Star Wars Kids Bedside Lamps

Like a lot of people, I love Star Wars. I grew up with the first trilogy and although the second trilogy wasn't quite as good it was still beautiful. Now that the 3rd Trilogy is upon us I thought I would share the lamps I made my little cousins a couple of years ago.

I hope you enjoy and don't forget to comment and say hi.

Step 1: Cut the Design Out

So you've decided to make one of these lamps, good on you. They are quite easy and I think look really good and offer loads of light in the room.

The first thing you are going to need to do is cut out the main shape in the front panel, to do this I used works Laser Cutter but if you don't have access to a laser you can use a simple scroll saw . Apart from the Oak box, all the others are made from 6mm Ply so it's nice and easy to cut through if doing it by hand.

Now that you have the design cut out it's time to move on to the box.

Step 2: Make the Box

Now although I didn't take a picture of this stage I will talk you through it.

As I mentioned before, the boxes are all made from 6mm Ply. The first thing I did was make a cutting list which is below. I then got everything needed and assembled the box.

Part needed and Cutting list:

6mm Ply

2@ 65mm X 150mm (Top & Bottom)

2@ 65mm X 138mm (Sides)

2@ 150mm X 150mm (Front & Back)

Adhesive

Paint can

First glue the sides and top and bottom together, the differece in size is so they make a 150mm square when together. Then you need to glue your front on the box, at this stage it doesn't matter which way up you put the front on so don't worry. Let the glue go off for as long as it needs as every glue is different.

When dry, you will want to go over the box with sandpaper, starting at 120g finishing at 360g.

When the box is smooth you now are going to paint it what ever colour you like, as you can tell from the pictures, I did a few colours. I did 2 coats on each with a quick de-nib between coats.

I find it best to let the paint harden for 24 hours as you are going to moving it around and you don't want to scratch it.

Step 3: Make the Box Type 2

I made a different type of box for one of them, an Oak faced box. The rest was still 6mm Ply but the face was 12mm White Oak. The rest of the process was still the same but I didn't paint the box, only the round insert as you can see in the pictures.
I used a CNC router to remove the material for the round face to sit in the front nice and flush.

Step 4: Adding the Coloured Gel and Wiring

So now you've made and painted the box, you now need to attach the coloured gel on the inside.

I got this Gel from the same company I used for my Hydroponics Unit but you can buy it on Ebay or Amazon easily enough. You don't need much of it either which is good as it's quite pricey.

I used some small pieces of Aluminium tape to hold the gel on the box. The aluminium tape will not release over time and even though the light is an LED panel, it produces a very small amount of heat which normal tape doesn't like.

Now it's time to take the back panel which you should have cut in stage one. With this in hand you will need a few other bits to get some light in the box.

1@ LED 12v light panel

1@ 2.1mm Socket for 12v use

1@ Switch for 12v use

Drill two holes in the back panel to take your switch and socket and fit them to the panel before wiring (holes will depend on the pieces you are using).

Position 2 on the 2.1mm socket is unused in this case. The negative for the switch AND the socket are joined which you can see in the picture and join on to the negative of the lamp , the positive in position 3 of the socket goes to the "+" symbol on the switch. The "A" position on the switch goes to the positive of the LED panel and the Earth Position on the switch goes to the Negative on the LED panel. This is for the switch and socket I used, yours maybe different so make sure you are confident in the wiring.

My LED panels came with some male and female connectors which I used for ease, just in case I wanted to remove the back at any time. Make sure to use heatshrink tubing on all connections for safety.

Make sure you test the wiring before pinning the back on.

Step 5: Attach the Back and Enjoy

Now that you have finished the wiring and tested it, the box is painted and the gel is in all that's left is to pin the back on. I used a 12mm panel pins to hold it on.

Get hold of a 2.1mm 12v adapter and plug it in. If you've done the wiring correctly you will be left with a cool little lamp for your kids (or yourself if you're a big kid like me!)

Hope you enjoyed this Instructable and I'll see you next time.