Last week, I received the glue gun I ordered almost a month ago which I replaced with my older mini glue gun. The mini glue gun used thin glue sticks(7mm) whereas the new one I got used only normal sized glue sticks(10mm). So I had a whole bunch of these thin glue sticks left over, thought for a bit and decided to make a lamp from them and a few LEDs!In this instructable I will tell you how to make your own multicolored diffused lamp. It works great as a showcase lamp for your room and is quite bright!
This cost me almost nothing as I was just reusing the glue sticks I had left over. The LEDs, switch and battery holder cost me only about 4$, but most tech enthusiasts usually have them lying around somewhere.
So if you are interested in making a diffused light lamp with glue sticks and LEDs then lets get started!
Step 1: Ideas and Design
The new glue gun I ordered had a small red LED on the back as an indicator for when its turned on and when I put in a glue stick in, the light kind of flowed through it and diffused throughout the glue stick. I found this very interesting and tried experimenting with more glue sticks and LEDs. I thought the thin glue sticks I had lying around would work great to make a lamp.
I thought about diffusing the LEDs before installing them but I found out that they work best when they are not diffused. So I would advice you not to diffuse the LEDs for this project.
About the shape, I thought I would attach the glue sticks in a straight line in an increasing order, but then I figured that they would look better if they made a curve or a semi circle.
Another thing I noticed was that some glue sticks work well in doing the diffusion but some others don't work that well, have a look at the images above to understand what I mean.
Step 2: Materials and Tools
Materials:
Battery Holder (AA) (1$)
2 AA Batteries
About 6 Glue Sticks (I used 7mm glue sticks (mini))
10 LEDs (RGB if possible) (2$)
Cardboard
2 way Switch
Tools:
Soldering Iron
Glue Gun
Dremel Multi-tool (Optional)
Step 3: Making the cardboard base
Cut out 2 round pieces of cardboard of the size you desire. I printed out a circle and used it to cut out a perfect circle.
Once that is done, using a dremel or some scissors make 10 holes along the circle. Make sure the holes are just big enough for the LEDs to snugly fit in.
Attach the 2 pieces together with some hot glue as this would make the base thicker so the LEDs would fit in perfectly.
Step 4: Adding the LEDs and connecting them
Add all the LEDs into the holes, make sure that all the anodes are either pointing inwards or outwards and cathodes the other direction.
Bend down the leads of each LED such that they are in contact with the leads of the next LED, the image should give you a better idea. Once this is done, solder the leads together. This way you will connect all the LEDs in parallel with each other creating a common cathode and a common anode (Current is shared and voltage is the same).
Note : The LEDs I used did not need any resistors with the 2 AA batteries I was using. If the LEDs you are using need resistors then make sure you attach them first before connecting them together.
Make sure you check if all the LEDs are working after connecting them by connecting the anode to the +ve of the battery and the cathode to the -ve of the battery.
Step 5: Attaching the glue sticks on top
Using either a dremel or a glue gun make a small dent on the end of the glue stick as shown in the above images, this will be glued on top of the tips of the LEDs we attached earlier.
Once that is done, you can go ahead and glue the sticks in an increasing size order on the LEDs. You can also attach the tops of the glue sticks together so the structure is rigid.
Step 6: Creating the circuit
The circuitry for this project is very simple. The common anode of the LEDs is connected to the +ve of the battery holder and the common cathode of the LEDs is connected to a switch which is then in-turn connected to the -ve of the battery.
The image should help with wiring the circuit.
Step 7: Battery and Switch housing
For the casing, you can print out a picture of a distant galaxy and attach it on a strip of cardboard and then attach it to the base.
Here is the image I used : Infinite Space
Cut out a small hole in the cardboard strip where you can insert the switch.
Then attach a small piece of cardboard inside the base as you can see in the pictures. Once that is done, attach the battery holder on it with some hot glue and cut out a circular piece of cardboard with a hole big enough to replace the batteries whenever needed and attach it to the base.
With this, you have made your own Glue Stick Lamp!
Step 8: What next?
What to do now?
Make a different pattern of glue sticks.
Add in a micro-controller for timing different LEDs on and off.
Use more LEDs and glue sticks for better lighting and a bigger design.
I wanted to use coin cell batteries instead of these AA batteries as they would not take up as much space as the AA batteries do. I am planning to extend the pattern by slowly decreasing the size of the glue sticks as we move along the base by adding more glue sticks. This would give us an increasing then decreasing height pattern of glue sticks with the middle being the maximum height, this would look very nice when lit up.
If you make this or any other pattern with this idea be sure to post an image in the comments below, I would be very happy to see them!
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