Rectangle halo lamp by brickk

Last crawled date: 2 years, 11 months ago

Current Version utilizes 20x20mm u-beams. I will add other dimensions soon.
Please share your builds and let me know if you need different dimensions or have other ideas to improve this design!
Printing
I highly recommend printing all parts in transparent or white PETG or ASA. Especially on the mounting parts, transparent filament looks much nicer.
Construction
To cut the u-beams to the desired length at an 45° angle at the end, you will need either a hack saw with some metal cutting blades and a cutting block of some sort or an adjustable chop saw. The power tool will produce much nicer cutting edges, but the manual saw will work just fine.
After you cut all u-beams to length you could connect all beams using the printed parts. Use superglue to mount the parts in each corner of your rectangle. Make sure the fit is tight and try to avoid gaps between the u-beams.
If you have bad cutting-edges you could use some filler.
Now would be the perfect time to paint your lamp, but this is optional.
After the glue is cured you can insert the LED-strips and connect it to your power supply and LED-controller (optional).
Mounting
Theres two different spacers and i plan to create more versions to fit your needs.
For mounting you will need to drill two holes to your wall that are horizontally level, theres no need for exact measurements between these holes.
Screw the "spacer" part to the wall and slide in the mounting part. There is no need to glue the mounting part to your u-beam.
Bill of materials
These are affiliate links.
20x20mm alloy u-beam
My local hardware store sells u-beams of 250cm. With two beams you could build a rectangular lamp measuring 124cm*124cm.
5m LED Stripe
I recommend these LED strips, high density strips with high CRI. They produce warm, pleasant light.
I would never use RGB strips since their CRI is very low and i can’t stand colored LEDs. Of course this is subject to your preference.
Power supply
Be sure to buy the appropriate power supply for your LED strip. If you use the one i recomment, you could use this 24v power supply.
Optional: LED controller
I use this controller to dim the LED. It is very nice and does not produce flickering or any other unwanted effects.
Optional: Diffusor film
At your local camera rental you can get leftover foil that you need to cut to stripes of 3-5cm width. You can just slide it into the u-beam and theres no need to glue it into place.
Optional: white two wire cable
For better looks i recommend white wires.
Superglue
Almost any glue will do.
Optional: Spraypaint
If you do not like the look of the naked alloy or if you need to cover up untidy cutting edges, you could use spraypaint of your choice.