DIY lamps made from CDs. Chandelier made of disks









A stack has started unnecessary CDs? Don't throw them away! You can make them out of them beautiful lamp. In this tutorial you will learn how to make a very inexpensive and eco-friendly lamp from an old CD collection.

Interested?

Budget = 500 - 1000 euros
Time = 4 - 8 hours
Tools = found in every home
Difficulty = easy - medium level
Size = diameter 40 cm / height 28 cm

Materials

  • CDs (1000 discs.)
  • Fiberboard circle (1 pc.)
  • Electrical connector (12 positions)
  • Steel wire (5m)
  • Lamp socket
  • Electrical wire + switch + plug
  • Fluorescent lamp E27 (1 pcs.)
  • Silicone sticks (2 pcs.)
  • Rubber feet (3 pcs.)

    Tools

  • drill
  • ticks
  • pliers
  • screwdriver
  • glue/gun for silicone
  • compass
  • pencil
  • ruler-triangle

    Step 1: Preparation


    Before starting work on the lamp, you need to collect the necessary spare parts and check that you have all the tools.
    Don't worry, most likely the right tools and materials will be found in the house. The rest can be bought inexpensively on the Internet or local stores.

    How many CDs do I need?
    To make a lamp the size of mine, you will need 900 - 1000 CDs (about 15 kg).

    If you can’t find that many discs, you can ask your friends, colleagues or classmates: I think many people want to get rid of old CDs (old music discs, various free discs from magazines, recorded films, etc.).

    Fiberboard circle
    diameter 20 cm / height 1.5 cm
    easy to find in hardware stores

    Electrical connectors
    12 connectors
    The size of the connector should be determined by the diameter of the steel wire: the steel wire should fit into the hole of the connector.

    Steel wire
    5 m with a diameter of 2 mm should be just right.

    Lamp socket + electrical wire+ switch + plug
    You can find an already assembled version or make it yourself. Choose the size and style according to your design taste. I think it is better to take a wire at least 2 m long.

    Fluorescent energy saving lamp E27
    In principle, any energy-saving fluorescent lamp will do. If you want to install a smaller lamp, you need to take the appropriate one.

    Silicone
    Make sure that the silicone you buy is transparent, you need 2 sticks of the largest size.

    Rubber feet
    3 pcs.
    You need small rubber feet with a diameter of about 2 cm.

    Step 2: Making the Bottom


    Take a circle from fiberboard, and using a compass and ruler, divide the circle into 12 sectors.
    Connect the division points with lines to determine the center in order to insert the cartridge, steel wire into it, and also mark the places for the rubber feet. You can see in the photographs what it should look like.

    Use a drill to drill the required holes.

    Cut 6 pieces of steel wire using pliers, each length is 1 m. Bend each piece into an arc using a vice or pliers.

    Now you need to attach it all to the bottom of the future lamp:
    1) secure the 3 rubber feet with bolts and a screwdriver
    2) Secure the lamp socket in the center hole.

    As a result, the cartridge should “sit” in the center of the lamp.

    Step 3: Making a lattice and a sphere from CDs


    Secure the 6 arc-shaped pieces of wire by inserting both ends into the holes.
    Now you need to wrap the arcs with your hands or pliers until the desired shape. The result should be a lattice in the form of a sphere (SEE PHOTO).

    Unnecessary edges of the wire can be cut off with wire cutters. The result will be a grid of 12 steel wires in the shape of a spherical cage (SEE PHOTO).

    Now you can start stringing CDs. First you need to fill only 6 rods close to the center with disks. Alternate layering of discs between rods (place a layer of 3 discs across one rod at a time - SEE PHOTO). Each disk must lie on 2 adjacent ones. Every 5-10 layers, check that the discs lie evenly and symmetrically. Fill the space between the rod and the discs with silicone from a gun.

    Repeat this procedure until the discs begin to overlap each other again. This will happen when the stacks of discs are approximately 6 cm high.

    At this point you need to string 6 disks in a layer one by one (SEE PHOTO). As before, every 5-10 layers you need to glue the space between the disc and the rod with silicone. As a result, there will already be 12 stacks of disks.
    Continue stringing onto 12 rods as long as the size allows, then move on to 6 rods again, stringing 3 discs alternately.

    The 6 stacks of disks should converge toward the center. Be sure to install the E27 bulb in the socket first, as the discs will block access to the socket at the top.

    IMPORTANT:

  • Do not use silicone for the last 5-10 layers of discs in case you need to replace the light bulb.
  • do not forget to adjust the shape of the rods so that there is a symmetrical ball of disks during the stringing process.

    Step 4: Top part lamp


    When the height of the stacks of disks reaches approximately 26 cm, you need to wrap each end of the wire towards the center. All excess wire must be cut off. The result will look like in the PHOTO.

    Now you need to clamp the edges of the wire. Divide the circle (2 disks folded together) into 12 sectors.
    On each of the 12 drawn radii, mark 2 points for installing an electrical connector. Using a drill, drill 24 holes. Make sure the distance between the two holes on each radius fits the connectors you have.

    Disassemble the electrical connector to remove the 12 metal connectors.

    Assemble the top by placing a connector on each wire, secure the top disc to the connectors using bolts and a screwdriver.

    Step 5: Turn it on!

  • Thanks to the development of new technologies, storage devices such as CDs are gradually becoming a thing of the past, replaced by flash drives and memory cards. Most PC users have a huge number of drives left that will never be used. In order not to simply throw away unnecessary discs, they can be used as material for various crafts. One of such products could be a DIY chandelier made from disks.

    Chandelier design

    To produce high-quality and beautiful chandelier, you will need 12 disks with a double mirror layer. Tools you will need include drills, pliers and wire cutters. The disks can be connected to each other using staples, for which any soft wire or paper clips is suitable. An electric light bulb with a voltage of 220 volts, screwed into a standard socket and suspended on a standard mount, is used as a lighting source. The cartridge is connected to the circuit using a cord and a switch. To make a high-quality chandelier, it is necessary to perform a number of mandatory operations.

    Sequence of making a chandelier

    1. To accurately drill holes, you need to prepare one disc as a stencil. To do this, the disk is divided into five equal sectors, and then, retreating from the edge of 5 mm, five holes with a diameter of 2 or 3 mm are drilled.
    2. Should be placed in a storage box required amount disks. A stencil is placed on top and the first hole is drilled through it, passing through all the disks. For fixation, a match or thin wire is inserted into the hole. Another hole is drilled on the opposite side, which is also fixed. After this, all other holes are drilled.
    3. The lamp socket is installed in the first disk, in a standard hole that does not require expansion.
    4. To secure the disks to each other, you need to prepare 30 mounting brackets in advance. Approximately one staple is used for every three staples. paper clip. They are made using wire cutters and pliers.
    5. The lamp is assembled sequentially, using brackets inserted into the hole and bent from the inside. The discs on the brackets must be held completely free in relation to other CDs.
    6. Before fixing the adjacent disks, an electric lamp is installed inside the lamp. Lamps work best, although they don't produce sharp enough shadows.
    7. After securing the last disks, the lamp can be installed in a pre-selected location.

    How to make a lamp from Paper

    Do you have old CDs collecting dust at home that have long gone out of mass use? Do not rush to throw them away, but use them rationally for creative purposes. This is a wonderful material from which you can make many useful things for your home that you didn’t even know about. And if you have a lot of them, then that's even better. Today we will tell you how to make a lamp from disks with your own hands, spending money only on consumables. Following our step-by-step master classes, you can easily make an original bright table and a picture from CDs.

    How to make a lamp from disks?

    If you are eager to make an unusual chandelier from CDs, then follow all the steps in our master class one by one, and you will definitely succeed.

    Materials:

    • CDs (approximately 1000 pieces).
    • Cut out circle from fiberboard.
    • Steel wire (5 meters long).
    • Electrical connector (12 pieces).
    • Lamp socket.
    • Electric wire.
    • Switch + plug.
    • Fluorescent lamp.
    • Rubber feet (about 3 pieces).
    • Silicone transparent sticks (2 pieces).

    Tools:

    • Drill.
    • Pliers.
    • Screwdriver.
    • Glue gun for silicone.
    • Wire cutting pliers.
    • A simple pencil.
    • Compass.
    • Triangle ruler.

    The list is impressive, but believe me, it’s worth such an excellent result. Now let's figure out how to use all this to make a lamp from disks.

    Preparatory stage

    In order to start making a llama from CDs, you need to consider some useful tips on preparation:

    • Before starting work, you need to collect all the prepared parts together and check that all the tools are available. If you suddenly find that something is missing, do not panic - basic materials and tools can be found in every home. Other parts can be purchased at your local hardware store.
    • To make such a lamp you will need a lot of disks. If you don't have that many, then take them from your friends, work colleagues or classmates. We think they will be all for it, since many want to get rid of unnecessary “junk” that is a shame to throw away. Therefore, do not be shy, but ask - you need it for a good cause.
    • The size of the connector must match the diameter of the steel wire - it must fit freely into the connector hole.
    • You can buy a pre-assembled lamp socket kit with electrical cord, switch and plug. If you haven’t found such an option, then make it yourself, relying on your design preferences.

    Important! Please note that the electrical wire must be at least 2 m long. It's better to buy more than to waste time on an extra trip to the store.

    • Any fluorescent energy-saving lamp is suitable for operation, the power of which you choose yourself.
    • Buy only transparent silicone so that the place where the material glues together is not visible.
    • To work, you need to buy 2 of the largest sticks.

    Making the bottom

    When you have checked the readiness of the materials for work, you can begin the main process of making a lamp from disks:

    1. We take a circle from fiberboard and, using a compass and ruler, divide it into 12 equal sectors. We connect the division points to each other to mark the center where the cartridge and steel wire will be inserted.
    2. We firmly screw the rubber feet to the bottom.
    3. Using a drill, drill holes for the cable.
    4. Using pliers we cut off 6 pieces of steel wire, which should be at least 1 meter long.
    5. We bend each piece of wire with pliers or a vice.
    6. Now the entire structure made must be attached to the bottom of the future lamp. We secure the rubber feet with suitable bolts and a screwdriver, and fix the cartridge in the central hole of the fiberboard circle.

    Important! At this stage, do not forget to insert the lamp into the socket, as the disks will then block access to the socket. The socket must be located strictly in the center of the lamp. If it is shifted to the side, then put it in the correct position.

    We make a metal lattice and a sphere from disks:

    • We secure 6 arc-shaped pieces of wire by inserting the ends into the hole in the base.
    • We wrap the arcs with our hands or tools to the desired shape. We should end up with a structure in the form of a sphere.
    • Using wire cutters, we cut off the excess edges of the wire, obtaining a grid of 12 wires in the form of a spherical dome.
    • Now we are engaged in stringing disks. We first fill 6 drives with disks, which are located near the center. We seal the space between the wire and the disk with silicone from glue gun. We carry out such manipulations until the stacks of disks are 6 cm in height.

    Important! You don’t have to seal the first 5 layers of disks so that you can easily change the light bulb later.

    • When we have finished stringing the disks onto 6 rods at the base, we string them further onto 6 wires along the edge of the structure, alternating the disks with each other. We must have all 12 metal wires strung.

    Important! Each placed disk must lie on two adjacent disks. Make sure that the sequence of their correct placement on top of each other is maintained so that they fit evenly and symmetrically.

    Lamp top:

    • When the disk stacks have reached 26 cm, we wrap each metal end towards the center of the structure, cutting off all excess material.
    • Now, clamping the edges of the wire, divide the circle into 12 equal sectors. On each of them we mark 2 points for installing the electrical connector for the cable. As a result, you should get 24 holes.

    Important! Don't forget to make sure the holes fit your connectors.

    • In order to pull out the 12 connectors, we disassemble the connector.
    • We assemble the top of the structure. We put the connectors on the wires and secure the uppermost disk to the top using bolts and a screwdriver.

    That's it, the CD lamp is ready to use! Now you can turn it on and enjoy the pleasant dim lighting!

    Important! If you want to make a multi-lamp lamp, then you need to connect the lamp to double switch, where the wires from all the light bulbs are collected into one core in three twists. One wire needs to be connected to zero, and the other two to the remaining two wires.

    How to make a painting “Killer Whale” from CDs?

    Why not make paintings from disks with your own hands? Now we will tell you in detail how easy it is to arrange one of the options. In this master class, everything is described in more detail, so you will not have any additional questions.

    So, we will need:

    • Three-layer cardboard or a piece of plywood.
    • CDs and their boxes.
    • Stationery knife.
    • Scissors.
    • Ruler.
    • Pliers.
    • Watercolor and stained glass paints.
    • A drawing printed on a printer or drawn by hand.
    • Polymer glue.

    We begin to create the picture “Killer Whale” from disks:

    1. We decide on the size of our painting. For example, let's take a diameter of 50 cm. After that, take cardboard of a suitable size and draw two circles - a large one and a small one inside it. In our case external diameter the circle is 50 cm, and the inner one is 43 cm. The resulting rim will serve as a frame for the future painting. The inner circle can be cut out either at this stage or a little later - it’s up to you to decide.
    2. Now we look on the Internet for a suitable drawing with the image of a killer whale in black and white, print it on a printer and carefully cut it out. We attach the image to the inner circle to check the size.
    3. We trace the killer whale on cardboard and cut out the blank.
    4. Since we will use mosaics for our painting, we need to lay out parts of the disks in random order, leaving gaps, and then fill the voids with stained glass paints.
    5. We lay out a mosaic of disks. Take the black CD box and use a utility knife to cut out the strips to create individual pieces. Using pliers, we break off pieces from the black packaging and glue them onto the cardboard, forming a killer whale part.
    6. Using the same pattern, we cut out the killer whale’s belly and paint it with white paint.
    7. Now we need to make the sea - the background of the picture. We take the disk in our hands and cut it into two parts with a stationery knife. Now you can clearly see that the surface of the disk consists of three layers - two outer transparent coatings and foil in the middle.
    8. Next, you need to separate the layers of plastic to make two. The foil should remain on each layer of the disk. We will lay out the mosaic from this layer.
    9. Using a utility knife, cut the part of the disk with shiny foil into pieces different sizes and shapes.
    10. We glue the mosaic sea around the killer whale, filling the entire diameter of the circle.
    11. We use stained glass paints to fill the voids between the mosaics. Don't be alarmed that the paint will be a slightly different color after drying - this is completely normal.
    12. Using table napkins, cover the protruding edge so that the cardboard is not visible.
    13. We glue black pieces of the disk box to the edge of the entire picture. The result should be a black rim around a mosaic sea.
    14. Cover the gaps between the black parts of the rim with paint.

    That's all, the gorgeous picture made from disks is ready! Now you can hang it on the wall and admire your creation!

    Nowadays, information carriers such as CDs are gradually fading into the background. Do not rush to throw away iridescent circles that have become unnecessary, they may become excellent material for creativity.

    Second life for discs?

    There are many ways to give a second life to old CDs, in this article you will see some of them. Crafts made from CDs can become great solution for the interior and garden, or just to help you have an interesting time, simultaneously developing creative thinking.

    Creative people have long invented a huge number of options beautiful crafts from discs for children and adults, you just have to reproduce their ideas, and maybe come up with your own.

    Throw away such a wonderful and interesting material- a huge mistake. Using CDs you can make unique interior items, original and stylish gifts close, decorations for the dacha and garden: everything your heart desires and what your imagination and perseverance is enough for.

    Check out some ideas unusual use old computer disks and create new wonderful things with your own hands!

    LED lamp

    If you urgently need a new original lighting fixture– old disks will come to the rescue. This craft can be used both in home interior, and at the dacha.

    You don’t need any special materials for this work: the main condition is just to use a little imagination and patience.

    Be sure to follow our detailed step-by-step instructions:

    You will need 12 scrap disks, a protractor, metal staples or paper clips, a lamp socket and a thin drill bit.

    First, we divide one of the disks into five identical segments. For these purposes, use a protractor: the angle between the segments should be approximately 72 degrees. This disk will serve as a stencil for the rest.

    On the segment line, approximately 3-4 millimeters from the edge, drill five small holes. Next step: put the remaining disks in a stack and using the first disk (placing it at the very top of the stack) make exactly the same holes in the others.

    In order for the craft to be strong and hold well, you will need support rods. Rods from ballpoint pens: into the holes we just made we insert the rods necessary to act as guides.

    If you used really thin, correct drill, you don't even need to fix the holes: they will fit perfectly.

    The lamp is almost ready, now we attach the remaining disks to the structure with brackets.

    Now all that remains is to work with light: the last stage you need to screw the required lamp into the socket.

    Flower

    If you've been sorting out old boxes at your dacha and found a lot of unnecessary discs, there is a great way to use them to benefit the beauty of your yard. Crafts made from disks for the garden look very original and interesting, in addition, they are incredibly easy to make.

    In this mini-lesson, I suggest making small flowers from discs to decorate a garden, vegetable garden or yard at the dacha.

    Note!

    The tools for this craft do not require anything unusual: the right number of disks (it all depends on how many flowers you are going to make), a candle, scissors and paints to make the flowers more vibrant.

    The manufacturing process does not require special skills, it is very fast, but at the same time it will captivate you from the first second.

    All you need to do is carefully melt the disks over a candle (remember safety precautions: it is best to do this indoors and have some water nearby to put out the fire in case of danger) so that the plastic goes into beautiful waves, similar to flower petals.

    I suggest step by step instructions manufacturing beautiful rose from disks:

    • First you need to cut the disk evenly along the entire length of the radius and heat one edge of the cut over a candle.
    • Once the plastic is warm and soft, take a pair of pliers and use them to turn the edge slightly to the side.
    • Slowly turn the disc over the flame and continue bending the molten fragments.
    • At the end you should end up with a small spiral, which will become a rose bud.
    • You can paint it any color, attach a wire stem, cut leaves from other leaves and form a whole flower bed! It all depends on your imagination.

    So today you learned how to do a few simple crafts from old disks. I hope you found this lesson useful and learned a lot from it.

    Note!

    Photos of crafts made from disks

    Note!