Looking for advice for a simple craft project

Hi everyone. I am looking for advice for a simple craft project.

The image that is right below this text is a “lamp” that I am looking to create. When I saw it I knew that it couldn’t be too hard to make and I thought it would be a perfect gift for my sibling’s upcoming birthday.

I know that there is an LED strip along the pole/rail that is right against the wall, and that I can easily glue a strip there.

I am stuck on whether I need to use PVC pipe or copper pipe to create this look, though. I would like for the “lamp” to either be black or copper colored, but white is okay too.

I have looked on Lowe’s and Home Depot’s websites for 3/4 copper and/or PVC pipe and I have been able to locate the two. What I haven’t been able to locate though is something called a three way elbow (in the right color and material) that would connect all of the pieces together though.

Does anyone have any advice? Is the three way elbow necessary to make a right angle with the pipe/tubing? Is there a more simple way that I could be going about this?

Thank you.

@Kevin @Jerry_Kassebaum <<<< Ooops wrong guy, should have been Brady @bpamplin. I would say Kevin is grand master of LED’s on vertical poles and Jerry teaches lots of classes are controlling LEDS with Arduinos.

As far as the Right-Angle:

  • That type of joint will be the easiest, fastest and cheapest. In plastic or copper joints or joints for conduits (lots of styles not meant for electrical work, think canopies).
  • If metal, could weld. Base could bent to 90 bangle so only two pieces.
  • There are some more complex ways of joining that would use out tube notcher and heat bending plastic and special attachment fasteners.

Personally, I think copper using these type solder joints have a nice "industrial look. You can also treat the copper with oxidizers to get a great aged green patina if that is desired. Or polish and clear coat for shiny,

That is a cool light for a corner.

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Black pipe from Home Depot would give a nice Industrial look and a 3 way outside corner is available. They sell plumbing pipe and decorator pipe for things like flanges, etc.

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Getting the light that smooth is always a challenge. They almost certainly have some sort of diffuser over the LED strip. It might even be somewhat A frame shaped to try and get more diffusion along the walls. It probaly is further out from the corner than it appears, and I wouldn’t put it past them to have photoshopped it to look like the light spreads more than it does. I’m going to suggest you might want to do a 1 foot long mock up to get practice with controlling the lights, but also to play around with spacing to the wall, and diffuser design, to see if you can get to where you want to be.

I personally think two strips and diffusers might work better, but the mechanical layout to make them not direct path visible becomes more challenging in the space required.

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They also could have cut a slot in the pipe, mounted the LEDs inside the tube. This would create an angle that the light diffused out of (which is where it is tense along the wall). … then photo-shopped the extra diffusion in the picture!

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You are confusing me with Brady Pamplin. You are at least the tenth one to do that.

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Ooops … all you old guys look the same!

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@bpamplin and more characters

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I was looking forward to congratulating @Jerry_Kassebaum for his classes but then I was outed. Jerry is the handsome one.

Here is a link to class notes and sample programs for a class that I did a while back.
http://www.pamplin.com/dms/class_led_strips/

There is also a ready made controller for strips. The Electronics area has one controlling the Mouser sign lighting. I do not recall the name but @Team_Electronics can fill this in.

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It’s actually not much of a challenge. Just use long exposure on the camera and edit with Photoshop.

:slight_smile:

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I would use black pipe for the bottom and outside elbow to give it weight and stability.

Use PVC for the upright. Cut a slot in it for the LEDs then cover with a thin length of diffuser. They sell diffuser panels back with the Fluorescent bulb fixtures.

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I would use 2 strip 60/led/m along .5" aluminum square tube.
You need some sort of diffusion

Either a very small distance away from the wall like an inch
or
Neon LED strips that diffuses it through silicon
or
Some other material you pass it through



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Oh my. This is going to be a little bit of a more involved project than I thought it was going to be. I’ve got almost two weeks though. I can do this. I got this!

Thank you all for your comments. They have been / are super duper helpful! I am so excited to tackle this.

This might provide some inspiration:

The thread explains how it was built. I think the aluminum channel they used would easily work for your “stand” application. They thread the led strip and a diffuser into the channel. 3D printed connectors connect the channel at angles.

This is a perfect project for the tools at DMS.

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