Welcome to the Tiki Central 2.0 Beta. Read the announcement
Celebrating classic and modern Polynesian Pop

Tiki Central / Other Crafts / Joe vs the Volcano Inspired Hula Lamp - UPDATED!

Post #776503 by absolute60 on Wed, May 31, 2017 3:02 PM

You are viewing a single post. Click here to view the post in context.

Build process:

-I knew it would be too difficult to try and make the shade rotate and create the shimmer effect, so I opted to only add music. I purchased a German music box on ebay for about $15 and I think it's pretty neat. Anyway, here's the project steps.

Created the base using two cuts of plywood for the top and a precut square base I picked up from the local hobby store. I glued the wood together and let is set for 24 hours using large clamps. Feel free to use what you have, heavy books, weights, etc. Then screwed in everything from the base after it dried. For the screws, I drilled a pilot hole first for each corner, 4 total. From the top of the base, I used a 1" spade drill bit and driledl a hole exactly in the center of the wood base, all the way through. This will allow the lamp pole to run through the center of the wood base. Be sure to use painters tape over the area you will be drilling through so that the wood does not splinter upon entry. The exit point doesn't matter...

I cut out a section inside of the top portion of the base to place the music box inside of. I used a the Dremel for this, and it was sloppy. The cut out hollow space was approx 2"x3" in diameter, and about 1.5"-2" deep. I then took a couple paint sticks that I got free form the hardware store and cut them to size to reverse mount the music box onto. I added some decorative wood trim to cover up open areas. Sanded it down and added cheap dark stain…the stain I used is actually wood touch up oil for wood floors. Use whatever you have :)

-Now that the music box base was done, I needed to cut a half circle to the back of the hula figurine in order to make room for the lamp pole to go through. I applied painters tape to the cutting area, drew the cutout section and cut away with a dremel diamond coated cutting wheel, made for cutting ceramics. Luckily, no cracks! After cutting and sanding, it fit in perfectly. **Be sure to use painters tape (not pictured) over the cut out area. This will help to prevent cracking of the ceramic while cutting.

[ Edited by: absolute60 2017-05-31 15:21 ]

[ Edited by: absolute60 2017-05-31 15:22 ]

[ Edited by: absolute60 2017-05-31 15:46 ]

[ Edited by: absolute60 2017-05-31 15:47 ]