Twist Lamp

A lamp designed to use a string of leds, but completely enclose the string & battery box. Five printed parts, can be printed in a single color or with the lamp base and body in transparent - see photo.

The lamp is designed to be used with a string of led lights, the link to the set I used is at the end of this section, but lots of very similar sets are available. As noted in the instructions I put a loop in the wire to even out the spacing in the finished lamp – if you want to avoid this, I’d suggest making the lamp body about 10% larger in the Z dimension before printing.

I used Big House branded ones from Amazon.co.uk

Print Settings

Resolution: 0.2mm

Infill: n/a

Filament: ColorFabb PLA White/Yellow Transparent 
 

Notes: 

If printing the switch extender on its own, it may be necessary to slow the print down.

Post-Printing

Twist Lamp Assembly - there’s a YouTube video. (also features commentary from my teenager)

Instructions - Notes

Part references (color/numbers) match the exploded view below.

Exploded view of the lamp

Step 1

Sand/clean up parts as required. Glue the Lamp Body (1 – shown as purple) to the Lamp Base (2 – shown as green) – I used superglue.

Step 2 - Install the lights

Note: In order to space the leds evenly in the lamp I put a small loop (~10mm) between the leds that are inside the twists. The battery box should be in the base of the completed lamp, so starting at the base feed the wire up through one of the twists. At the top of the lamp, I chose a twist opposite to feed the wire back down. Repeat until all the twists have contain wire/leds. Switch on the leds and check the placement – it may be necessary to adjust the position of the wires to get them even.

Step 3

Install the Top Cap (3 – shown as brown), this should push fit over the top of the lamp body (1), it’s a tight fit to hold the wires in place.

Step 4

Taking the Base Cap (4 – shown in grey), it should be possible to place the battery holder between the two bars, with the switch facing the slit in the rim.

Step 5

Place the Switch Extender (5 – shown in yellow) on the locator pin in the middle of the slit on the rim. There is a matching hole on the underside of the switch extender – make sure these line up.

Step 6

Taking care not to dislodge the switch extender, push the Base Cap (4) into the Lamp Base (2) making sure the slits are aligned, again this is a tight fit. Check the switch works – and you’re done.