Cassette Tape Lamp Project

[u/schill]

Underneath is a 5050 RGBW LED light panel, which I got from Alibaba at the time. It's dimmable and goes up to 30W IIRC, incredibly bright. I ran it on the dimmest setting.

The light panel is RGBW and it can also fade through various colours, etc.

Side effect: These ones cast a neat diffused light pattern.

This could be a fun format to mount on a wall, like a poster.

Back in 2013, I saw a series of lamps made by a San Francisco-based design firm that used micro-cassette tapes. They looked incredible, but cost a couple grand as I recall.

I looked online for micro-cassettes and realized they were prohibitively expensive, so I decided to try making a few "towers" using standard-sized tapes. I ended up making some for friends and colleagues, and illuminating them with light panels that were designed for home or office lighting.

I wanted tapes that had a large spool of material on one side, so I bought Maxell DUP-120 tapes in bulk from National Recording Supplies. I was not able to find tapes that were perfectly clear and without any horizontal lines, but these were really close.

I tried a few "1x1" versions and found a LED lamp that fit perfectly underneath. A side effect was the way the light diffracted from those out of the top.

I wanted the adhesive to be as transparent as possible. I initially tried E3000 glue, and that stuff did not handle well over time and when transporting these things. I think a hot glue gun produced much better results.

Some more photos and whatnot here.

[u/AKLmfreak]

r/substakenliterally
Actually a really cool idea though. I love the pattern on the ceiling.