Ultimate Desktop LED Lamp, With Gooseneck Arm, Helping Hands and Magnifier

In this Instructable I will show you how I make a Fusion 360 designed 3D Printed shade LED Desktop work lamp with a flexible gooseneck arm, 2 x Helping hands and Magnifier, all sat on an Oak floorboard off-cut base.

I've already made something similar in an earlier Instructable but wanted something a bit smaller more like a desktop version

Using Fusion 360 to design the shade we will be using some great tools such as revolve and circular pattern and also the threading tool to make stand off's within the shade to accommodate the LED PCB

I will be using the CNC Machine to cut a cavity into the oak base and also the holes to accommodate the on/off switch and cables for the LED pcb

Always take the necessary precautions when using a CNC machine and PPE will be ear protection, eye protection, and suitably rated dust mask.

Onto designing the shade for the lamp:

Kitronik round 5v LED lamp kit (Kitronic UK)

2 core cable.

Soldering iron and Solder.

Gooseneck flexible arm and base. Amazon UK

Helping hands x 2 Amazon UK

Small Magnifier Amazon UK

on/off Switch Illuminated LED. Amazon UK

5v 2 amp Power supply Barrel plug connector and female connector. Amazon UK

3D Printer.

CNC Machine.

As always in Fusion 360 we create a new component and then new sketch and select the plane you want, I am opting for the front plane on this occasion.

Clicking on the plane highlights it, the round LED lighting kit I'm using is 48mm in diameter and to give a bit of leeway I will make the shade diameter at the narrow end 60mm opening out to say 84mm.

We only need to sketch half of the lamp as we will be using the revolve tool to form the lamp shade.

Draw a vertical line of 100mm from the centre spot and the a Horizontal line from the centre right to 30mm from this line a vertical line of 40mm, from the top of the centre vertical line sketch a line to the right of 42mm, and then sketch down from that point to 40mm and then connect the 2 ends with a line, we can now offset this line to 2mm outwards.

The top horizontal line can be deleted at this point or before the offset is made, unclicking chain selection in the offset box allows you to highlight individual lines to offset, chain selection highlights all lines.

With the offset made we now need to close both ends, from the bottom horizontal Line connect this to this up to the original centre vertical line and then the other end we can use the 3 point arc tool to round off the end of what will be the outer edge of the shade.

The sketched wall will turn blue and using the revolve tool highlight the wall and then click axis and use the vertical centre line for this, and voila the shade will take shape, and from this point on we can create the fixture for the LED lamp and the entry point for the Gooseneck flexible arm in the shade.

We can now move onto designing the internal fittings of the lamp:

Within the lamp shade, we need to fabricate a threaded entry point for the Gooseneck arm, this thread is 5/8 inch so this will be the the part to design.

For this part of the operation we create a new sketch and select the bottom internal face to work from, first creating the circle for the thread then off set this out by 5mm then extrude the outer ring to 12mm now pressing the S key on the keyboard the T brings a drop down list select thread and highlight the internal ring we have just created, click on the modelled tab and click ok, the thread is now generated.

On the Kitronic led pcb there are 4no mounting holes, these are 42mm apart, we only need to design 1 of these so from the top view create a new sketch and draw a centre line 21mm vertical from the centre of the base, then create an 8mm centre circle on this point, extrude this up 25mm, and then create a new sketch using the top face of this stand off, create a 3mm centre circle and extrude this down 12mm.

Using the thread tool highlight the hole, click modelled, uncheck full length and then make the threaded length 10mm, with that part complete we can use the circular pattern tool to create the other 3, to do this we select the circular pattern from the solid drop down, and highlight all the features of the stand off, for the axis just select the outer of the threaded hole for the gooseneck or the internal ring of the base, select 4 for how many and press ok, for the final part I put a fillet on the bottom of each stand off of 1mm for added strength, that concludes the lamp design, using the section analysis tab we can see if everything is ok and no conflicts, then we can 3D print the shade.

I have 2 Creality 3D printers, an older CR-10S and a newer CR-10 Ver2 Pro I like many have suffered with prints not sticking and believe me I have tried everything to make parts stick to the beds, blue tape, glue sticks, hairspray etc etc, I have also spent a small fortune on build plates, Glass build plates, treated glass build plates, magnetic build plates, you name it I have tried, the latest being the Wham Bam system, very expensive, but I had the same issues again, I set the build plates up and level them meticulously only to watch the first layer not stick.

I've just completed what I think is a fairly complicated print and its a bigger version of a Print Baren with over 100 Ball Bearings and I had to do 10 of these comprising of a Base and handle, I managed to successfully print these, listed are my settings for both printers.

On the Creality CR-10 Ver2 Pro this has the Creality Tempered glass build plate, this build plate works well, there are rules to using this build plate which need to be adhered to for success.

Bed temperature 70 degrees and nozzle 210 degrees these settings work for me.

Infill was triangles and 20% infil

The most important things when using this build plate is to clean it with good quality kitchen roll before and after every print with warm water and let it dry as the build plate heats up, secondly when the part has finished printing let the build plate cool down completely, there is a tendency to want to pull the part off the bed too early, don't do this, let it go cold, and the part just lifts off, don't put scrapers anywhere near this plate or you will damage the surface, so far this surface is working well.

For the Creality CR-10s this has the Wham Bam Magnetic build plate, following the Instructions to the rule, this build plate never worked for me which for the cost was very disappointing.

My solution with this build plate was temperature settings same as Creality V2 pro and I used 3DLac spray to get prints to stick well, this worked for me, I clean the build plate with Isopropyl alcohol before each print.

Anyway back to the shade, I printed this on the Creality CR-10 V2 Pro and it turned out perfect, I didn't use a Brim or Raft, the Creality Tempered build plate works really well, fingers crossed it will continue to do so.

I made an error in the design stage of this Lamp shade, I neglected to Model the thread for the Gooseneck arm in the shade, I never realised this until it was printing, I've designed and 3D printed a threaded adapter to which I will glue this onto the lampshade, it will look the part when finished.

Onto making the base for the lamp:

I'm using a piece of Oak flooring off-cut for the Base of the Lamp its not in best condition so with the shade and the gooseneck arm both being black I will paint the base black as well.

I routed the front and side edges of the base prior to painting.

Due to the thickness of the wood, only 20mm I am having to make an adapter for the switch to raise it up from the base 8mm this will allow plenty of room to accommodate the switch and its wiring.

I need to hollow out the bottom of the base to accommodate the wiring, this was done using the cnc machine to a depth of 16mm using a 6mm flat bottomed router bit, an offset of 8mm from the outer edge of the base was created using Vetric Vcarve desk top, I also created a couple of holes in the base, one for the cable from the Gooseneck arm and one for the cables from the switch, In all honesty this didn't turn out too well and I had to lengthen the holes, I had sketched the holes too close to the edge, not thinking about it enough was the issue, must try harder:)) Anyway I got away with it, and with a coat of blackboard paint and waxing the base is looking great and matches the rest of the lamp perfectly, I designed and 3D printed a stand off adapter for the on/off switch and glued this to the top of the base using CA Glue.

The Gooseneck arm base plate was marked out and drilled using a 3mm drill and Allen head bolts and lock nuts to secure.

A Barrel plug female connector is used for the power input and this was drilled into the rear of the base taking care as there wasn't much to play with, this was a very snug fit so no need for Glue.

For the LED lamp, I am using a Kiktronic 5v Round LED Lamp Kit, these kits are ideal for low voltage desktop lamps etc, and the kits come either round or square, the round option for this lamp, the led's need to be soldered into position and need to be in the correct orientation, this is clearly set out in the Kitronik instructions, I used a 2 core red and black cable for 5v and Ground connections, this was threaded through the gooseneck arm into the base, and stripped ready to solder.

The power input is a plastic barrel plug, and the power will come from a 5v 2amp power supply.

With the switch in position, and the power input installed the wiring is pretty straight forward, the switch has an LED which can be on permanently or on when the lamp is switched on, this is what I opted for, see the attached wiring diagram for the connections from the input, to the switch and then to the lamp.

To finish this lamp I'm adding 2 flexible helping hands, 2 x 6mm holes are drilled through the top of the base and I'm using the fixings that came with the helping hands to secure, although the fixings are supposed to be feet, they are hidden within the base and work well for this purpose.

To further finish this lamp I'm adding a small magnifier, I designed and 3D printed a small clamp( I forgot to document this clamp and adapter)which attaches to the gooseneck arm, with the arm being threaded the clamp goes up and down when turned in either clockwise or counter clockwise direction, from the clamp is an adapter allowing the magnifier to be moved out of the way if need, from the adapter there is a length of 7mm brass tubing and then another 3D printed adapter for the magnifier.

The base is just a cut piece of 3mm MDF painted black with a round neoprene foot in each corner.

Assumptions:

I am always amazed that we can take a design out of our heads and make it real using software like Fusion 360, al lot of these items can be purchased of course or something similar but where is the fun in that and to produce something that works perfectly from an idea is very satisfying and obviously rewarding especially when it works as planned.

I wanted a desk friendly work light, not too bright, I wanted the helping hands to assist when soldering etc, and the magnifier is there for when needed and can be moved out of the way with ease, this design works a treat, its 5v, very manoeuvrable, it can be stored out of the way when not in use and is very useful for doing those small soldering jobs etc, every aspect works as intended.

I hope you enjoyed this Instructable and thanks for looking.