I started this "brilliant cut lamp" project last autumn as a Christmas present for my Girlfriend. Now in Mai it's kind of finished but she still hasn't got it (not my fault I promise ). This project took a lot more time than I originally estimated but I think it was worth the effort. My Girlfriend has already gotten used to living in darkness but she is never the less happy to get her present... eventually... in the future. But anyways the lamp is technically finished and could already be used so I think it's a good time to share how I made it.

Step 1: What I Needed

1 m x 1 m meters of 2 mm plywood (but I barely used half of it)
44 cm x 44 cm of 14 mm plywood
10 x "Japanese silk" A4 80g per square meter
3 x Osram Dulux L 24 Watt (lamps )
1 x Philips – hf-r 1 – 10 V 324 TL5 PL-L EII 3 x TL5 24 Watt PL-L 24 W (controller )
H5V-U 1 qmm weiß Aderleitung (10 Meter) (cable to connect lamps & controller)
lots of wood glue
50 cm x 50 cm 0,5 mm copper sheet
2k epoxy glue
5 m power cable
cable connectors
acrylic paint
screws and nuts

I could have done this whole project with out any special tools just with an saw, a drill and sharp chisel, but luckily I could use an electric scroll saw that made the cutting a lot faster.

Step 2: Making the Plan

The Idea is obviously to make a Lamp that looks like a brilliant cut diamond. I decided to construct it out of a frame covered with paper and of course a lamp inside.

So at first I had to convert the 2D models of the brilliant cut into 3D. It took a lot of measuring and calculating and my pair of dividers finally came to a good use.

Then I copied all the parts I needed for the frame to large sheet of 4 mm plywood. Finally I made the ring which everything will be mounted on out of a 14 mm plate of plywood .

Step 3: Cutting Everything

Luckily I have a really nice Arts teacher so I was able to use an electric scroll saw in the wood workshop of our school for all the cutting. Never the less it took me quite some time to cut out the 57 individual parts for the frame, and the Ring ( a laser would have been really handy :-) )

Step 4: Gluing and Painting Everything

In this step I had to fit all the parts together and glue them to the round frame.

To do that I cut all the edges with a chisel at an angle in order to get flat surfaces that I could glue together. I thought this to be the easiest and fastest step at first but in the End it took ages because I had to glue every part and then hold it in the right position and correct the angle until the glue started to dry and hold by it's self.

One half of the frame I fixed directly to the round frame, but it turned out that the hole on the table surface of the brilliant cut wouldn't be big enough to exchange the lamps when the thing is finished. So I had to think of a way to get to the inside without destroying the lamp. I decided to put the other half onto a copper ring that I would then screw onto the wooden Ring. If built this lamp again I would definitely use two wooden rings about 6 mm thick and screw them together but since I already had glued the one side to the ring I used 2k Epoxy-Glue and this copper ring .

In the process of gluing the upper half I used tape to hold the parts together. then took one after the other out, glued them in and fixed them with tape again until the glue had dried.

When everything was finished I painted everything black on the inside, to prevent any light to get trough the glued sides, and then white to make it reflective.

For opening the Lamp I made an octagon out of an copper sheet that fits on the top of the lamp that I then glued the paper on. It turned out OK but not quite perfect and there was always light shining trough so I asked a friend of mine who has an 3D printer to print me two octagonal rings I can clip together. One of them I will glue to the lamp on the other one I will glue the paper. But his printer some how broke and he is still waiting fore the spare parts, so that's why my Girlfriend still hasn't got her present yet.

Step 5: The Electronics

I used a set of three "Osram Dulux L 24 W 6500k" an and fitting dimmable controller "Philips – hf-r 1 - 10 V". These lamps are pretty powerful (72 W ) while being energy saving. They produce some heat but the temperature inside the Lamp never rises over 50° C (what is totally fine with all the components ) and the lamps only get as hot that you can touch the without burning your fingers. It probably would have been easier (and maybe better ) to use LED's but my Girlfriend wanted to have an daylight lamp and those are the laps used in such lamps.

The controller was screwed to the frame and the three lamps are arranged next to and under it as you can see in the pictures. I simply glued the mounts to the wooden frame with 2-k epoxy glue, and built to little copper err... somethings to fix the Holders on the other and to the frame.

I cabled everything together according to the circuit diagram on the controller and put the power cable trough an hole in the top. I simply tied a knot into the cable to hold the lamp by its frame and not to put any stress on the electronics.

Step 6: The Paper & the Result

For the lampshade I used a kind of paper called "Japanese silk" (at least in German it's called "Japan Seide" ) which has a really nice look. It's important to use an acid-free paper that is not wood based otherwise it will yellow soon. I cut out all parts I needed and glued them to the frame. I painted the edge where the two half's meet with acrylic paint in the right color.

The lamp is now technically finished even tough I am going to make some improvements (as I mentioned step 4).

So after a lot more work than I originally thought the lamp is finished and I am very pleased with the way it turned out. I hope some of you can appreciate the effort I made and also my design idea. This is my first Instruckable and I'm new to this page so it hope I did everything right :-).

I also apologize for my orthography and punctuation, since I am not a native English speaker.