Posable LED Desktop Lamp (Fully Printable)

Please post a make if you print this :)

This Description is going to be pretty long because I'm putting all the information and assembly photos below.

(Who's actually going to read all this? I spent like two to three hours writing it, but I don't actually think anyone will care enough to read it all 🤷. Make sure you read the printing section though)

IMPORTANT NOTES (For those who don't want to read the 3 hours of my life I spent on this description)

• The Button Hinge piece requires aggressive overhangs

• You must use these LEDs, because of the small signal box thingy

• Some tolerances are tight and some prints are challenging

• The Base Plate needs to be printed at 100% infill to prevent tipping (it's small so not to be too visually disruptive)

• Some pieces have notches that line up, make sure not to miss those

• The LED remote signal cannot pierce the lamp body (biggest design failure of this part), so I recommend hooking it up to a switch. For me, I have it hooked up to a clapper, which switches it on and off with noise

Design Process

I originally intended for this model to be something like this lamp on amazon, only a more posable form of it, with an expandable body, so you could make it as long as you want and pose it however you want. A mechanism would allow you to rotate, spin, and move the arms wherever you wanted, and an extender tube would connect these mechanisms to make the lamp as expandable as possible. However, later in the design process I realized that I was unable to get the lamp to remain at whichever angle it was at (basically the lamp kept bending, so if it was 5 ft tall how I wanted it to be, it would've bent like a wobbly stick).

I instead decided to make it a desk lamp that you could use for picture lighting, reading, print illumination, etc. I wanted it to be incredibly posable (where you could rotate, twist, and angle it however you wanted, while still being contained within a 40mm diameter body), like a ball joint type thing, but was unable to figure out a way to make a joint that didn't wear down too much overtime and result in a required reprinting of the pieces, and how to make it easily movable. I wanted something like a friction hinge. While this mechanism did work for a couple rotations, it wore down too quickly and became useless. I settled on a button mechanism for the hinge which functioned on a spring to allow for rotation at every 45 degrees, this is not what I originally wanted but could not figure out a better way to design the hinge which still allowed for the mechanism to lock. There is a square structure within this button to keep the mechanism from bending too much. The LED cord is supposed to snake through the indented part through the hole of the bottom pieces. The design, however, requires some aggressive tree supports to print. The result is a button hinge that you push and hold while you rotate the lamp and then release to lock the lamp in place.

The rotation mechanism (not to be confused with the hinge mechanism, which only rotates along one plane, this rotation mechanism allows for the horizontal rotation of that plane). is meant to be printed as 1 piece (at 0.2mm or 0.15mm layer height, as the gap between the pieces is 0.31mm) and then separated after the fact. For this separation I used a small knife I had lying around. Make sure that you print the mechanism so that the chamfered interior is leading upwards. This orientation will also ensure that the other piece will not print hanging midair in the piece, so you don't have to use supports for this print.

The LED case piece is tall, making it a rather hard print. It's structure also makes it hard to assemble without damaging it (sorry about that). On the walls are inserts for the LED wraparound thing, the wraparound slides inside the LED case after the LEDs have been wrapped around the wraparound. Due to the assembly process requiring a lot of force on this piece, I was unable to make it thinner, which prevents the LED remote signal from getting through. This is the biggest design failure of this model (you have to take the top cap off and point the remote inside the assembly to change the color) Because of this, I have my Lamp hooked up to a clapper, which turns on and off with noise.

The LED diffuser is meant to diffuse the LEDs (duh). However, this piece posed a huge problem for me, as it was difficult to properly diffuse the lights to keep it from looking "spotty". One video by Zibartas helped me out a lot. I sanded the diffuser a little, however, I never got around to hot-gluing it. This piece is meant to slide into the LED case piece.

The LED wraparound thing was originally a cylinder which the LEDs were supposed to wrap around. The current design is actually something I designed and printed midway through the assembly process because I realized the cylinder design was ridiculous and too hard to diffuse. The current design allows for better LED diffusion and a slightly easier design process. The LEDs are supposed to vertically wrap around this piece, and then the piece is supposed to be slid into the LED case piece.

The LEDs are from Amazon; I chose these specifically because of the small signal receiver thing, which, unlike other LEDs which have small boxes too big to fit in the lamp body, can fit inside the LED case piece. The LEDs come with a clear waterproofing rubber on top of them. You have to remove this rubber to install the LEDs. I did so by bending the LEDs until the rubber ripped, and by cutting the rubber (CAREFULLY) and ripping it off from there.

The lamp base is pretty small, because making it too wide would be visually disrupting. The base in the photos is 120mm in diameter, and the base in the files is 140mm in diameter. This is because I printed the 120mm base, realized it was a little (just a little) too small and changed it afterwards. The smaller base doesn't bother me though, so I just never re-printed it. It is imperative that the base is printed at 100% infill, otherwise it won't be heavy enough to keep the lamp from tipping over.

Overall, the entire design is meant to be expandable, where you can attach almost anything to the poles using the connector, even though it is not as posable as I originally intended.

Printing (Recommendations)

The printing orientations I used can all be found in the LED Lamp Assembly.3mf file. I did not include print settings in this file. you can find those below.

The Button Hinge Mechanism requires organic support with aggressive (about 70 degree) overhangs to support the notches.

The Rotator is supposed to be printed without any supports, and there is a chamfer inside it to help this. Print it so the flat face is on the build plate. The gap in-between the pieces is 0.31mm, so you can either print this at 0.2 or 0.15 layer height.

The Base Plate is supposed to be printed at 100% infill, otherwise the lamp will tip when rotated on the hinge.

The LED Case requires a little support at the bottom of the print. Make sure to not damage the case when removing it from the build plate, as the bottom ring can separate (split along the layer lines) from the rest of it with too much force

The LED Diffuser is supposed to be printed with a 0.8 wall thickness, and vase spiral mode on (to prevent unnecessary travels across walls). A brim is optional; I didn't need one.

The Rest of The Pieces can be printed with no recommendations, just add support where you feel like you need it.

The rest of this page is just the assembly.

Assembly

This part's gonna be pretty long, because it uses a lot of pictures. READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY. Some of the parts may not match the files you printed, this is because they are earlier versions of those pieces. Finally, I apologize for the picture sizes, as I was hastily taking them during my first assembly

1. Take the Button Passthrough (Left), the Button Hinge Body (middle), and the Button Hinge and assemble them. Make sure the Button Hinge notches are in the Button Hinge Body's indents.

1. Snake the LED cord through the Button Hinge mechanism and rotator, making sure the LED connecter part of the cord is leading upwards away from the rotator piece. After this, connect these pieces together (The button Hinge mechanism connects to the flat side of the rotator). It is a tight fit, this is by design so it doesn't fall out, but pay careful attention that you do not break the Button Hinge mechanism. (Ignore the extra tube piece, that is from an older version)

1.  Remove the rubber from the LEDs and wrap them around the wraparound piece, leaving room for the LED connector to fit in near the bottom. (I recommend wrapping the LEDs around it to check how much you need, cutting off what you don't and then removing the tape and taping them on). You can see below how I have left enough room for the LED connector and cut off what I didn't need. The left picture is of the back of the LED wraparound and will not be seen, the right picture is of the front.

1. Connect the LED Case (Left Item) and LED Case to Button Hinge Connector(Right Item) as shown below (The LED Case in this picture is an older version)

1. Plug the LED connector piece into the LEDs (ignore the rest of the assembly in this photo, this photo was taken to show the connector being plugged in)

1. Slide the LED Wraparound into the LED Case. The LED cord should now be leading out of the bottom of the LED Case (Ignore the LEDs leading out of it, I hadn't cut them in this picture).

1. Connect the LED Case with the Button Hinge mechanism, being careful not to damage the LED Case. I used a C-Clamp to help with this as the tolerances were extremely tight. There are 4 notches on the inside of the Button Hinge Connector piece, so make sure to line those up. The LED cord should also be snaked through the assembly. The cord can be a little tricky, and a little leeway inside of the lamp can help the cord stay plugged in when rotating the assembly. 

1. Attach the Base Plate, making sure to line up the 4 notches with the notches in the rotator piece (I don't have any pictures for this except the one above)