Urban Lamp

What inspired me?

During the last couple have weeks, myself and my girlfriend have been focusing a lot on the Instructable community, contests and Instructable projects, and with a very limited fund, I decided to make some very easy, useful tools that you can find in most workshops. I have been making a range of bespoke lamps with a few pieces. This is my three piece angled desk lamp.

What will you need?

-20 mm by 75mm by 1m

-jig saw or circular saw

-sander or sand paper

-lamp fixing

-pva or wood glue

-clamps

-drill

-8mm drill bit

First of all. I had to decide the length of wood into three parts. However, I didn't know what height or length I wanted the lamp to be. Using a plain piece of a4 and a ruler and pencil, I began to draw a quick plan. I then made each of the three piece to scale with the drawing. I used the saw to straighten up the top end of the wood. I then draw a line 120mm from this end and used the saw to cut this at a 15 degree angle. I then marked out 250mm and used the same saw to cut this at 15 degrees. I then drew another line at 140mm and cut this at 90degrees.

The next step was to sand the pieces down. Because of the saw, i had slot of blow out and burs that needed to be sanded off. Using the disk sander I made in a previous instructable, I sander the cut surfaces down using 100 grit and then used a sanding block to sand the entire thing. I did this for all three pieces.

Once this was all done, I then places all of the pieces down and began to make the cable holes. I only needed three holes as the lamp was quite small. On the top piece (120mm) I drilled a 8mm hole 40mm away from the 90degree end in the centre. Then, on the middle piece (250mm) I drilled one hole 60mm from the bottom then another 70mm from the top. I then sanded and used a rounded file to make it smooth and to eliminate burs.

The last step was the glue up. I placed all of the pieces in the arrangement I wanted and then glued the pieces. I used quite a bit of glue and then user tape and clamps to clamp it all together. I used a wet cloth to get rid of the glue that was forces out. This made it easier when it came to finishing.

After a couple hours the glue had fully set and I used the sanding block to gently sand all over the lamp frame. This took around 10 minutes but the longer you spend, the better the finish. I then used dark stain to cover the entire frame. This was very easy to use and leaves a great finish.