My SanDi Printed Lamp

Contributors (only for team projects)

• Douglas Pecot (3D Modeler)

• Marc Yeh (Feedback/3D Printing)

Project Overview

I decided to take on this project because I wanted to practice my 3D modelling skills, and also the lampshade at my house broke. So, I thought this would be a very practical project to hone my skills as well. Due to the simplicity of the lampshade, I didn't need to recruit anyone in particular to do this, I just practiced the lampshade production on my own!

Project Stages

Assessment and Measurement

My first stage in doing this project was:

1. Measuring the existing lamp

2. Brainstorming how to attach it

3. How to create a transparent material with the 3D printer

The 3rd point in particular I am most proud of because I realized I needed to create a "transparency test" by actually creating a test plate with different thickness, printing it, and holding it up to the light to see which was most suitable.

3D Modelling

After testing the thicknessess, I decided to go with the thinnest section to allow the most light to travel through and created some funky geometric design to be repeated 4x to make the base lampshade,

The main challenge was finding a way to hold all of the panels together. I decided at the bottom to use small brackets to hold the panels in place and cut the edges at a 45 degree angle so they could be superglued together (since I'm using PLA).

Assembly

I assembled the panels using the printed square pegs and super gluing both the holes and the edges of the lampshade. Worked like a charm!

Skills Acquired

During this project, I learned a bit about how important model orientation is when 3D printing (for example, 45° angles are quite difficult to print, so minimizing those is desirable). I also learned about how to test different opacities with respect to different thicknesses of material and color (even though I ultimately used white as my material color). Lastly, I learned how important it is to group components when modeling in any kind of software, because it makes it much easier in the printing stages later.