Cameo Silhouette Lamp

I decided to cut the lamp shapes from one large glued up piece of Walnut. Of course you can use any material you like to create this lamp, perhaps a different type of wood, MDF, Plywood or even plastic, you could really change the look by using different materials.

I already had a panel of walnut glued up that was big enough to cut two lamps from. It was made up of 5 × 700mm x 150mm x 23mm boards. Each lamp shape measures 327.66mm x 300mm. So I could cut 4 shapes out which I can glue together to make 2 lamps.

I secured the walnut panel down to the X-Carve waste board with screws and I used some hardboard underneath to protect the wasteboard from the bit when it cuts through.

Once the walnut was secure and I had a 3mm bit installed in the spindle I could connect the X-Carve to my computer and open my file in Easel.

Like I said before I was able to cut 4 so copied my 2 shapes and rearanged them. (There is just the 2 shapes in my easel project link. You can copy and paste to create as many as you like from one piece of material.)

I added a shallow groove to 1 of the shapes to give room for the wire from the lamp holder to be threaded through later. I also added 3 holes to recieve wooden dowels to help with alignment when gluing up. You wont need to worry about this as they are already added in the easel link.

If you have the X-Carve will know how easy the next step of clicking carve is. Just confirm all the settings and hit carve.

After the X-Carve has done its thing you just need to glue the 2 halves together.

I added a dab of glue into each hole and inserted a wooden dowel into one side. I then spread an even layer of glue all over and sandwhiched the 2 pieces together, making sure the dowels line up with the mating holes. These stop the pieces from sliding round when I added clamps and they helped to keep them aligned correctly.

I let the glue dry over night.

After the glue had dried I could measure the footprint of the bottom of the lamp. This would give me the size of the poclet I needed to create in the base.

I then headed over to easel to create my base. I used the rectangle tool and made a rectagle the measurement of the lamp bottom plus 2mm on each axis. This gave me some wiggle room to make assembly easier.

I could then create a second rectangle that was 40mm larger than the first on both axis. This gave me a 20mm edge all the way round after I centred the rectagles.

I set the X-Carve to cut the outer rectagle all the way through the outline. I set the depth of the inner rectangle to be cut 12mm deep on the fill setting. This will create the ‘pocket’ I need to fit the lamp shape into the base.

While the X-Carve was carving out the base I sanded the glued up lamp I made earlier. I use my spindle sander for the outer edges and my random orbital sander for the faces. I eased the edges with some hand sandpaper.

Now that I have the base and the lamp body I can make sure the wire will fit.

I used a drill to create an easier curve for the wire to exit the back of the lamp body. I also drilled a hole through the base so the wire can exit the lamp cleanly.

There was a small piece of plastic at the base of my lamp holder that I needed to hide inside the Hand section of the lamp. Again I used my drill the widen the hole so it would fit.

I ran the wire through to make sure everything lined up and fit correctly. I could then add some glue to the ‘pocket’ in the base and glue the lamp body into place. I glued up the lamp with the wire in place because it would have been too hard to try and thread the wire through later.

I let that dry overnight.

I decided to use spray polyurethane as a finish for the lamp. So I masked off the lamp holder and wire and then gave the lamp 3-4 coats of spray polyurethane, sanding with 240 grit paper between coats.

To fix the lamp holder and wire into place I used some Epoxy Putty. It comes in 2 parts that you mix together in equal quantaties.

I could then put the puty into the hole where the lamp holder will be and into the hole at the base of lamp where the wire exits. It doesnt take a lot to hold them in place but I added some more to the outside to make it look neater.

Again I let it set overnight. The epoxy putty sets like stone.

I wanted to use felt baize on the base so it wouldnt scratch any surface it was put on.

To attach the felt to the base I used extra strong spray adhesive. Its more than strong enough for this purpose. I cut the felt oversized, sprayed an even layer of adhesive on and fixed it to the base of the lamp. I trimmed the extra off with a pair of scissors.

I chose an Edison style light bulb with a spiral filament. It looks a whole lot better than your standard bulb.