Shadow Lamp Moves Delibrately Slowly

Inspired by the famous lava lamp, [Mojoptix] wanted to build a creation of his own with a similarly organic, changing lighting effect. However, rather than flowing heated wax, he created a lamp with pseudo-random effects his own way. 

The lamp itself is built around a shadow-puppet concept, using a pair of rotating apetures that [Mojoptix] 3D printed. The apetures turn, one in front of the other, and are lit from behind by an IKEA LED light. As the apetures rotate, they present a slowly varying path for the light from the LED, which is projected onto a paper screen placed in in front of the assembly. To generate the long-period rotation, the rotating assembly is turned by the minute hand of a common clock movement. It’s a great way to get a slow-rotating motor and gearbox setup on the cheap, as long as your torque requirements are absolutely miniscule.

It’s a neat way to produce a slowly-varying lighting effect; we’ve featured other discussions on the topic before, too. Video after the break.