faceless105 Selfmade Modder
Joined: Jun 30, 2006
Posts: 4262
Post Subject: Cathode Lamp Worklog
Posted on: May 1, 2007
start off by showing you the finished product. This was a relatively easy job and if you have everything you need in front of you, then it won’t take more then a day or two.
The material…
- ¾” Dowel
- Wood, I used 1x6”
- Cathode and inverter
- CDs – preferably some economy ones with reflective layers on both sides.
- Acrylic tubing. Link here
- plexi glass
- PSU – micro atx is preferable
Here was my prototype that I was aiming for, nothing to serious, just a sketch.
First step is to cut your wood. You can cut this to any real length you want. I ended up making my box about 5.5” x 5.5” x 5.5” so make sure you cut all of your wood to fit which ever size you want. You will have three pieces the same because these will be the top and bottom of your base as well as the top piece of the lamp. Then you will have two pieces for the sides, and one piece for the back.
You will want to additionally drill the holes for the cathode as well as the dowel. I used ¾” dowel so I measured four equal lengths and cut them half way into the top piece of the lamp and the top piece of the lamp. Next I drilled a slightly larger hole in the center for the cathode. Don’t drill it large enough for the cathode ends, just for the base, I’ll explain this soon.
Once you finish some quick cuts you’ll be ready for the paint. I went with all black, but go crazy; lime green or orange would probably look sweet in my opinion.
Next we will put the cathode into the dowel. For this, I just took my dremel and a sanding bit and sanded down the end with the wire till it slid into the top piece of the lamp.
Next take your PSU. I ended up de soldering most the wires because they weren’t needed. You will need to keep two ground wires, one 12v and the green wire going to the motherboard connector.
I also lucked out a bit on the PSU Fan, half of it was rounded so I took my hole saw and make an 80mm hole to mount it on the bottom piece. Then I cut a quick hole for the plug to fit into.
Then once this is done, you can mount your PSU. If you put the fan in the bottom find some quick spacers. This will only take a moment, and then secure it to the base of the bottom piece.
(it’s not secured in this picture)
Now for something fancy, you can lower your table saw and put a groove in the front of each of the side pieces of the base, once these two pieces are secured, you will have created one nice looking way to put in your front piece made from plexi.
In the plexi we’ll be mounting the power switch and drilling some holes for ventilation. First to cut the plexi I recommend the crack and score method. Simply drag a razor blade in a straight line across the plexi 5-10 times depending on how sharp your tool is. I recommend using a straight edge. Then bend the plexi and it will snap along the guides you just cut.
Next drill a hole to mount the switch. And some more holes for ventilation. Make sure you have clean cuts, I recommend using a drill press to keep the holes extremely evenly spaced, a hand drill might wander and look bad.
Finally, to wire the switch, take the green wire from the Motherboard Connector and a ground wire and wire them to your switch. Once this is done, you’ll have finished your front panel.
(Sorry this is kind of blurry but I think you get the point, switch on one site, vents on the other)
All that is left is to wire your cathode inverter. I recommend wiring it instead of using a molex connector simply to keep the wires to a minimum. I mounted my cathode inverter to the wall; feel free to do the same.
Now it’s time to cut your plexi tubing.
I found that the miter saw worked great for this. I cut my segments to ½” but use what feels right. I ended up cutting 15 the first time, then going back and cutting 2 more to fill the extra lengths.
They’ll look pretty messy and may have some ridges on them. I just smoothed them down on a belt sander then used my fingernails to break off the left over melted edges. When I finished, I had one really nice clean set of tubing segments.
Now before you mount these all I recommend cutting your dowel. I cut four segments to 11.5”. Once I finished there I took my top piece of the lamp and slid the cathode tube through it. With the piece sitting upside down, I started sliding through a CD then a spacer until I was all out of tubing. You’ll need to use a bit of guess work to get the spacing just right, but once you finish I recommend screwing the dowel into place just to keep the fit good and tight.
Above is a picture of my preliminary top portion of the lamp. It’s sitting upside down on the base.
Now that we’re this far it’s just about done actually. Plug your cathode into the inverter and screw the top portion of the lap into the base. Plug in your PSU and watch it light up.
( Flash turned on)
( In the dark – kinda)
(In the light)
The light isn’t bright enough to function as a normal lamp but it’s pretty perfect as a bedside lamp or for decoration. I think it’s a pretty cool use of old computer parts. Lol the PSU I used is a 120w PSU from an ancient eMachine computer, so don’t be afraid to tear apart some ancient computers for this mod.
Now I admit I’m a bit tired so I feel like I probably missed some spots of this but I know I wrote enough for you to figure out the parts I missed but if you guys have any questions just let me know, I’d love a good discussion. If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
You mean a worklog of my lamp? Sadly, I didn't have time to take many photos when making those two lamps. Still, I have parts for the third one ready and I'll prepare an instructable when finally I get to finish it.
