Outdoor Light Lamp Shade

thingiverse

We set up some vintage Edison style birdcage lights on our patio and pergola but a recent hail storm shattered one of the bare bulbs and was a pain to clean up. I started looking for some kind of lamp shade to protect the bulbs but couldn’t find anything that was appropriate so decided to try 3D printing something. This is the result. There’s a before and after photo and we think they look much better with the shades on them. I didn’t want to get too close to the bulb even though they are low wattage. I could have made them a little bigger but figured these would go a long way to shielding from hail and give a bit of a finished look. I also didn’t want them to take too long printing as I have to make 15 for my light string. At this writing I’ve got 6 done and it will be a couple more weekends to get them all printed. It’s just two butt edged halves with a ring that fits tight and clamps the shade halves together and locks them onto the lamp socket. No tools and simple assembly - remove bulb, slip the ring over the socket, fit the two halves, and press the ring over the top of the shade halves to lock it all in place. Print two of the shade halves and one shade ring for each shade assembly. I just print them all in one go so at the end of one print I have a complete shade. There is a top and bottom to the shade ring. I put a slight radius on the inside of the ring to help to get it onto the shade halves. The top has the larger radiused outside edge for appearances. These fit a 34mm outside diameter lamp socket. It was just a common lamp kit that came with a set of bulbs but the concept would work for most outdoor lights. Not sure how the PLA will hold up to the sun though but I can always print more. I thought colors would look nice too but my wife wanted them to match the pergola color and the light gray is almost a perfect match for the shady bottom sides of the slats. When the lights are on, the inside of the shades turns a nice terra cotta color so the light gray filament was a good choice for these old style bulbs. I think color shades might look great with white bulbs.