Plywood Steals The Show From Upcycled Broken Glass Art Lamps

You can tell from looking around his workshop that [Paul Jackman] likes plywood even more than we do. And for the bases of these lamps, he sandwiches enough of the stuff together that it becomes a distinct part of the piece’s visuals. Some work with a router and some finishing, and they look great! You can watch the work, and the results, in his video embedded below.

The plywood bases also hide the electronics: a transformer and some LEDs. To make space for them in the otherwise solid blocks of wood, he tosses them in the CNC router and hollows them out. A little epoxy for the caps of the jars and the bases were finished. Fill the jars with colored glass, and a transparent tube to allow light all the way to the top, and they’re done.

Quality plywood is rad. It’s strong, it doesn’t warp, and it looks great edge-on. If [Paul]’s project doesn’t convince you, perhaps you’d like to check out [Gerrit]’s love-letter to the material, and pick some up next time you’re in the big box.

23 thoughts on “Plywood Steals The Show From Upcycled Broken Glass Art Lamps

        1. I’d say “reuse” connotes using again for the original or a similar purpose, whereas “upcycle” connotes creating higher value.
          A canning jar and band, in good condition, can be reused to preserve food.
          A canning jar with a chip in the rim and a band with rust spots can be upcycled into lamp parts, instead of recycling the glass and metal.

    1. You will have to work hard to stop language(s) from developing – sometimes in 100% bad ways (I know examples in English, German and Swedish where perfectly good old (but not archaic) words aren’t used but “new” clumsy ones are), sometimes in neutral ways in sometimes in 100% good ways (describing a concept that haven’t been described well earlier). Just have to accept the bad things as something natural…

      1. But seriously…
        I would initially write it so, then I’d probably try to fit in alternative word use based on common word use. As an editor (I’m not BTW) I’d stick to common words to convey the information as accurately as I can recall (and recall through double checking)

        I’d leave it to the common man (English speaking, हिन्दी बोल रही and so forth) to invent their local dialects (by county/state and/or country, acceptance or otherwise)

        And I still probably missed something… Despite proof reading…
        But I wouldn’t be identifiable as the (possibly, but not guaranteed) true Unferium without letting at least something slip and including some kind of over-explanation (With some “side thoughts” thrown in to give the reader an idea what maybe in my mind relative to said subject, including mentioning that the title containing “UPCYCL[ING/ED] reminded me that someone has a hatred for language evolution)

  1. The whole CNC bit was a bit of a waste because the jars have standard size lids and you can find a hole saw that fits them. A sacrifical surface on top lets you do the hole in one operation on a drill press, and a table router with a rectangular fence clamped around it lets you carve out the bottom hole.

    Saves you a bunch of time compared to the CNC.

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