Laser Cut Clips Save A Lamp From The Trash

Ikea have been known for years as a purveyor of inexpensive  yet stylish homewares, but it’s fair to say that sometimes their affordability is reflected in their insubstantial construction. Such is the case with the Sjöpenna lamp, whose construction relies on rubber bands. On [Tony]’s lamp these bands degraded with age, causing it to fall apart. The solution? A set of cleverly-designed laser-cut clips to replace them.

The challenge to replacing a stretchy material with a rigid one is that it must have enough ability to bend without snapping as it is put in place. For this he selected PETG, with 0.04″ (about 1 mm thick) hitting the sweet spot. His photos demonstrate with some green tape added for visibility, how the clip bends backwards just far enough to fit over where the rubber band once located, and then flips back neatly to hold it all in place.

If you have a collapsing Ikea lamp then this will be just what you need, but this hack goes further than that. A frequent requirement for repairs is some kind of clip, because clips are always the first to break, This technique for laser cutting them is a handy one to remember, next time your design needs a springy bit of plastic.

6 thoughts on “Laser Cut Clips Save A Lamp From The Trash

  1. So I’ll start…
    Connection techniques:

    Mechanical:
    -staple
    -Foldback Clamp (Binder Clips)
    -Sewing like leather (any optically nice seam)

    Thermal:
    -Soldering iron
    -Hot glue (Ok is Thermal and Chemical)

    Chemical:
    -wood glue (PVA)
    -Second Glue
    -…
    Natural:
    -Gelatin (Later Water Soluble, Non Vegan)
    -colophony with alcohol mix
    -Corn starch

    Or even magnets to create different shapes

    Can an engineer or chemist continue

  2. Kudos for saving the lamp! I think those rubber band replacements would have been an easy 2 or 3 layer 3D print and wouldn’t need all the clean-up. You could even add some extra decorative shapes to the clips to make the lamp unique.

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