Hey DIY’ers it’s Andy. In this blog post, I will be talking about my 3D Printed LED light bulb vase. The light bulb and stand I 3D Printed and then I added some cool LED’s inside to give it more of an extraordinary feel – because ordinary bulbs ain’t that fun!
My original goal was to have the bulb be a plant holder but I’m sure we’ve done enough of that hey (sorry takeover peeps haha).
I thought this project would be as easy as clicking download and print but I could not have been more wrong. I encountered a few filament tangles, clogged nozzles, and badly leveled beds, but enough of me babbling let’s jump right into this project to see how I got it done right!
At this point, I was learning as I was progressing through this project. I know that the bulb I found off Thingiverse needed a part to hold the LEDs in, so I took to Tinkercad to play around a bit and see what I could come up with. I ended up adding a tube-like structure into the centre of the bulb to house the LEDs as it was not a hollow design.
After I was happy with the adjustments I started to test print it on our CR-20. I used vase mode with 2 outer shells/perimeters as I wanted an almost transparent look, even though it’s not fully achievable with clear filament. The only downfall of doing so was the gaps and rough edging created towards the end of the bulb. So the only way to resolve this was to add more outer shells. Also note that not all standard bulbs are the same size, I realised my stand was a tad too small. Yet again Tinkercad saved the day, to make it taller and sturdier.
REQUIREMENTS:
The original light bulb will not fit in the original stand when orientated as described in this project. The files have to be edited, this can be done through simple software such as Tinkercad. The modified files have already been edited and should fit together as described in this project.
Original files:
Light Bulb Vase (Stand) by Paul126
3D Printed Light Bulb by 3DPrinterNinja
Modified files:
3D Printed Light Bulb and Stand
You will need to gather all your products, tools and equipment to get started on the assembling. This list is what I used to complete the project.
- 3D Printer
- eSUN Transparent PLA
- Filamentum Gold PLA
- LED Light Strip
- DC-DC Boost Step Up Module
- Soldering Iron
- Solder Flux
- Sestic Glue
- Micro USB Charging Cable
INSTRUCTIONS:
While I did have to learn a bunch about 3D Printing and electronics I did have some help from the DIYElectronics workshop team. With their help I had my LED light strip soldered onto a boost module in no time.
Light bulb print settings:
Quality: 0.2mm
Infill: 0%
Nozzle Temp: 210oC
Bed Temp: 65oC
Supports: No
Stand print settings:
Quality: 0.2mm
Infill: 20%
Nozzle Temp: 210oC
Bed Temp: 65oC
Supports: Yes
Let’s begin:
- Pre-heat your solder iron to above melting point. Measure out the length of LED strip you want inside the bulb. Once the soldering iron is heated grab a piece of solder flux core and add solder to the tips of the wires on the LED strip light. Do the same on the booster module where the wires would go.
- Now you are able to melt the wires to the booster module, make sure your positive to negative placement is correct.
- Set aside the electronics and screw the bulb into the stand from the bottom up.
- Fold the led strip light into half for double light exposure and place into bulb.
- To secure everything, glue down the wires and booster module to the back of the stand.
- Lastly, you can use a Micro USB charging cable and adapter to power up the bulb but because I have designed this for office workspace I have connected the cable to my PC to power it up.
FINAL THOUGHTS
What started as a project I thought would be fairly straightforward turned into a great learning experience. Even though I encountered every 3D Printer problem you can imagine I am still thrilled with the result. Overall I enjoyed making and learning throughout this project. If you as a reader have any suggestions or tips for me please feel free to leave a comment below.
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