Star Wars Night Lamp

A lamp for young StarWars fan.

Hello Everyone (or anyone who will read this) ;)

Last days my son come to me and said :

- We have St.Nicholas day and i have to do something for my colleague by myself.

- Ok and what i have to do with it ?

- HELP ! He loves Star Wars...

- Ok - hold my beer then :)

My son helped me in all works of course .

That was the reason for creation. If you ever would like to make own lamp , read on - it is quite simple.

- a coffe can

- led bulb - bulb holder (E14 or smaller for proper voltage)

- cable with switch

- stickers (are on photo but finally didn`t used)

- styrofoam balls (accessible at the stationery shop)

- hot glue

- a few screws

- old lens from damaged mobile phone

- a few spray paints (black , silver,golder ,clear vanish)

- in this case two water acrylic paints - orange and silver

- orange, silver

- wet sandpaper

Did i forgot about something ?

1.Mat can with wet sand paper to make surface more adhesive for paint.

2. Print a proper size STARWARS label on paper and stick it to can.

3. Drill holes along letters ( i took 3mm drill as i remeber).

4. Drill some additionall holes all over the can - on all sides.

5. Drill one bigger hole (4-5mm) for the power cable

1. Take a bulb holder and put it on bottom of can.
2. Drill holes in bottom of the can , through holes in bulb holder.

3. Screw bulb holder and a can together.

Clear can with benzin or solvent before painting.
I`m sorry but i didn`t take any pictures DURING painting but i have a list of occurence:

1. First layer - black mat spray - all over the can

2. Stick new STARWARS label (printed) to the can

3. Make a white cloud around STARWARS label

4. Take off the label

5. Use silver and gold spray to made a "space" looking layer - Use your imagination and paint it from a little bigger or closer distance to allow spray dissolve paint in the air , creating dots (stars) on layer.

At the end coat all can with clear spray to make surface shiny.

After all - Allow it to dry of course !

1. Take styrofoam balls and cut it to can cover dimension and shape the head of BB8 with sandpaper.
2. Draw lines with marker ,similar to orginal BB8 :) or any line you want to have on BB8

3. Paint it with Acrylic paint or with glitterglue or anything you want.

Do not use paint agressive to styro ! It will obviously destroy your BB8.

Take old lens from mobile phone or 5mm led or something what look like lens.

Glue it to your BB8.

You can make antennas (like me) from thin electric cables.

Glue Head and body together.

1. Connect power cable to bulb holder (insert through bigger hole in the can)
2. Glue BB8 to can cover

3. Put LED bulb inside

DO NOT USE CLASSIC bulb - i tried, and 25W classic bulb will melt cover of the can in a two minutes , destroying BB8 ass at the same time :)

Put cover with BB8 on a can and power it on.

Enjoy your Star Wars Night Lamp !

Hello once again
After first lamp made, i thought that 220V inside is not what children should play with... So i decided to make next version of lamp , using 12V power suppply and led string.

Additionally i used glitterspray on surface so this version of Star Wars lamp can be really named "sparkling"

Walking around this lamp , every single led from string is visible, through wholes (which makes Star Wars words).

See video to understand this effect:) Isn`t it nice ?

Talking about led string short info how to make cheap "led bulb" from string:

- take paper core from aluminum foil

- glue led string to it around

- glue the core with leds to coffe can

- solder wires to socket and switch

That`s all !

A few little steps make this lamp more safe to children.

Never ever ever say something like "Ok uncle will do this for you later, too" in presence of any child near to you :) Children will remember forever and will remind it to you in every single occasion until you will really do it.

:)