO from foam, clay, cardboard or may other things, however this instructable will be showcasing a wood turned UFO.

Materials:

• 2 x pieces of wood. The wood i used was about 7"x7"x2". This is to turn into the UFO.
• A plastic cup. This is for the abduction beam.
• A small keychain LED light.
• Small magnets
• Hot glue and super glue
• Wax or polish
• Hobby foliage/moss
• Cork sheet
• PVA glue
• Fishing line
• A small plastic animal figurine

Tools:

• Woodturning lathe
• Saw - I used a drop saw to cut my wood to size before turning
• Hot glue gun
• Drill
• Utility knife
• You may also need a dremel depending on what shape keychain light you choose.

Using a saw cut your scrap wood to rough size.

Attach to your lathe. I do this using hot glue.

Begin turning the wood into a nice round shape.

The first face you should turn is the bottom of the UFO. Turn out a little hole in this face to fit the key chain light.

Take the whole thing off and flip it over to start turning the top face of the UFO.

Refer to the last attached picture above for a basic profile.

Once you are happy with your shape, sand and wax.

Depending on what shape key chain light you chose, you may need to carve out some more wood using a Dremel.

Make sure you can fit the light in and it is level with the base of the UFO.

Now it's time to attach the magnets. These magnets will hold the light in place and the UFO onto the cup.

The reason for using magnets to attach the light instead of gluing it in place, is so it can be removed for easy replacement of the batteries.

Using a drill make some shallow holes to glue the magnets into position. I did one in the centre for the light and three around the edge for the cup. Please refer the the attached pictures.

Use hot glue or superglue to fix the magnets into their positions.

Back on the lathe again, it's time to turn the base.

My base was smaller than my UFO. My UFO turned out to be about 7" and the base about 5".

The last picture above shows the basic profile. Turn out a shallow dish in the base to glue on the foliage in the next step.

Don't forget to sand and wax the base.

Apply some PVA glue to the top of the base piece. Only apply it to the centre area where you made the shallow dish (leave the outside rim clean).

Sprinkle on a very generous amount of hobby foliage and pat down.

Allow to dry then blow away any excess.

Cut around the base onto some cork sheeting.

Glue this cork circle to the bottom of the base using PVA glue.

You may need to sit something heavy on top while it dries.

Using superglue, attach one end of some fishing line to the animals tail (or any other body part).

For this project cow's work best however i used a lamb as i couldn't find a cow at my local toy shop.

Drill a small hole into the base of your plastic cup and thread through the other end of the fishing line. Then glue this end to the base of the cup in a position that makes the animal suspended in the air.

Trim away the excess line.

Now you should have three pieces:

• The base with the grass
• The plastic cup with the animal suspended with line
• The top wooden UFO with the light attached inside with magnets

It's time to put them all together.

Simply flip the cup over and press the rim into the grass. The turn the light on and place the UFO onto the cup lining up the magnets.

Enjoy your new wood turned UFO nightlight or desk lamp.

Thank you for taking the time to read through my instructable and i hope you liked it.