DIY Heng Lamp Laser Cutter Project

Our good friends from Just Add Sharks love the creative aspects of laser cutting and, as well as devising their own creative projects, they're always on the lookout for sources of inspiration. You may not know what a Heng lamp is but, if you are anything like me, you will want one immediately upon finding out. The inspiration came from this kick starter by Allocacoc and as you can see on their kick starter page, the lamp looks great in a variety of colours and shapes. It's a real design and technology challenge, as it combines design, working with different types of materials and practical, yet simple, electronics. This looks like an inspiring project for students to get stuck into.  

DIY Heng Lamp Laser Cutter Project:

The finished lamp should look something like: When the floating switch is disengaged it will look like this: Just Add sharks used the following items to create their DIY Heng lamp, though you can swap out the Maple Veneer for a different colour option.

• 6mm Poplar Plywood.
• 3mm Poplar Plywood.
• 0.73mm Frosted Polypropylene.
• Flexible Maple Veneer Sheet.
• 12V LED strip.
• 12V Wall Block Power Supply.
• 5A Microswitch.
• Lead Shot.

There were four main steps in creating the DIY Heng lamp, making; the floating corks, the oval frame, the base sections and the electronics. Below is a snapshot of the design process. You can find the full instructions and the design files for the DIY Heng Lamp on Instructables. Alternatively, you can see the Just Add Sharks blog post here.  

Step 1: Floating Corks:

"The official Heng design has wooden balls suspended in the middle of the frame, sadly they can't be laser cut so instead of waiting for balls to arrive in the post we compromised with wooden corks that could be produced immediately. "  

Step 2: Oval Frame:

"The main body of the lamp is a large oval shape with a recess for an LED strip. Using a laser cutter the best way to make this shape is to build it up using several layers of material."  

Step 3: Base Sections:

"The base was made from thirteen stacked disks, this gave a hollow cavity suitable for housing the electronics. The design of the lamp looked like it would be relatively top heavy so we decided to weight the base of the lamp to ensure that it doesn't topple over."  

Step 4: Wiring the LED's:

"The wiring for the lamp is rather simple, the power supply is connected to the LED's and the positive rail is switched through the normally open contact of the micro switch. The metal lever is bent into a hook shape and the string from the lower cork is passed through the base and tied onto it."  

You can find the full instructions and the design files for the DIY Heng Lamp on Instructables. Alternatively, you can see the Just Add Sharks blog post here.

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