Driver Lamp - Maple, Walnut and screwdrivers

 This is yet another piece I made for the Gallery One Resident Artists' Holiday Show 2020

 

 

 

That's me on the left.

Construction Pictures:

This is an aged slab of walnut

Drivers from maybe 40 estate sales - looking for mostly yellow and orange.

Bright LEDs, check.  They're the wrong shape... es no problemo.

More Construction Pictures After the Link:

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Strange cataract in the wood.

The strange cataract in the wood turned out to be a copper wire wrapped with garden hose!  That was probably a stay that was put around the tree when it was a sapling.  I counted 32 growth rings past it, so the tree worked hard to get it in there. 

I'll have to be careful with the planer.

After a couple of passed through the planer.  Oh, and sliced up.  There's some math involved to get the angles and lengths to work out.

Need to get things straight.  I have a jointer, but I was worried there might be more surprises in the wood.

Roughed out to dimension.  My table saw cant make a long enough cut to get the angles on the first pass.

The cataract made some cool grain.

So... bugs.  Maybe termites?  I'm not an entomologist, dunno.

Getting ready for the angles.

Angles marked out and my craftsman 1950s universal jig.  The blade won't go all the way though.

Finish the cut with a Japanese saw.

I stopped and drilled a raceway for the cord.  I didn't want a cord just hanging down all stupid looking.

Time to gut the LEDs from the fixture.

Should be bright enough.

This is planning out the box.  I need one tray to hold the lights, a floor and then I had a plan for the third cut, but abandoned it.

The lights and transformers will sit on plexiglass so that light will show down below as well.

Gluing up the box, keeping right angles.

All glued up.

The box is made of curly maple so it can match the slab wood.

This is stopping for the 'proof of concept'.  I didn't have a back-up plan, so I'm glad it worked.

The drivers are only held in place by friction, so I used a clamp to make a smaller space temporarily.  The tray needs to be just deep enough to hold the drivers in place, and yet leave maximum colored material above.

Adding splines for strength - and really to be fancy.  I will need splines on the pedestal too, so walnut all around.

Universal Jig again to cut the notches for the splines.  I paid $5 for that jig set-up at an estate sale.

I have a bunch of sanders, but I like this one the best.  It's small but then I am close to the wood and get things more better right.  Maybe 5 hours of sanding start to finish!

Test fit.  The dimensions and scale seem to work okay.

Test fit again.

Cutting splines on the pedestal. 

Walnut splines in the box.

Walnut in the notches here too.

This one shows the wire coming out the the top of the pedestal.

Getting ready to trim the walnut back.

I used three different walnut species.  Seriously.  English, standard Black and Peruvian.

The grain on the box.  Very pretty.

Here you can see the wire heading in and out.

Top view after the first finish coat.

Making some feet so that the box sits above the table and light can shine down.

Glued up.

My Dog Kira!