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Show HN: Lamp Carousel – DIY kinetic sculpture powered by lamp heat (2024) (evan.widloski.com)

104 points by Evidlo ↗ HN
I wanted to share this fun craft activity for the holidays that I've been doing with my family over the last few years. I came up with these while cutting up some cans trying to make an aluminum version of paper spinners.

There are a variety of shapes that work, but generally bigger+lighter spinners are better. Also incandescent bulbs are the best, but LEDs work too.

They remind me of candle carousels I would see at my grandparents' house during Christmas. Let me know what you think!

13 comments

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danielbln
These look fun, I'm partial to the dad turbine. Too bad (for something like this) that basically none of my lamps produce much heat these days.
yial
This is such a charming project! I’ve been quite taken for years by the “Christmas” decorations that spin using a candle.

I quite like these more - mainly because they could be added onto a lamp that puts off heat, and be kind of a perpetual decoration with subtle motion.

I love your “dad turbine” design, and the flying wing has some magical quality to it.

Thank you so much for sharing!

andai
Delightful, thank you for sharing. You have added a little bit of whimsy to the world :)
IshKebab
Do people still use incandescent bulbs in America?
whitehexagon
A generation of under investment in energy production will create all kinds of government backed environmental propaganda. Incandescent bulbs = bad. Fossil fueled AI data centers = economy.

If there was a true environmental motivation for reducing our electricity usage, our bills wouldn't be 60% network charges, they would be 100% usage based charges.

lgvld
So cool, thanks for sharing.

We used to do that as children as well: a spiral cutted out of paper on top of a long skewer stuck into a potato. Felt like perpetual motion somehow.

It works if you put it on top of a radiator btw.

dpflug
This feels like the delightful oddities one would stumble across on the Old Internet. Thank you for sharing!
gridphp
I thought it's something about LAMP Stack! lol
darubedarob
How can i make on that creates water light ripples on my roof?
blacksmith_tb
It wouldn't (just) be convection, but it would be easy to have a spinner over the top case fan on a PC... though going the other direction, convection off a fanless PC (I have a little Zotac) might be enough to spin a very light spinner (mylar might work, though to get a pivot without friction won't be easy).