Laser Cut Wood Veneer Lamp

This laser cut dodecahedron wood veneer lamp is part of a “Temporaries” series that I designed together with Toon Welling and Jonathan Kraayeveld. In case you want to buy one or see the other shapes here’s a link to our webshop. In case you want to make one yourself please follow through with the instructable!

1. Wood veneer
   One of the things that makes this lamp work is the translucency of some wood veneers. The best species of wood that I found are either Beech or Ash. I advise to use a paper backed veneer, which is much more durable and easier to handle than the regular one. If you still decide to go with normal plain veneer,be extra cautious handling it.
   
   You’ll need enough of it to fit 11 pentagons in rough radius of 15 cm. The veneer needs to be anywhere between 0.4-0.6 mm in thickness if you want to use the vector drawings provided.
   
   
2. MDF
   One sheet of 20 cm * 20 cm standard 4 mm thick MDF.
   
   
3. LED bulb
   I've used a 4 watt 240V LED bulb with the standard E27 fitting.
   
   
4. Wire+switch+electric plug
   Any 1.5 m wire will do. In this particular case I’ve used braided cord with a plug already attached to it.
   
   
5. Mount for bulb fitting
   I’ve used this particular fitting that I riveted to the base. It’s hollow, so the wire goes through it and I can screw the bulb fitting on it. In case you can’t find a piece like that in your area, it doesn’t really matter how the bulb is attached as long as it’s firm and safe!
   
   In the first prototypes I’ve laser cut a few cylinders from MDF that I glued to the bottom and just stuck the bulb fitting in
   
   
6. Glue
   To glue everything together. Friction fitting works almost well enough, but having a drop of glue on certain points won’t do harm (I put it at every connection point). Regular PVA does the job well enough.
   
   
7. Tie wrap
   To secure the wire to the lamp.

1. Lasercutter
   Anything that can slice through 4 mm MDF and has a bed at least 21 cm * 30 cm will do perfectly! I have used a small LS3020 35 watt laser cutter.
   
   
2. Basic tools to work on the wiring and a drill

The pipeline I used to make the .svg files is as follows. Google sketchup 2013 Make > SVG Export Plugin. The laser cutter I'm using works through Visicut, which does the job fine right from the .svg

One tip on handling the wood veneer. Often it isn’t flat, and it can give a hard time for the laser beam to focus, you can either bend it in the opposite direction (which can result in breaking it) right before you put it down on the laser bed, or you can use some metal weights to press it down. heavier metal washers tend to work well. Also helps to use as small sheets as possible.

Ideally you should end up with all the parts clean no additional work required. But as the tiny clamp parts have an opening of 0.5 mm there’s usually some ashes or a tiny sliver of MDF left stuck in there. I found it easiest to clean it with the back side of a utility knife.

As I mentioned in the beginning I used this particular fitting, I assumed this won’t be a universal solution, so I haven't included the holes to mount it in the vector drawing.

I drilled the holes in particular position and riveted the fitting on there. As well as drilled two holes about 2 cm from the center one (where the wire comes through) for a tie wrap that will press the wire down to the base. I found that a thicker fabric wire lifts up the lamp and prevents it from standing on it’s feet, so adding the tie wrap really helps.

Put a drop of glue at each cutout and set all the feet in place. If you’re using PVA (like me) let it sit for 10 minutes for it to get a grip and harden.

While the base was gluing up I used the time to work on the wire and attached a switch to it.

Don’t glue the top piece with the rest (in case you you used any glue at all), its handy to have easy access to the inside.

I hope you will enjoy this lamp as much as I do and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate, I’ll be right here to help. Share your versions and insights if you make one. Cheers!