The Dalek, a Steampunk Desk Lamp for the Mad Doctor

A couple of weeks ago, I found four vintage bulbs and the idea was to build a special lamp.
As I finished my work my daughter said to me, Hey dad this looks like a Dalek from Dr. Who.  :-)

Waht do you need?
A wooden case, like this on the picture. (I obtained it from a tools store)
A vintage meter
A Dimmer
4 sockets for the bulbs
A copper "head" for fenceposts.

Some wires and a power cable to connect the lamp to the mains.

This was very easy, I thought but I found, that the meter has a 250V scale but the maximum voltage was 48V.
So I needed a resistor to lower the voltage. I calculated the resistor must have 7W to eliminate the voltage.
I found a bulb with 7W and yes, it is possible to operate the meter. :-)

I cut the holes for the meter, the dimmer, the sockets and for the extra socket for the 7W bulb.
Than I used stain to colour the case.

The cabling was easy:

From the mains cable to the dimmer, parallel to the bulbs.
And the meter wired in series with the 7W bulb.
The dimmer has a switch build in so I dont need an extra mains switch.

The copper head was polished and fixed with two screws on the top.

I attached some labels to the case to explain the functions of each part.

Schutzwiderstand = protective resistor (for the meter)
Erregerspannung = voltage to drive the bulbs
Intensität = intensity


Have fun!

Horatius Steam