May 3rd, 2008

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Yes, we have not entirely become a food blog here at theWAREHOUSE. I made a pair of lamps, starting the project as far back as mid-January. I have finally just finished them. What took so long? Well, several things. One, making it up as I go along. Two, the inevitable interruptions of homeownership as Winter fades into Spring. Three, I really need a more powerful sander. Seriously, I think I clocked about a trillion flight-hours on the little electric palm sander I own.

 

 

I had to start out by finding lamp kits at the local hardware store. They sold them as broken down as individual sockets and separate cords, which I had no idea about connecting. I found two complete lamp kits, consisting of the socket, lamp shade anchor assembly, cord (already connected to plug), switch, and most importantly - directions. I gave a shot at hooking up one of the kits before I started building the lamps just to make sure I could. It's really fairly easy. Basically threading all the pieces together in the correct order, tying a knot out of the two sections of cord, and then screwing the wires down on the lamp socket. Ya know. Easy.

 

 

Now to start cutting wood, I used my brand new reciprocating saw. I freaking love this thing. Don't get me wrong, my japanese pull saw is great, but this is the first powered saw I've owned and it is really handy for zipping through wood. Above you can see me cutting a section of the (nearly extinct but possibly slowly making a comeback) American Chestnut. It has great aberrations in the wood, lots of character. The other wood I'm using is an Australian hardwood called Jarra, which is incredibly hard - another reason to be thankful for the powered saw. Oh and a little walnut too.

My good buddy Christopher supplied me with all the wood for this project. He's good like that! Come up and visit us in theWAREHOUSE forum.

 

 

Wood on the moon! Haha. Just kidding. That's my garage floor.

Here's all of the main four sides cut for the first lamp. I assembled the lamps one at a time to see what I could learn from the first one. Turns out I didn't learn too much, except the aforementioned need for a more powerful sander. Something about measure twice cut once. I don't know. Isn't that wood beautiful?

 

 

Significantly later in the process I have drilled holes for all of the pegs. I wanted a peg-and-hole connection rather than just glue because I love the exposed nature of joinery. I'm nowhere near proficient enough to do elegant dovetails, nor do I have the right equipment (without taking a year), so I happily settled for using chunks of 3/8" dowels - which was stupid because they're almost the width of the boards I used, meaning the holes had to be ridiculously precise or they'd splinter through the face of the side board. And that would suck-diddly-uck, Flanders.

 

 

After the sides went together, a top of walnut was cut to size and attached. Not much to say here - and I'm deliberately skipping mentioning the weeks of sanding and grumbling about the lack of a perfect fit and lamenting the extreme hardness of the jarra against my poor sander. Oh wait. Did I just mention it? Oh well.

 

 

Chocks out, full throttle to sand the fine fellow down to smooth (I think it got a quick pass of 240 grit), and then to enhance the characteristics of the wood - which can be a little hard to see without actually picking it up and moving it, I did two coats of pecan stain - a very light stain.

 

 

Finally, some freezing Saturday night or so (approx.) I was finally able to bring the lamp base back out of the basement. Assembling the electrical hardware in lamp base was just a bit of a pain, as I had to buy an extra kit of "lamp connectors" or something like that to be able to get the neck of the assembly through the top. I don't know how other lamps like this are built - is that part normally standard on the lamp base? Well, whatever. Several minutes of tinkering with electrical things and I was ready - finally - to put on the lamp shades: the only main feature of the lamp I didn't build myself.

 

 

Nala's wondering what I'm doing, but I think she liked the attention. I put great soft CFL bulbs in the two lamps, just 40 watt. They're accent lamps, so I didn't want a blazing inferno of illumination. I think they do a great job for the whole side of the room.

 

 

Here you can see some of the finished "joinery." I guess I can call it that. It's far from perfect, but it works. Every time I do a project like this, I get a little better. So, I guess I had better keep building things.

I don't really have a problem with that.

Now, to repeat the entire process for the second lamp. Errr, you could go all the way back to the start and read it again, and then skip this paragraph the next time you read through. Or, you know, just keep reading.

 

 

Fast forward two or so months, and the second lamp is complete! I love having the two of them together, as a matched set. They both had their issues but overall they turned out very nicely, I think, for me just putting wood and electricity together. I like them as they are here, one displayed a little higher than the other. What do you think?

 

 

This is my absolute favorite feature of the two lamps. On the back of the second lamp, instead of drilling a hole for the electrical cord to emerge, I used a pre-existing knot hole. It's small, cut to be located in the perfect spot, and I think it's just grand. The first one just has a small hole in the back, just big enough for the cord to come through - discrete. But this knot hole has so much character. It really symbolizes the merging of the two constituents of the lamp; gorgeous wood and electrical innovation. Just plain neat.

So that's it, really. Those are my lamps! I like them a lot. Have you ever made a lamp? I'd love to see it. I bet we have some real carpenters amongst our readership here at theWAREHOUSE, but you can make an honest-to-goodness lamp out of almost anything. The kits that I bought were only about $9 each. The only expensive part was the lampshade, but you could easily salvage parts from some hideous trashbound monstrosity for your own creation (I would still get the new electrical kit, though; just salvage the lamp shade and its hardware). Anyway, if you want to show me any light-sculptures you've made, just send them right here.

I love lamp! And if you love lamp too, don't forget about the linking buttons just below here - I think I set them up correctly but I really don't know. I just copy code and fudge with it. Heh.

The End
 

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