1) Compact and bijou…
2) …tall and proud.
I love making gadgety things, especially when they are engineered simply and from everyday things. This telescopic light (which first appeared in Make: magazine) is a good example, on one hand it has a counterbalanced mechanism that allows it to adjust to any height, on the other hand it’s made from nothing more than paper, cardboard, coins, a bit of wire and a string of Christmas lights.
Interestingly, during construction I was so focused on trying to get the counterbalance working I never really thought about it as functioning light. In fact, I wasn’t really sure whether the Christmas lights would even work as a light source, I thought they might be too weak. However, the effect, when I first turned it on was pretty cool. I hope you can get a sense of it from the video below.
Oh… and an added bonus was that the LED Christmas lights I was using (salvaged from the loft) came with a variety of flashing sequences, one for every mood! If you are up for a challenge try making your own one, it’s a little tricky, but the detailed instructions below should help you get there. Good luck.
Includes:
1) Collectable instructions – print them out & put them in a folder!
96 downloads so far, thanks everyone!
Over the years I’ve made a number of different lights, most using candles as the light source – here’s a bit of a retrospective:
No.1: Coca light!
No.2: Elegant tin can tea light holder
No.3: Marble run candlestick timer
No.4: Exhaust pipe candlestick holder
