Update ...

This has stalled a little bit. I've decided the outside beams need to be rigidly linked. I've also been slightly crushed by the realisation that the folding clothes airer I own is much more rigid than this, and probably cost the same as my bit of hardboard to make (i.e. cheap as). Which begs the question, why didn't I make it more like the airer? Good question. I think my mind must've be too highly trained. The case continues. Oh, I also got a quote for the laser cutting from a firm in the UK - a negligable difference from than Ponoko for materials and cutting, but free shipping, and when shipping is a third of the price, that's good. Not doing it yet though. Thinking, more.

Update ... Thiswayup - electrified!

Confounding my initial plans, I have rigged electricity and lamps into this little bad boy, and it is now a fully operational battle station. In so many ways, a massive improvement on the original cardboard model, despite being a model itself. I can only imagine how the next iteration will further redefine the meaning of awesomeness.

New bits:

• Spars glued in place, connecting the outside links of the tong structure.
• Nuts locked with threadlock - They previously had a tendency to unscrew themselves. This, combined with above has made the structure so much more rigid, but has introduced a lot more friction into the the design than I like.
• Expanded the counterweight gondola, and found a good source of weight.
• Added lamps, wiring and contact switches. Each lamp has a common earth, with the V+ individually switched for each. A brass strip embedded in the base uprights contacts another brass strip on the lowest link of the tong: As this lowest link moves down, it comes into contact with the base strip at some point and the circuit is made. The top lamp is always lit.
• Transformer - This is a 12v 105W dimmable supply I got for £6 on ebay, and seems good so far. I wanted a dimmable one in case I decided to use that method to change brightness (linking the dimmer to the mechanism) in a future iteration.

Next bits:

• Shade - Opaque enough to hide the structure, translucent enough to let plenty of light out. Paper springs to mind again, but I worry about the robustness.

Update ...

What ho. Have made a tubular shade from some spandex, and stretched it over some frames made from bamboo skewers (from the same pack that furnished the bamboo skewers for the original Thiswayup, no less!). Had to add a little more weight to the lamp. Looks good. Am going to try a burn test on the fabric when nobody is looking, to see if it is a death trap or not. Am also going to try putting some hotter bulbs in (currently full of 10W) and see what happens to the temperature.

Well here are some pictures of the next model. This is specifically designed to be made to half scale (the same size as the hardboard model with the shade). It appeals as a table lamp, but is really to be a kind of proof of concept for the laser cut parts.

This current computer model uses a kind of geometry where the centre pivot point for each of the long struts is slightly off-centre, actually 2mm closer to the uppermost joint. This was designed to counteract some of the sag present in all of the models I've made of this. The sag is where, after a certain acute angle is reached in the elbows, the load on the elbow joints fairly suddenly seems to switch from mostly vertical to mostly horizontal, pushing the elbows out. The top cell in particular ends up more or less flat, while the lowest cell is still pretty extended. Anyway, hopefully building in some upright bias might help. On the computer model (which has zero sag) it is very annoying because it means I can't put the lamp down low.

I think I might be able to get away with just doing this trick on the very top and bottom cell. lengthening the very top half-struts to keep the cell a bit expanded to keep the bulb safe, and maybe make the lowest half-struts a little shorter, since they're going to get a whole lot of weight on them.

Update ... Ponok-Ho!

Got some parts through from Ponoko - laser cut from 3mm bamboo plywood.

Assembled!

Update ...

Laid in some wiring, which instantly makes the whole thing look clumsy, but hey ho. I've used inline "bullet" automotive connectors for the wires, they are quite neat.

I have been thinking about having the conductive traces embedded into the struts somehow, and maybe could dispense with the wires entirely - have the bolts in the pivots carry the current from strut to strut, or just have the two conductors pressed together by spring washers. It's certainly something I'm going to think about, because this wirey lark isn't any fun, would be expensive, and looks pretty awful. Brass strips glued on would be good enough. hm!

Update ... Uncomfortable tightness.

Just snipped the wires I laid in, because I'd not put enough slack into the joints, and it was not moving freely. I have looked into using brass conductors in the struts, and while it would be quite ideal, brass is dead expensive, though Ponoko at least, like $160 expensive.

So I don't think that's a goer. Though the exercise has allowed me to formalise the wiring layout, and I've thought much more about the joints and earth wiring. But overall, I'm not really much further forward, except that I need some new wires now, again. If I gave up the four individually switched bulbs, converted it to two sets of two bulbs, that'd make things a lot easier, but otherwise, I've just got to design some new cable management pieces that'll keep things neat. Some little clips.

Update ... Press studs and asymmetry

Had some thoughts recently:

This works surprisingly well - good solid fit, even on such thick material. Wouldn't go any thicker though, I think. I can get a longer post for the studs. This makes the thing very easy to assemble - still glue-free, and swivels without much friction. More importantly though, it means the wires can be threaded directly through the centres of the pivots. This is great because the wires can then be kept taut and won't get tighter or looser when the lamp is pushed low.

My other plan is to make the each half of the lamp duplicates rather than mirror images. This will allow me to standardise parts, since all of the inter-strut parts will be the same length. Better than that though, it also means that the length of the inter-strut parts will no longer be related to the thickness of whatever pivot system I'm using for it or whatever clearence between parts is required (as long as they are all the same). Makes a lot more sense.

Aha, it does mean that each pair have to be linked like a chain though. Hopefully a better fitted joint between the strut and the inter will make this OK.

Update ... Tilting at windmills.

A couple of renders of the newest model.

Most obvious difference is the tilting-ness of it. This was theoretically possible ages ago, but I never looked much into it because of questions it raised over the beautifully simple switching mechanism in the standard model. Will have to look at that and work it out, but certainly, when people see this lamp in person, they usually ask if it can tilt, or bend, and up until now, it couldn't. This tilting facility makes it a much more sensible prospect for a desk lamp, at least with these 20cm struts.

Also in this model is the asymmetrical setup, and press-studs as fasteners. I am concerned that the looseness of these will lead to very mushy, very slumpy kind of lamp, and that the ability to twist it will eventually make it pop itself undone. However, I don't have any doubts that they will be strong enough in the correct orientation. And the ability to string wires through the pivots is the real killer application. I am also thinking about using brass pipe with the ends splayed, just as a straightforward hollow rivet, but I'm not sure how I'd prevent it from fastening too tight. Would certainly be cheap for volume.

Update ...

Made a development stand from copper plumbing pipes and fitments. Awesome. With a pipe cutter. I always thought it'd be neat to make some thing structural out of plumbing pipework because it's like a big construction kit - all the joints and things are already made. It was actually even easier than I thought it would be. The pipe cutter goes through the pipes like butter.

Anyway, you can see the result above, crudely photographed. It's just a pair of uprights that I can use as a chassis to develop the tilting lamp, codenamed Tilt Way Up. Or This Way Tilt. Or Tilt This up. Etcetera.

I've been trying to get my head around the physics involved in this structure, but I can't. Just when I think I've figured out what the weight needs to be equal to, and which axle it needs to hang off, I try something and it doesn't work. Can anyone help explain the forces at work here?

Update ...

Doing some experimentation with how this works. The extension mechanism seems to be remarkably stable. Unusually so. I'm suspicious. However, I'm not going to question that too strenuously. So the question is now the tilting counterweight.

I've bolted the scissors rigid and cut up the stand from an old iteration to use as the travel limiter - nothing more than a piece of board with a slot in it, look at the pictures. I need to think of a mechanism that will move a weight along this structure depending on the angle of the lamp. When the lamp is horizontal, the weight should be at maximum potential, furthest out from the fulcrum. This can't be an uncommon requirement in engineering, so I will search for prior art.

Update ...

Of course, it's version 12 (million) of the drawings, but it's only version 3 of the prototype. Made on the spoils of my Instructables contest 2nd place (Ponoko vouchers), this version is made from 4mm plywood, and uses a few new techniques, namely hollow pivots and a snap-fit inter.

I've just enjoyed myself assembling this bad boy, and am excited about the stability and strength. Along with this kit of parts, I also ordered a bunch of spares and "toolkit" type parts that might be useful for development purposes. Should have done that first time round, really. That includes some parts for a tilting lamp, as well as a six segment lamp! Just imagine that, Pybus!

Glamour shots:

Update ... It's all about the slop

Have done some work and sought expert help on the TiltWayUp prototype, with great success, a breakthrough if you like, astounding in it's obviousness.

When the scissor is anything other than perfectly horizontal, then the lowest cell "stretches", which obviously makes that side of the balance arm disproportionate, and increases it's moment, and makes the arm tilt. The more it tilts, the more the cell stretches, and the more it tilts. It's because of there is so much "play" in the joints that it stretches so much. Screwed down tight so that slop is eliminated, then it balances sweetly regardless of what extension it's set at:

But then if the bottom cell is stretched out (as it might well be if the lamp had been vertical), it gets it's tilt on, badly.

This is great news. I had wondered what proportion of the unfathomability of this problem to apportion to simple sloppy prototype, and had clearly underestimated it. It's all about the slop. Now, to work around it is going to be harder. If I make the joints so tight that there's no slop, then they'll be too tight to move easily. I am going to have to deal with friction. This is a dirty word, and I really hoped that this design could be beautiful and pure and not rely on any kind of frictive device to hold it in place. Still, if my artistic integrity must be bravely sacrificed, then I suppose it might as well be on the altar of my engineering integrity.

Update ... The mystery of the saggy diamond

So, after having some deep thoughts and some more discussions with those far more learned than myself, I am reaching some kind of consensus with myself. The following points have been established in my head:

• The tilting prototype's (v1) tendency to stretch out of proportion is the source of this iteration's random will-it-won't-it balancing: When the links are evenly spaced, then it balances horizontally, regardless of it's extension. As soon as it is tilted, then necessary looseness in the joints causes the upper links to become disproportionately compressed, and the lowest link to become disproportionately distended. Each of these distortions on their own moves the centre of mass for that side of the arm downwards, and together they are compounded, leading to the arm finding a new stable equilibrium at a more upright angle.
• In terms of this design, the cost and complication involved in getting the linkages any closer to "perfect" (zero play, zero friction) are impractical. The upshot of this is that I think this sagging diamond problem should be managed by some other mechanism, instead of relying solely on the fearful symmetry of the almighty scissor. The scissor is the least suitable mechanism to use for this purpose really, with it's stacked inefficiencies. I don't like the idea of introducing yet another mechanism or moving part, but that's what makes it exciting (and interminable).
• It doesn't matter if the counterweight hangs, or how far, as long as it's hanging point is on the axis of the arm (ie one of the joints).
• There is a certain amount of non-moving mass on the short side of the arm (the switches, the travel limiter, cabling), and this needs a non-moving mass on the long side to counteract it.
• Although my vision was for a lamp that was finger-tip light in movement, such a device is actually incompatible with good usability. For instance, if it gets blown out of position by a draught, then it's not stiff enough. From a user's point of view, some friction is not only forgivable, but actually very desirable. This is interesting (and slightly embarrassing) because it really highlights my faulty thinking during the (albeit fictional) brief-writing period. Once the thirst for a super magic frictionless antigravity space structure has been shown to be impractical, actually some of the more intractable problems (like how to balance competing demands of joint tightness with frictionlessness) also become pretty irrelevant and I can focus much more on the practical aspects and mechanics I understand!

Things to think about:

• I am going to try and look for some kind of self-adjusting mechanism that will function to either restrict the extension of the lowest link so that it doesn't get over-stretched OR will put a bias load (a spring or something) on it to make it's deformation more constant or linear so it can be dealt with.
• All the pretty bits I had cut in v3, for doing a tilting version aren't that useful. That's annoying, but not unexpectedly so. I suppose they still might be, and because of the deliberate "toolkit" design of them, they can take modification and replacement without affecting the rest of the stand.
• If the current position of the counterweight (bearing directly on the final pin) makes the lamp stretch too weirdly, then maybe shifting some of the weight onto the switch panel or the travel limiter might be a good idea. This would still provide weight for the balance, but would not necessarily distort the scissor. Fine horizontally, but what happens vertically when the weight does need to bear on the last pin too? Some sort of infernal lever or cam perhaps.
• Most importantly - this means that my dreams of a lefty style mono-arm stand lives on! One leg good, two legs bad!

Update ... Shady business

Made a new shade. It looks awful, but it's just a sketch really. I guess I'm really trying to see how much structure is required. It's fastened to the frame with press-studs and has nylon boning in it to fill it out a bit. I can't decide if it's got any value at all.

Update ...

Came up with a new way of attaching the leads for the lamp holders using plain press-studs (or snaps) and am very pleased with how they turned out. These the mechanical and the electrical connectors since they are metal and unpainted. I love their positive action, and also their swivelly looseness. There is no "give" in them though, so the leads need to be cut fairly precisely. Also, they're a bit of a pain to fit to the leads. And I don't have a good way of attaching them to the wooden frame, so they're just hot-glued on at the moment.

Made a reasonably neat job of wiring the lamp up - the method of stringing the wires through the centres of the joints really makes it an awful lot more tidy. Didn't have any brass strip left to make the sliding switches, so it's wired permanently to 100% on. At the moment it has two each of 20 and 10W capsules. Pretty shadows.

Update ...

The old lycra tube with some cane in it saves the day again:

So been using it. Have also got some proper flexible cane like what is used for making proper paper lampshades, and some rice paper, and am looking forward to constructing some kind of form to make a rectangular shade over. I found a video on youtube about how those Isamu Noguchi paper lanterns are made, and it was very much as I imagined. This is the first and only documentation I have ever seen about this process. I still have no idea how they are mass produced... Some kind of collapsible wire form I guess.

Anyway, I'm planning on making a jig from some PVC bathroom piping or bits of cardboard and trying something a little like this technique at some point soon.

In other news, I've had to admit that when I pull the lamp up and down, the overally brightness stays more-or-less the same. I'm faintly cross about that, since the lighting level changing automatically was essentially the whole conceit of this lamp. I think it's the electronic transformer being a bit too efficient and sensible. I really need a separate transformer for each bulb. After talking about this with comrades, I am also heavily leaning towards using a different light source entirely, simply because of the heat issue with these halogens. They are fiercely hot, and that's ok with an open shade, but an enclosed shade wouldn't be sensible I think.

Options

• Fluorescents - Lovely, efficient, cool, available in many shapes and sizes, and cheap, but HEAVY, and impractical because of it.
• Power LEDs - Lovely, efficient, cool(ish) when not driven hard. The units themselves are very lightweight and wonderful, but there's a lot of power hardware associated with them - transformers and drivers, and I don't know a lot about how that works. Also, may well end up with high voltages, which means goodbye to my beloved exposed switching system. Also, flippin' expensive, which is why I have done no experimentation on this.
• Candles - kidding.

Update ... Making a chochin style paper and cane shade

1. First, make a form that can collapse inwardly from something stiff, ie not pvc waste pipes.

(Something like the above will do. Made from 12mm mdf, cut up at B&Q by the man with the big saw and roughly assembled together with glue and corner blocks in half an hour. A helpful woman also suggested velcro is useful for temporary structures. It is, stuck and stapled.)

2. Wrap a long piece of cane around your form in a spiral. A long piece can be made by splicing shorter pieces together with glue and then tying with thread. Proper chochin lanterns join their canes with little paper wraps.

3. Get ready to put glue on the outside of the cane, but realise that this will also glue the cane to the form.

4. Attempt to slide some long lengths of baking parchment down between the cane and the wooden form. Be amazed that this actually works, but inwardly appreciate that this is clearly not the best way to do it.

5. Spread glue on the canes one one side of the form. Halfway through, realise this is taking a really long time and that the glue at the top is going to be dry by the time the canes at the bottom have been covered.

6. Lay on a sheet of rice paper and be amazed that the glue is still sticky enough at both ends (more or less). Press the paper gently onto the canes, around round the corners.

7. Start running out of glue halfway through the opposite side and water it down.

8. Switch to diluted pva for the other two sides, using a wide sponge to apply it, and start idly wondering how you'll apply any pressure to the paper inbetween the cane. Accidentally tear some of the paper because you've put too much glue on. Develop irritation.

9. Put the final side on, and be amazed that it looks as good as it does. Most of the canes are glued. Leave the glue an hour or two to dry.

10. Lightly spray the paper all over with water, half expecting it to dissolve into a mess. Be amazed when it shrinks exactly as expected, and goes tight and even.

11. Try to figure out a way of cutting off your waste paper. Remember that on the videos, it came off directly after gluing by slicing with a razor. Try a scalpel and a craft knife, and mostly just mangle and tear the paper. Settle for scissors

12. Remove from the form. This is terrifying and takes two hours. The form was a little misconceived and causes a number of "o I hadn't thought of that" moments. Make many mental notes.

13. Collapse!

As easy as that. I finished up the top of the shade with a few wires to keep it in it's shape, and lots of glue. Actually amazed it looks as good as it does, for a first go. Next version needs a bit more thought put into it, but this, I think, is a proof of concept.

For future reference:

• Make sure have enough glue, of a kind that doesn't dry too fast, and use a tool that can make wide sweeps.
• Make the form more easily collapsible. This one got hard to collapse once it was done up tightly.
• Make the cane contact the form on edges only. No flat panels. Chochin lanterns are like this for a good reason.
• Where the top layer of the paper needs to be sealed to another continuous layer of paper, make sure there is a hard support to press down on. On this one, the seams were unsupported, and so couldn't get glued very well. Also made it hard to trim waste paper off.
• Trim paper before sticking on. Much easier to do it this way, particularly if not doing the above.
• Plan for the top. The top is actually quite tricky. It needs some rigid/tensioned frame to keep the shape, as well as a hard handle to actually pull and push. And some way to fasten it to the underlying scissor structure.
• Plan for the bottom.Not really sure what I'm going to do with the bottom. It needs to be fixed/clipped onto the structure somehow, or have weights or something.
• The shade is surprisingly non-springy. It stays quite where it's put. I expected it to exert more of a downward pull on the scissor, when it was fully extended and held down to the ground. It doesn't. Very encouraging.
• Find out what it is that gets painted onto the edges of the real chochin lantern forms to prevent the glue from sticking. Wax of some sort. Also, what kind of glue do they use?
• Still need to think of some way of letting air in and out of the shade when compressing and extending. This is a bit less of a problem than the old pleated paper shade because the form is strong enough to withstand pressure changes. The old one would just get sucked in against the structure, or have the pleats blown out.

In conclusion

Really quite pleased with this. It looks great, and the execution, while not great, was at least more or less what I was expecting. Takes up a lot of room, and causes some temporary friction with wife.

Update ...

Laminated up a big sheet of board and cut all the struts from it at once. Job done. 16 long struts, 8 short ones. Half of them are 25mm wide, the other half 20mm. The lighter ones will be the top half. I don't suppose it'll make a bit of difference like, and I'll be annoyed if it breaks.

Update ...

Filing out the holes bored in the struts (left), and on the right, all the pieces, cut and pierced and ready for assembly. Waiting for corks to arrive, and will shop for wire. Oh, the gondola isn't made yet, but that's easy.

Update ...

It's done! The instructable is published! You can go and see it at the Instructables website where it is currently featured due to it's unexpected awesomeness. Seriously, it's turned out better than I expected, and the write-up is remarkably cohesive too. I'm definitely going to add another step or two to show how to make a shade for it, since it just isn't finished otherwise.

Now, next week, tell all your friends to go and register on Instructables and if they like my lamp, vote, vote, vote like the wind!

Update ... Open for voting!

The Instructable for Thiswayup is open for voting!

Pop over to Instructables and have a look under the Epilog challenge to see all the entries, and hopefully you'll like mine, and drop a vote on me. You can vote as much as you like I think, once you've registered, so even if you see something that's better, you can still vote for me! There's a few really good ones entered, and frustratingly, ones that fulfill the brief much better than mine (which suddenly seems something like an exercise in contrivance), but I'm hopeful that I'll get through to the final round at least. I've put in lots of work on this Instructable, and it's been fun. I like running a project, even if it does mean the whole living room is covered in pieces of cardboard. Actually, what am I talking about - that's the reason why I like running a project.

Now, what to do with it? It's too big for my flat, so I fear it'll have to go out into the recycling bin! I'll strip the parts out of it though, all the electrics are just screwed together and can easily be used again. For instance, in my new Ponoko version! Huspag!

Update ... C'est incredible!

Well, I got a very positive comment on my instructable, and went to reply, and change my front page picture again. I had put the animated gif of the lamp doing a strip tease on as the front image, in the hope it would catch the mouseovers of any viewers. And because it makes me laugh. The voting period was over, so I figured I could afford to be a bit more oblique.

Well, imagine my surprise when I saw that my instructable had been chosen as a finalist in the contest! My laser cut dreams live on!

Double Huspag!!!

Update ... Close ... But no cigar.

Didn't win the laser cutter, so am utterly unconsolable. Am disappointed, but I suppose the better project won - The grand prize winner was a very good instructable, and I was a "first prize" winner, and the first of the first prize winners, so that's second place overall, if you're interested in positive reframing.

That's something, and I get some vouchers, which I'll be ploughing into the next Ponoko Thiswayup - a more pragmatic version that I've been designing over recent weeks. Well, I had to think of something I'd be using my new laser cutter for.. sob!