I know that I am not the only one to be plagued by countless free AOL cd's sent in via mail, or the ones that are free at stores. Most people find uses for them whether it be a coaster, shrukiens, or just shove them in a microwave. For a while now I have been collecting them while I try to think of something that I can make using them. Some of my earlier thoughts were to make a table out of them but I haven't gotten around to making that. However, I have made a lamp out of the cd's.

The parts are as follows:
(2) 3 foot sections of 1/4-20 allthread
(1) Sheet of poplar, or some other wood, or material to make a base out of
(1) 1amp 12 volt power supply with voltage regulator
(4) Acorn nuts
(4) Regular nuts
(1) Cold cathode sacraficed from a computer
And finally, Lots and Lots of cd's

[IMG:150:128]http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1474/0000001gz5.th.jpg[/img]

[IMG:150:128]http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/803/0000007bj8.th.jpg[/img]

[IMG:150:128]http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8007/0000005ja5.th.jpg[/img]

The first step was to make the base and the top. For the base I put 2 squares of poplar on top of each other, and for the top I used one square of poplar.


[IMG:150:128]http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/803/0000007bj8.th.jpg[/img]

[IMG:150:128]http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8007/0000005ja5.th.jpg[/img]

Once I had the base glued together I took it to the lathe and spun it down to size. After I spun them to the proper size I drilled 4 holes for the allthread to go through. Once the holes were drilled I had to mill a hole in the top of the base to fit the transformer for the cold cathode. Now that the holes were drilled, and the space was milled it was time to stain it. I didn't want a dark stain because it would have covered up the nice wood color, and I personally like the bare wood finish anyways.

Now that the parts were all ready, it was time to assemble the lamp. I cut the allthread in half and put one pole into each of the 4 holes in the base. I then put the electronics in the base and put the cathode standing up in the center, after that I put cd's onto it by pushing the cathode through the center hole of the cd and inside the boundaries of the allthread. Once the cd's were stacked I put the top peice of wood on it all and secured it by placeing the acorn nuts on the top of the all thread, and the nuts on the bottom. After all this, here is the final project.


[IMG:113:165]http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/3381/1003510ra4.th.jpg[/img]

[IMG:150:128]http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1861/1003508gt4.th.jpg[/img]
[IMG:150:128]http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/6657/1003505lw7.th.jpg[/img]

[IMG:113:165]http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8789/1003506vr8.th.jpg[/img]


It's not a very bright light during the day, but then again what lamp is? It lights up my room at night quite nicely and it adds a nice blue glow. I hope you like it.

wow, what a bright idea. Ok, enough bad puns. I'm glad someone found a use for all those damned AOL cds. I have a cold cathode tube, but sadly, no transformer. I gutted it out of an old scanner and the transformer was intigrated into the only daughterboard. I'd still love to try this sometime, I just need to start keeping all my fubar'd CDs. BTW, could you not glue all the cd's together and save the threaded rod? It would take a while, but I think it would look more clean cut.

Awesome project man, Kudos to you for making something awesome out of "junk"!

I could have glued all the cd's together but that might make the thicker and therefore not as bright. But that is a good idea, I might try it. These cathodes came out of my computer so now my computer is darker. So you know this is just a small portion of my cd collection. Think it should be submitted to HaD?

Wow, this is a nice piece of work, looks very nice.
And yes, I think it should be submitted to HaD.

Okay, I submitted it to HaD. Hopefully it will be put up ( Hint hint Elliot ).

I am going to make one of those but I am also going to add some blue EL wire for trim around the base and top board

Pimpage on HAD please!

I submitted it yesterday but its not up there today. Should I submit it again?

No need to spam the tipline. They do one hack per day. It they want to use it, they will.

looks pretty badass, I like the color that it puts out when turned on.

CD lamp 1
CD lamp 2
CD lamp 3
CD lamp 4

And how about this for your next project:
AOL CD Throne

Cerberus, why o why. Sigh, now this isn't as special.

The first CD lamp link came from Hackaday. Just a "heads up" to let you know they have seen this before.

It may not be as unique as you thought, but your personal touch makes it special.
Overall, a nice looking lamp. If I wasn't equipped with nightvision I would have a lamp
like that in my barracks.


Another use for AOL CDs
Autoloading CD Gun

that is an nice lamp thingy i must say

Maybe u could minimize materials by simply glue all the cd's together?
saves u build a frame for it

again insane simple idea
and anyone can make such
with them "spam" cd's we all get from whatever

Me gonna build 1

I like the idea of gluing the CDs together, but while a good idea to streamline the final product I'm not sure it would be structurally sound. The reason is that not only have I seen glue fail spectacularly in many projects over the years, but you're basically gluing the sturdy plastic underside of a CD to the top foil coat of the next.

If you're like me you've seen that flimsy foil coat flake off one time too many at the slightest scratch resulting in lost data. Now apply torque to the equation in the one or two foot tall tower and I can almost guarantee the CDs will separate from one another.

Not to be all Skeptic McDownerpants, just trying to save some heartache in the future. IMHO I'd combine the two methods to ensure that all the CDs line up perfectly thanks to the glue and the rigid threaded bars would decrase the chance or serparation due to the high torque flexing of the tower.