Ive been meaning to do this for ages (and have been saving busted CDs for even longer!) Its just a stack of about 300 CDs with a blue cold cathode downt the middle. Each CD has 3 holes drilled through for some threaded rod, with dome cap nuts at each end. The inverter is hidden in the body of the CDs and just runs off a 12V power adaptor plugged into the mains. I like it, what do you guys think? RoB
The idea in itself is simple, but the result is great !! Now i won't throw those damned advertising CDs...
My g/f has just said that she loves the cd lamp (it means that i don't have to turn them into mobiles for the kids ceiling or shaving mirrors anymore) but she hates your curtains. go figure tried to explian to her but she's female and the wonders of a dremel are lost on her
Awesome! I've been saving mine for years to do the same thing but never thought about putting a CCFL in the middle. I was going to thread them on the shaft of a regular lamp.
tsk tsk phase, you have no interior design sense That's a very cool idea. You can also use a cathode as a CD spindle to store working CDs I think its supposed to be more of a decoration than anything actually useful.
Interested to know how you got it running off the mains. Using a transformer of some kind ? I ask because I want to use CCFLs on the underside of my kitchen wall units to give a different effect to the normal bright white the people have. read the thread Nos. I just read it again and see you have answered my question
I think that looks sweet. I was gonna do this onetime, but decided not to, as I would need a lot of CDs. but now that I have seen the actual effect, I think I want to make it. Question: could you fit say three cold cathodes in there to make it brighter? And nice job. I really like it a lot.
The inverter is hidden in the body of the CDs and just runs off a 12V power adaptor plugged into the mains.
excellent i have about 70-80 cd's left after doing my cieling so i know wot i'll b doin now ... was guna make a CD in-door fountaint with water coming up the middle of the CD's and over the top bk into a box/container at the bottom and recyling the water...but that lookz beta nice one m8 !!!!
wow! thats more response than id expected! most importantly: Leave off the curtains! they're great (but do look pretty ropey in the pictures), they go very well with my greeny room! As for brightness...well..erm its fairly bright. Much brighter than my lava lamp, but doesnt light up much in the daytime. Its defitnitely more than just a lame glow in the corner! You would be hard pressed to get 3 cathodes in there...there may just be room for 2, but i dont really think its worth it. Its not as if its a reading light! Those who fancy making one, you need LOTS of CDs! id say theres over 300 in mine! And you really need a pillar drill/drill stand, as CDs are slightly thicker in the middle, so bend a bit when drilling through a pile. Ill post night shots in the next few days (and some of the curtains!) Thanks for all the kind comments! RoB
if you need cds, go to hardware stores, computer stores etc, and grab EVERY AOL cd in sight. that'll work well.
True... but my boss and I were thinking of taking all the AOL cds and shipping them back to the main office, and dumping them on their front lawn
