Firelight was created out of a single aluminum rod, and the individual pieces turned to the appropriate dimensions using a lathe (glass encasement and wick were purchased separately). The pieces fit together precisely, requiring no other means of connection besides friction and gravity. This ensures easy assembly and use.
I developed Firelight for Stanford’s ME203: Design and Manufacturing. We were tasked with creating some product that would be meaningful for us to work on. We each developed several potential concepts and pitched them to coaches. We would each take one of our drawn concepts and prototype it, model it in CAD, and ultimately create it using one of four manufacturing processes: milling, turning, casting, or welding.
My initial vision for Firelight was mostly the same as the final product, except I first imagined the lamp with a handle, mimicking the experience of a mug and allowing someone to use the lamp as a portable light source, as opposed to a stationary decorative and symbolic piece.
I found, however, that the added complexity of connecting the handle was not worth the additional functionality of portability, especially when the lamp would not be bright enough to use instead of a flashlight anyway.
Brazing these separate aluminum parts to each other would only create additional points of failure within the product, and overall the simplified aesthetic of the final lamp fits more closely the original vision anyway.
This also significantly reduced the overall price, limiting the aluminum stock needed to just a single 6061-T6 round bar piece, as well as the manufacturing processes required, allowing me to focus solely on mastering the lathe.
After testing with several prototypes, I was having trouble getting the flame to remain stable when the glass wind shield was in place. My initial solution aimed to increase air flow to the bottom of the flame by allowing air to pass through holes surrounding the flame. This proved unsuccessful after creating the piece and further testing.
The ultimate solution lay in finding the correct size top for the glass windshield. When the hole in the top was too large, the flame would dance and jerk around, while if the hole was too small, the flame would go out. After some prototyping and fine tuning, the final lamp worked just as I had hoped, and the lid proved to improve the overall aesthetic of the design as well, even though it serves a functional purpose.
