Builders Notes

This article goes through notes for building the lamp.

Plan

This model is a small piece of furniture. Plan accordingly. It needs to be sliced for far more strength than small models. It will use lots of plastic and take much time to print.

Tensioning

The arms and stem are held together with tensioned 2mm nylon filament. The shortest, upper, arms should have filament stretched by about 1 inch. The longest arms and stem should have filament stretched by about 2 inches. Set the screws on 1 end while filament is loose. Then stretch and hold the other end while inserting the screws. It may be easier for 2 people to do this step.

Once the frame is fully assembled, then add the sleeves and bowls to the ends of each arm.

Slice For Strength

The 3d models should be sliced to provide strength. This means at least 4 perimeters. 7 perimeters are better. The model will not be as likely to deform over time with more perimeters. But 7 perimeters are also more prone to lifting off the bed during print.

Beware Front and Back

The model has a front and back. The back side of each arm, stem and bowl should be printed down against the 3d printer bed.

The joint parts need to be printed with what will become the down opening on the bed. Carefully use paint on supports at the interior bottom of the joint. This will make up for an otherwise small surface area of that model against the bed.

Do not let support materials leak into the 2mm nylon feed holes in the joints, arms or stems. Any material that gets printed inside these holes will ruin the print.

Arms are supplied in 1 file. Use slicer options to split them into individual parts for printing.

We generally use 25 percent infill. At this infill, the base of the lamp will use around 1/2 of a 1 kg spool of plastic. Start that print on a new spool to avoid filament changes mid print. At 25 percent infill, the base is already stable. Higher infill in the base will increase overall stability if desired. Use slicer statistics to estimate overall weight.

The design files include models for blank c7 bulbs. These can be used if you end up waiting, say, for Christmas to find the right c7 LED light bulbs.