This is my closing statement for this projectBut first watch my short video on the finished product Epoxy Resin and Beech LED Floor Lamp============================================================================
When thinking about technology from our past and the future, I find it very inspirational and wonder what advancements are to come. Being born in 1965 it would be a good 25 years before technology truly began to influence my life. Fast forward to 2020, and technology has many manifestations and is integrated into our everyday life from work, rest and play. I embrace, whilst others shy away.
Having several Philips Hue products, I was looking to buy the Philips Hue White and Colour Ambiance Signe LED Floor Lamp. This was my "light bulb" moment (to coin a phrase) and studying the floor lamp the two main parts are the base which house the controller unit and add balance to the lamp, and the upright tube that houses the LEDs.
Thinking about what medium I could use to make this, I turned to wood and epoxy resin. Whilst having a limited skill set in woodworking, I had no knowledge of using epoxy resin but was not deterred. Finding several reference images only showing part dimensions, I was able to scale up and had a good idea of final size.
I had two Beech tree stumps from my best friend Ashley. Beech is a hard, strong and a heavy wood so ideal for the base and a great way to repurpose. Starting by rough cutting (which wasn't easy with such a hard wood) it took me a couple of days to get the basic shape of the base. Next, I made a template and transferred to top and bottom of the base and over the next few days shaped the base to it's final shape.
Next step was to determine what LEDs to use and how to house a controller unit in the base and pass the LEDs up through the base. I looked at many LEDs and although Philips Hue Lightstrips are expensive compared to others, I needed it to work with Hue products or other Zigbee certified products.
Having ordered the Lightstrip I turned my attention to the upright. Knowing it would be hard to cast the LEDs in just epoxy resin, and in keeping with the general look of the floor lamp, beech was again used for half the upright. This was ordered via eBay and once this and the LEDs had arrived I moved back to the base and cut out room for the controller and bored up through the base for the LEDs. Having temporarily set the controller inside the base, it became clear and an oversight that to cast the LEDs I would need to cut the controller cables, as once cast it wasn't possible for the controller to fit down the smaller LED bore.
Knowing I needed the upright to have a 30mm diameter, the beech upright was shaped to 30mm x 15mm, the LED Lightstrip was then cut and stuck to the upright. Now how can it cast in epoxy resin? Looking at Clear Perspex Tube, and having found a supplier on eBay who had a 30mm inner bore in stock, it was ordered. As stated earlier, I have no knowledge of using epoxy resin so my first port of call was YouTube, most of the content out there was River Tables, Jewellery, and Dried Flower Ornaments and did not cover my needs, so searching for more help I was able to find
http://www.talkcomposites.com/. "under share your casting project" I started a long conversation with the Easy Composites team and with their help and guidance began to understand how to use this medium and what I needed to achieve the casting of the LEDs.
It's time to cast and I've made a jig to stand the upright in whilst casting and curing. This part was challenging and not without problems. Prior to casting I had done a white pigment test by casting a sample the same thickness as the main cast. However, it was too opaque and the LED light could not pass through the white pigment enough so I abandoned the use of pigment in the main cast. On casting I had mixed the resin too aggressively and found micro-bubbles forming. This however has given the cast a "cool effect". Once cast the resin I had used from GlassCast would take 3 days to cure but to be fully hardened would take 7 days. This was to become trying and I had to stop myself from de-casting after 3 days. After 24 hrs the resin had dropped by a good inch and I hadn't allowed or understood this would happen as the air bubbles escaped, this would have a detrimental effect later when it comes to rewire the LEDs to the controller unit.
Seven days later, I can now de-cast and carefully remove the perspex tube. Resin has flowed behind the beech upright, but prior to casting I used release tape to cover the upright. When all the mould was removed I roughly sanded the wood and resin. Next using ET515 Semi Flexible 15 minute Epoxy Adhesive, I bonded on the beech top to cap off the upright which cured in 15 minutes but I left it longer. To achieve the final finish, I wet and dry sanded the resin side and fine sanded the wood side. It took a while and I was careful not to undo the smooth finish achieved.
With the issue of the resin dropping, when it came to marrying the upright and base together, I had to cut off an inch of beech from the upright. Now the LED was an inch longer so this extra length has to be bent into the bore of the base. I rewired the LEDs back to the controller unit and before fixing upright to the base checked functionality. All was working fine and even worked via Alexa. Another jig was needed to keep the upright and the base parallel whilst bonding. I installed the controller inside the base and placed in the jig and used the semi flexible adhesive to bond the upright and base. Leaving overnight I removed from the jig and tested LEDs, now I had a problem as bending the LED strip had caused a short and the lower part of the LEDS when set to a certain colour would be different to the rest of the lightstrip. Not to be deterred I now set about the final two casts. The top and bottom of the base would be white epoxy resin, using 0.5mm Clear Thin Flexible Plastic. I formed it around the top and made the resin adding 5 drops to 50g and poured. Once set I repeated for the base but this time I used the first jig and made sure the bottom pour would turn out level as this is what it would stand on when finished.
Both top and bottom pours went without any problems and when set I cleaned up the edges and wet and dry sanded, I then gave the whole lamp a final sanding to make sure everything was smooth. Finally, I masked up all the resin parts ready to dye and wax. Giving it 2 coats of Colron American Walnut Wood Dye and 3 coats of clear wax.
Before I close I would like to thank these people:
eBay - SARAH LIEVESLEY (look-now-more) for the Clear Perspex Tube.
eBay - Kevin Jenkins (kjjoinery) for the Beech Hardwood Timber Offcut.
eBay - GlassCast for the GlassCast50 Epoxy Resin.
Easy Composites for all other supplies.
Talk Composites forum Warren who's help has guided me.
From start to finish I think it's been 2 months in the making, honestly I've lost track of days and time due to coronavirus. You might ask what was the point? I'll let you figure that out so I can focus on my next epoxy resin project.