In this weeks video I’m making an hourglass lamp with light effects that simulate the falling sand when you turn the lamp upside down.
Another cool feature I build into it is the on / off switch, this is hidden inside the lamp and turns on by putting the lamp on the right side. Turning it upside down then turns off the light.
The outside frame of the lamp is made of 40x6 mm metal strip that I cut to size and then welded as a frame. When this was done I went over to the bandsaw to cut the hourglass shape out of the wood. The semi transparent panel where the light shines through is made from 3 mm opaque white polycarbonate sheet.
Polycarbonate is a lot easier to work with than acrylic because it doesn’t shatter as easy.
To simulate the sand that is falling I used some Neopixels from Adafruit powered from an Arduino. I chose these because they are relatively simple to program and you don’t need to work with transistors etc. that would be required when dimming regular leds.
Tools used
Angle grinder
Stick welder
Bandsaw
Router
Tracksaw
Soldering station
