Building a Clever Lamp with a Hidden Feature.

Summary

In this inventive DIY project, the creator shares his journey of building a custom adjustable reading lamp on a track above his bed. Frustrated with poor lighting and limited adjustability, he crafts a solution involving a sliding track with a dimmer control. Faced with challenges like compound angles, balancing aesthetics with functionality, and designing a pulley system, he tackles each with problem-solving skills and creativity. Through trial and error, he refines the design, utilizing woodworking and electronics to complete the lamp. The video highlights how instinct and initial ideas often lead to the most effective results in design.

Takeaways

• 💡 The user struggles with their current reading lamp because it's difficult to adjust and only illuminates one side of the bed.
• 🔧 They plan to create a custom-built track above the headboard, allowing the lamp to slide easily across the bed using a pulley mechanism.
• 📏 A foam board mockup was made to assess the lamp's scale and aesthetics before moving on to the actual build.
• 📐 The build involves complex woodworking, including cutting angled corners with compound angles, which required careful calculations and testing.
• 🪚 The user incorporated hard maple wood and other materials like cherrywood for the lamp's design, focusing on aesthetics and functionality.
• ⚙️ Problem-solving during the project was crucial, as they had to adjust for unexpected issues, like friction in the sliding mechanism.
• 📋 Milanote, a project planning tool, was used to organize their thoughts, checklists, sketches, and inspiration for the lamp design.
• 🔩 Bearings were added to the sliding mechanism to reduce friction and allow smooth movement along the custom track.
• 🎨 The design language focused on creating cohesive, rounded profiles across the lamp and matching nightstand.
• 🔌 The final steps involved adding electronics, like LED strips, to complete the lamp's functionality and aesthetics, resulting in a sleek, functional piece.

Q & A

What problem does the speaker have with their current reading lamp?

The speaker finds their current reading lamp hard to adjust, only provides light on one side of the bed, and is not well-suited for frequent adjustments.

What is the main feature of the custom-built lamp the speaker is designing?

The main feature is a sliding mechanism on a custom track above the headboard, allowing the lamp to be moved across the bed. It will also have a dimmer knob on the nightstand for brightness control.

Why does the speaker choose to create a foam board mockup of the lamp?

The foam board mockup is used to get a sense of scale and aesthetics before starting the actual build of the lamp.

What difficulty does the speaker encounter when cutting the angled corners of the lamp?

The speaker struggles with calculating the correct compound angles, which require adjustments to both the blade of the saw and the workpiece.

What was the issue with the initial attempt at cutting the angles for the lamp?

The initial cut produced a wrong angle, and the speaker had to perform some questionable math before finally finding the correct angle of 3 1/12 degrees.

What tool does the speaker use to reduce friction between the sliding arm and the rail?

The speaker uses bearings to reduce friction, initially trying large bearings but later switching to smaller ones from a high school physics project to make the mechanism smoother.

How does the speaker ensure light passes between the layers of the lampshade?

The speaker uses clear plastic rods as spacers between the layers, allowing light to shine through without casting shadows.

What was the solution to improving the sliding mechanism of the lamp?

The speaker changes the bearing configuration by adding two bearings on the outer edges instead of one in the middle, which improves stability and reduces friction.

How does the speaker reflect on their design process compared to previous projects?

The speaker realizes that while they usually start projects with extensive sketches, this time they trusted their instincts and winged the design. They found that sometimes the first idea is the best, even without extensive iteration.

What was the final step in the project before installing the lamp?

The final step involved threading the cable for the pulley mechanism and adding felt to prevent the power cord from snagging before mounting the lamp on the wall.