Week Seven - Final Lesson (Finishing Off)

on our final lesson we put the bulb in. we did this by

1. solder the two wires to the switch. this will make sure that they won't come off.
2. then take the another 2 wires and solder them to the batter holder.
3. then screw one wire from the switch and one from the battery holder and screw the two wires to the bulb.
4. finally solder the two remaining wires together to form the circuit.

after this you have finally finished your lamp!! 

Week Six - Assembling Your Lamp

once you have had all your pieces of plastic cut out you are ready to assemble your lamp together. if you are doing a design like mine (sphere on top of the triangular frame) you will need to follow these steps:

1. take the three pieces of clear plastic and glue the ends of each piece together so that you have three circles. for the best result use a hot glue gun, WARNING: THE GLUE WILL BE VERY HOT.
2. once you have done that do the same for all of the pieces so that you can start to glue them in a circular shape, this is to form your sphere.
3. make sure you use alternative colours!! 

once you have done this you have made the design of your lamp!!

a multi coloured ball but not the same design

Week Five - Starting Your Lamp Design

once you have got your frame assembled you are ready to start designing your pieces of plastic which will make your lamp. in order to do this you will need to follow these steps:

1. first of all you need to open tech soft 2D design on a computer.
2. using the appropriate tools (located on the left hand-side) draw the shapes you need. HINT: THE MORE COMPLICATED YOUR DESIGN, THE HARDER IT WILL BE TO DESIGN ON TECH SOFT.
3. once you are completely happy with your design save it somewhere where it can be accessed by a Lazar cutter so your design can be cut out in either clear, translucent acrylic or poly propylene plastic.

once you have cut yours out you will then be able to start assembling the pieces.


YOU PLASTIC WILL TAKE A WHILE TO CUT OUT.   

tech soft 2D design

Week Four - Gluing Frame Together

once you have cut out all of the dowel you need to start gluing the frame together. You do this by:

1. taking the dowel piece and gluing round it's edges and putting glue in the hole.
2. Then using a mallet hammer bash the dowel into the hole so the joint is straight.
3. Then do this to all of the joints.

The glue will need to set so make sure that you leave it in a vice so the joints join straight, strong and glue properly.

Gluing the frame.

Week Three - Cutting Out Dowel

on the third lesson, I started to cut out dowel for the dowel joints. the dowel I used was 0.5 cm (width) by 2cm (length). to cut out the dowel I had to:

1. get out the appropriate equipment, i.e tenon saw and bench hook.
2. attach the bench hook to a vice so it doesn't move when you are trying to cut the wood.
3. mark out  2cm on your dowel. Do this as many times as you have joints, for example 3 pieces of dowel.
4. carefully with your fingers out of the way, gently saw back and fourth on the dowel so you will eventually get on piece of dowel joint.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        complete  this for as many dowel joints as you need to cut.

Cutting Dowel

Week Two - Drilling The Wood

on the second lesson we started to drill the pieces of wood we marked out the week before. to use the drill we had to makes sure that; we had an apron on, our hair was tied back, we had goggles on and only one of us was in the marked safety zone. the most important thing we had to make sure that everyone was in a pair to help with the drilling.


to use the drill you have to carry out all of the steps below:

1. with your partner get ready to use the drill, i.e wearing goggles and wearing apron.
2. take the wood that you are going to drill and place in the vice provided. tighten up so the wood won't move when drilled.
3. next align the vice with the drill so that the drill is directly above the middle of the cross.
4. once happy with the alignment, put your food on the peddle and press the green button on the side of the drill. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: if something goes wrong take your foot off the peddle as that will stop the drill.
5. drill your wood so that it is about 1.5cm deep, you may want to put tape at the measurement so you know when the hole is deep enough.

continue these steps for all of the pieces of wood you need to drill.

Drilling wood

Week One - marking out wood

Marking Out Wood:

when we were first given our wood which would make our frames,we had to make sure that it was the right lengh (125mm by 20mm and 150mm by 20mm). i used six pieces of wood to make my triangular frame, three smaller pieces of wood and 3 bigger.

to mark out the would you have to using a ruler and pencil:

1. draw a line 2cm away from the edge of the wood, once you have done this you should have a box shape at the end of the wood.
2.  draw a cross from the end of the wood to the line, so it fills up most of the space.
3. at the centre of the cross you will need to draw a dot, this is where you will need to drill.

you need to keep completeing this process on all the pieces of wood you are going to drill, and finally make a dowel joint.

Wood Being Marked