Epoxy Resin LED Lamp

This project is a newer version of one my earlier posted projects (The DIY lamp). It functions with a different housing.

Electronics

• Arduino Nano
• Jumper wire
• 5v RGB LED Strip
• 5v battery

Materials

• Teak (20x3x1cm) - 4 pieces
• Teak (8x3x1cm) - 5 pieces
• Pinewood (1x1cm stick)
• Acrylic (Matte black)
• Acrylic (Frosted clear)

Attached here are some initial dimension sketches with the plans for the lamp. The idea is to create a rectanguloid (rough dimensions 20x8x9cm). The lamp will consist of six main parts: two long-side wood/resin pieces (labeled piece 1 in files), two acrylic pieces (labeled acrylic piece), one top wood/resin piece (labeled piece 2), and one bottom wood piece.

In this step, I used some of the wooden stick to form the mold for my epoxy/wood pieces. I made three molds in total: two identical molds for the side pieces and one mold for the top. Some key points to remember for molding. Since I wanted resin to be on both sides of the piece, I had to use a material for the mold base that would be easy to remove later (nothing too thick). I ended up using a thick paper that was thick enough such that the resin didn't leak out, but thin enough that it was easy to sand off after the resin had set.

Additionally, I used regular PVA glue to seal in any potential leakage points within the mold; I did this in several layers. It's better to be on the careful side than to have one small leak cause your whole mold to go to waste.

Here, I mixed the two portions of resin in a 1:1 ratio, carefully measuring out the volume of the space being filled. In my case, this was (3x20x1cm) for piece 1 and (8x3x1cm) for piece 2. Some important things to remember when casting resin is to do it in a well-ventilated space. Additionally I didn't mix the pigments immediately after pouring and instead, waited till the resin started to harden before adding the white pigment. I do this because the pigment tends to sink when the resin is still early in the setting phase.

After finishing the resin casting, I sanded and cut the mold/paper off of the pieces and confirmed they were the proper dimensions. Following this, I cut two 3mm slots that were 2.5mm deep into all the wood pieces to confirm where the acrylic pieces would slot in. I did this 1cm in from the edge of the wood pieces using a table router.

I also made the miter joint for the 3 epoxy pieces, sanding the edges to 45 degrees with a disc sander. Both outcomes are shown in the attached photos.

Once this wall was all done, I sanded all the wood/epoxy resin pieces, moving up the grits from 60 to 320. I especially focused on the resin, as moving through the higher grits made it a lot clearer with fewer visible scratches.

I glued the 3 wood/epoxy pieces together using a right-angle clamp and also applied the first layer of teak oil, as seen in the photos. Following this, I moved on to the acrylic pieces.

The plan for the laser cut pieces was shown in the dimension section of this Instructable. Essentially, I cut out the main piece using matte black acrylic. I replaced the letters that were cutout with new letters that I'd cut out from frosted acrylic. Just to clarify, all the acrylic I used was 3mm thick.

The bottom platform and circuit itself were very simple. For the bottom platform, I glued together 3 of the 8cm teak pieces and cut the dimensions down to (9x6x1cm). This way the piece fit in between the two larger resin pieces and could be held in place via friction. I also used the table router to make 3mmx2.5mm slots in the piece for the acrylic to rest in.

To understand the code and circuitry for this lamp, check out my earlier project (https://www.instructables.com/DIY-Simple-Arduino-Lamp/).

Once this was done, I put all the pieces together. The attached photos show the process of assembling the final lamp, and a video of the lamp in action is also attached.

Thanks for reading!