Wooden Christmas ornament desktop lamp with LED strip

I made this Christmas scenery DIY lamp out of spruce, pine and warm LED strip. This project combines classical woodworking techniques, woodturning and even CNC typography carving. 

This project is actually my entry for the "Christmas ornament challenge 2017" more info here.

You can watch all the entries of the challenge here.

The lamp is actually a box with a Christmas scenery in it. I first cut the sides of the box to size on my table saw. For the cross cuts I used my sled!

I jointed the sides with lap joints. I cut the dado with a series of passes on the table saw, using a stop block on my cross cut sled. This joint provides plenty of glueing surface.

I then glued the sides together. To avoid using clamps I added a few brad nails.

In the front of the box I added a trim piece. This hides the joints and the LED strip. I cut the 45 degree miters on my miter box and glued and brad nailed them in place. I filed any gaps in the miters with glue and sanding dust.

To make the background of the scene I had to reduce the thickness of my material. I did that by passing it through my thickness planer. I then glued a few templates in place with spray adhesive and cut them out on the bandsaw. I sanded the pieces using my disc sander, the rotary tool and sanding blocks.

I then rounded over their edges with a spokeshave and a cylindrical file. This gives a more 3D look to the whole piece!

To carve out the typography I used my CNC machine. I also used the CNC to carve the smaller elements I could not cut on the bandsaw. To avoid using tabs on the finished piece I used double sided tape to secure the material on the CNC’s carving bed.

I sanded all the pieces using my random orbit sander and sanding blocks. 

I also glued four blocks in place to keep the background from moving around. I then glued and nailed the pieces of the background in place.

In my scenery there is also a snowman. I made him on the lathe from a scrap pine cylindrical piece. I first used the roughing gouge to turn the piece true. I then used a template to mark the positions of the basic shapes. Using a caliper and a straight chisel I established the basic measurements on my piece. I then used a spindle gouge to create the curved parts. I gave the final touches with a skew chisel. I sanded the piece from 100 grit to 280. I used a bamboo stick as a nose and two holes for eyes.

I colored the pieces with water based powder stain which I mixed in water. I used water based white stain for the white parts of the build. I sanded with 200grit sandpaper. I finished the outer box with two coats of water based clear satin varnish.

The snowman is secured in place with a countersinked screw that was from the base of the piece to the bottom of the snowman.

The typography elements are spaced from the background with bamboo sticks. I wanted my scene to have different levels and a more 3 dimensional look.

Using a forstner bit I opened up a whole for the cables. I then added the LED strip. I secured it in place with hot glue. I connected the power supply cables. 

I added four protective pads on the bottom of my piece. 

I secured the background in place with two screws. Just like we do in picture frames.

My little lamp was now ready. I really enjoyed this year’s Christmas ornament challenge! I hope you like my little project!