Wood Desk Lamp with Color Changing LED Light

LED wood desk lamp

Today I will show you how to make a DIY wood desk lamp with a color-changing LED light I’m also going to show you how I added some flare to it with some hardware from the plumbing aisle. Stay tuned I’ll show you just how I did it I’ve had this stash of rough walnut cut-offs up on a shelf in my shop for a long time And they aren’t fit for a big project but a few of these boards would be perfect for a little project like this lamp and The board’s had some cracks and knots and sapwood on them, but I could still get some good lumber from them They were just over one inch thick so I could split them in half and get twice as many pieces from them.

I ran the board’s through a series of milling operations using my planer joiner and bandsaw to get down to half-inch boards, of course, I realize not everybody has all these machines so you could just start with half-inch stock or use your table saw to take a quarter inch off of a 3/4 inch board. I took the freshly milled boards to my table saw to rip half-inch strips from them I didn’t really calculate how many strips I would need for the project, but I ended up with way more than I actually needed That’s ok since it gave me some extra pieces to mess up with Now the lamp is made of a series of 10 5 inches by 5 inch Open mitered frames that sit between the base and the top so to make the mitered segments I set my miter gauge on my table saw to 45 degrees.

I made a 45-degree cut on the end of each strip If you hold the strips in place by hand Just make sure that you’re always keeping your hands outside of the red throat plate area and make sure you use caution And after all the strips have one miner on them I marked 5 inches away from the cut line on the miter saw fence and I used double stick tape to put a stop block there I clamped the first strip in place and I ran it through the table saw and this just did not feel right I didn’t like how the clamp was hanging over the blade and the piece raised up a little bit during the cut So let me tell you woodworking spidey-sense is a real thing.

If an operation does not feel right, don’t do it That’s when accidents happen So I decided to switch over to the miter saw where I could more easily control the work The saw was also still set up with the fence that I used when I made my minor picture frames just last week so I put a stop block at 5 inches and I could use a hold-down to keep my fingers away from the blade A 2×4 set against the far end of the fence also lets me push the hold down against the 2×4 and the strip that I’ll be cutting To give it firm pressure.

And again keep my fingers very clear. And this felt really safe. I cut a segment from each strip and I went through the whole pile Unfortunately the offcut end of the remaining strip didn’t have a clean cut on it There were these little nubs there right on the corner and the face wasn’t smooth So I had to make a new miter on each strip and then repeat the process all over But after three rounds of doing this I had enough segments to make all the frames that I needed and a little bit extra Next I moved on to gluing up the frames and to get a nice tight mitered corner I laid out painters tape and I lined up the miters up next to each other just like I did with the picture frames and This tape will hold the corner tight and not let it move and create any gap and now to hold them together I used a thick clear drying glue, which is perfect for this situation.

I Didn’t put a whole ton of the glue on the joints and after the first couple frames, I even stopped spreading it with my glue Brush and just put a dab on one side of each joint These are such small pieces that they won’t be stressed much in. This glue is gonna hold them just fine And after all the frames were glued together, I set them aside to dry And while the frames were drying I moved to the base I made a small glue-up of two walnut boards that were a full 1 inch thick to make a 5 by 5 base. I just made a video about 5 uses for the bandsaw and I cut this board with a big knot in it from a walnut log And this knot would be the perfect place for some epoxy to let light shine through the top And I thought about going with a clear epoxy here, but I figured adding a gold pigment to mimic the brass accents I’ll be using on the lamp would be a nice touch now the holes and cracks got filled with the gold epoxy to make it a nice solid top and Hey, if you’re new here and you like what you’re seeing so far go ahead and subscribe and say hello down in the comments When the epoxy was cured I sent it through the planer to flatten the board and get it to the final thickness The next I ripped a base down to the same width as the mitered frames I used one of the frames for reference to set the fins for an exact match and After that, I pulled out my crosscut sled to cut the base and the top two final dimensions Again, I used one of the frames here to line up my cuts using referential measurements is quicker and more accurate than transferring tape measure marks Now repeating the same steps for the top and I made all four cuts right there on the table saw sled The each frame needed four holes for the dowel rods that’ll be holding the light together I clamped and screwed down some stop blocks onto a temporary plywood table on my drill, press now This setup lets me drill a hole in the same location on each side of every frame The top and the bottom gets stopped holes verses through holes, though I used a depth stop of my drill, press to get a consistent depth But you could always just wrap the drill bit in blue tape and go to that mark as well And the last thing that I needed was a place to mount the LED light and run the wires So I used a forts inner bit to drill a one and a half inch hole on the center of the bottom about 3/4 of an inch deep Then I switched over two and three eighths of an inch bit and Drilled a hole all the way through the base for the wiring and the mounting hardware.

I sanded all the pieces smooth of any imperfections before moving on to wiring up the light Now to feed the wire out of the back of the light I marked for a hole just under where the dowel rod would stop. I drilled through the base and made a path for the wire to run from the center out to the side Here the parts that I’m gonna be using to wire up the lamp It’s a porcelain socket with a threat on Adapter in the socket an adapter or held in place with a threaded nipple and some locking hardware I’ll have a link down below to these exact parts that you can order online at Home Depot. I set the lock washer and hardware on to the nipple and fed it through the base and into the adapter plate And the adapter plate has a small set screw that locks it into place on the threads Then I used a wrench to tighten the nut and lock washer on the underside of the base for a snug fit.

I fed, the wire through the hole that I drilled before and pulled some extra through and to keep the wire from being pulled loose from The socket connections. I tied it not into the wire now. I’ll adjust this again after I wire up the socket Attaching the socket wiring is fairly straightforward You just follow the instructions there on the package But have a certified electrician do this if you’re not comfortable or if that’s code in your area Then the socket can be put onto the adapter and screwed Now the screws to hold the socket down are really tiny. So using a magnetized screwdriver really helps out a lot here In the wood desk lamp wire that I’m using didn’t have a built-in switch, so I needed to add an inline one Again, this is a pretty simple addition I just separated the wires to run them through the switch and I followed the instructions on the package though I would probably go with a rocker switch here next time versus this rotary one because this one feels pretty flimsy.

I Screwed it in the Wiz 60 watt LED light bulb to give it a test run and it fired right up Now I’ll show you some of the cool features of this bulb in just a second But before assembling the lamp, I sealed the wall nut with a lipo on oil-based polyurethane I love the way that walnut looks with an oil finish and the finish really made the gold epoxy and that not come to life as well Home Depot sent me the 60 watt equivalent LED bulb from Wiz as part of a smart home campaign that connects to your phone over the Wi-Fi network and lets you change the color temperature of white light or select a full range of colors It’s a great plug-and-play way to add color and mood settings on this or any desk lamp And there’s a link in the description to learn more about it below To assemble the lamp I used 5/16 inch dowels I measured the stack of the frames and then I added in the length of the brass spacers as Well as accounted for the recesses in the top and the base Next I cut the dowels to lengths airing a bit on the long side because any excess can be trimmed after assembly.

I started sliding the frames onto the dowels and it wasn’t really easy going So I pulled them back out and I gave the dowels a good sanding to ease the fit after that The assembly was a lot smoother. I turned the top upside down and I put a brass sleeve over each dowel These leaves are just compression fittings from the plumbing aisle But they work great to cover the dowels and add a little bit of flair. I added frame after frame pushing them down together with the brass sleeves in between each one Now originally I was going to glue the dowels to the base That’s why I started with the top But the fit was so tight I decided against it and it will make doing any repairs just that much easier Instead. I pushed all the pieces down to the base and I marked the excess dowel showing after the top one on I Use my pull saw to cut the excess length of dowel Then I rounded over the ends of the dowels to make putting the top on a little bit easier.

I added some rubber feet to the bottom. I installed the bulb and I put the top back on and was ready for primetime Now this is going to be a fun lamp to have on the desk to add a little bit of light But mainly it’s just to have fun with their colors.

Wooden Desk Lamp

As found on Youtube