artyman Posted April 29, 2013 Report Share Posted April 29, 2013 Having been outfitting my spare room as a workshop (and somewhere to house my newly built CNC router), I found that my workbench area was lacking some decent lighting. I tried various desk lamps, but I could never seem to get them in the right position to avoid glare, or worse... shadows!! I'd recently bought a pair of 5W white LEDs and heatsinks... so I decided to put them to use. The Initial thought was just to mount those on their own as a new head to an anglepoise lamp, driven from a 12V supply through a PWM dimmer (the LED driver boards are designed for 12V), then casting an eye over my 'helping hands', I had the idea that a larger magnifier would be of some use. My shock at the price of a halfway decent magnifier lamp was the deciding factor towards incorporating one into my design, so a quick trawl on ebay brought forth a 4" 3x magnifying glass for £3. BARGAIN!! The glass was duly ordered and the lens removed for measuring accurately... and the design process began! The concept was simple.. the magnifier in the middle with an LED each side, then the thought struck... why not make the angle of the LED pods adjustable?? That way I could 'focus' the light at the piece I'm working on, and the different angles of the lights would eliminate shadows, or I could flatten the pods out and have a larger wash of light. Here's some pics of the design, and the LED itself, and it's output at minimum and maximum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artyman Posted May 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2013 Finished the design work with the locking ring to hold the lens in place... added a 'lens' to the model for good measure, and given it a gloss black finish, which is how it will be painted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reboot Posted May 3, 2013 Report Share Posted May 3, 2013 (edited) it looks real ... great project ! Edited May 3, 2013 by reboot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artyman Posted May 3, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2013 Cheers, Reboot !! :smile: Now the manufacturing starts.... I've sorted out the backlash on the new leadscrews of the CNC, now is the test to see just how accurate it is... CUTTING THE MAIN BODY First step was to cut the wiring channel with a 3mm endmill... looks good so far. For the rest of the cutting I changed to a new 6mm endmill mainly to reduce the number of passes needed for the rebates in the centre cutout. When it got to the outside profile, I saw the cutter came out of the material !!!!!! I had got my zero point in the wrong place!! On closer inspection, it was only about 0.5mm clear of the workpiece. That's not a critical edge, so I'll live with that. Photos show various stages in the process, and the final one with the lens test-fitted. The hole is the EXACT size and perfectly round!!! :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: I've got the CNC set up right, and it was cutting at 8mm/sec. The whole process took about 2Hrs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artyman Posted May 6, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 6, 2013 Progress continues as I embed the wiring into the main body of the lamp, and make a start on the LED pods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artyman Posted May 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2013 After a short break for 2 days of solid recording, I can get back to this project... The final sculpting of the main body is now complete, with the end lugs rounded over, and all the edges softened with fine sandpaper. The lens locking ring is now done. Putting the curve on the inside edge was... interesting to say the least... I did this on a router table with a roundover bit fitted, and the off-cuts from the CNC process to hold the piece, and keep my fingers away from the bit !! All the pieces have had a smoothing rub with fine sandpaper, and a liberal coat of thinned down wood glue to seal the MDF prior to final sanding and painting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artyman Posted May 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 Parts are now primed and the 1st top coat applied. Now comes the tedious part.... waiting for paint to dry !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artyman Posted May 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2013 The lamp head assembly is now complete, tested and working... and yes, it is F*****g BRIGHT !!!, the pics don't really do it justice. pics show: polishing the heads of the LED mounting screws... I do like to pay attention to detail various stages in the wiring and assembly of the pods to the main body, and fitting the lens in place comparison of the lamp at low and full power - even at low power it overwhelms the desk lamp beside it (that has a 1W LED in it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artyman Posted May 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2013 Now that the lamp head assembly is working, it's time to mount it as a lamp. I wanted an anglepoise type mechanism, and found on ebay a desk lamp sized one at a very reasonable price, and suitable for modification. First step - remove the lamp head. Next.... I think the words "square peg" and "round hole" come to mind !! The solution was to build a linkage for that. This served two purposes... firstly to be able to attach the 2 differing surfaces together, and secondly, it provided the top pivot with a 3rd axis of rotation which it originally lacked. This enables me to be able to have the arm at virtually any angle, and still be able to align the head square to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artyman Posted August 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted August 13, 2013 (edited) The lamp is now finally finished and installed, after a lot of careful thought and experimentation to make sure the mountings at both the lamp end and the base end would be strong enough to hold the weight. ..and the moment of truth.. switching on.. ...and detail of the wall mount. At first the MDF block on it's own split under the weight of the lamp, but now after fabricating an aluminium facing for it, there seems to be much more support, and less risk of a repeat. Many thanks to all who have followed this thread, I hope it has been of interest to you. Edited August 13, 2013 by artyman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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