{"id":999,"date":"2017-04-05T18:00:33","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T01:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mossor.org\/blog\/?p=999"},"modified":"2017-04-05T11:24:15","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T18:24:15","slug":"make-lamps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mossor.org\/blog\/make-lamps\/","title":{"rendered":"Make: Lamps!"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n

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Some time ago, roughly four months ago, I was watching a show called The Librarians. \u00a0I enjoy it because it\u2019s silly and escapist and it\u2019s filmed in Portland. \u00a0In the past they have used many familiar landmarks including the sub at OMSI (and OMSI) and their secret lair is under the base of the St. Johns Bridge. \u00a0So, it\u2019s always fun to watch and spot landmarks. \u00a0Give it a shot if you\u2019re in the mood.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I was watching one episode, I spotted a lamp which I thought was kind of cool. \u00a0I have noticed the show likes to fill the background with lots of stuff which is kind of Steampunk-ish or maybe Retro or Urban or something which I\u2019m sure has a name that I don\u2019t know. \u00a0In any case, the lamp caught my eye. \u00a0Enough so that I took a few screenshots of the television.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the best:<\/span><\/p>\n

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I liked the wood, I liked that I could identify that most of it was built from industrial pipe, I liked the bulbs, which I would later identify as Edison Bulbs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later, in another scene, I spotted a single bulb version which was similar, but had a glass shade. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After that I went to Google and started searching for similar lamps and finally ran across this one off a link on Pinterest. \u00a0I won\u2019t link to it since the Pinterest link dead ends and the domain is for sale, but here is the lamp which the ad copy says was \u201cheavily featured on The Librarians\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n

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So, again, nice wood, rustic pipe, cool bulb. \u00a0I wasn\u2019t as jazzed about the glass shade, but I liked the concept.<\/span><\/p>\n

That sent me down a rabbit hole of Googling, but mostly around how to build DIY lamps using pipe, looking at fixtures, bulbs, lamp shades or cages.<\/span><\/p>\n

I thought I could figure out how to do everything except I had no clue how to build the base. \u00a0I haven\u2019t done any woodworking since woodshop in junior high (shout out to Mr. Janke who had lost a few fingers to things with blades, was a bad-ass with the industrial vacuum and taught us to taunt folks from Sweden with \u201cTen Thousand Swedes, running through the weeds, chased by one Norwegian!\u201d). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately, I know my own bad-ass woodworker and he has all his fingers and is a friend, so I was able to ask him some questions and he was very, very helpful in pointing me in the right direction and steering me away from a couple nasty potholes. \u00a0Thank you Larry!<\/span><\/p>\n

The first problem I had was how was the base constructed? \u00a0To those with more knowledge than me, it is probably obvious, but I didn\u2019t know. \u00a0Larry told me that this is done by gluing the right sequence of strips of wood together after you cut them on a table saw. \u00a0Easy Peasy! \u00a0Yeah, right. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, I followed up with, what kind of crazy rare wood is that likely to be? \u00a0He again put me on the right path: \u201cThose look like fairly common species that aren’t terribly rare and expensive. \u00a0I’d say mostly walnut, maple, and a couple of others.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, after a trip to the wood store, examining the options and spending an hour talking with the very helpful wood salesmen, I settled on the pretty common White Oak for the light, Black Walnut for the dark and Cherry for the warm brown color.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will not take you down the odyssey that that process became but I learned how to use my table saw (correctly), I learned how to plane (and how not<\/span>\u00a0to plane) wood. \u00a0I learned that it\u2019s far better to do it correctly the first time than try and sand out the mistakes later. \u00a0I followed the woodworkers path of turning larger pieces of wood into smaller pieces of wood with the application of power tools and elbow grease and the production of copious amount of sawdust. \u00a0Like \u201cfill up my wet\/dry vac\u201d volumes of sawdust.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then came the lengthy process of gluing, which was terrifying only because it seemed like it would be hard to undo if I did it wrong. \u00a0Then there was routing to round over the edges for the smooth look in the image above. \u00a0Then came the sanding. \u00a0And more sanding. \u00a0And then there was some sanding in there somewhere. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually I had a base and it was time to drill the holes for the legs and the hole the electrical cord would go through. \u00a0I managed to scratch my wood (stupid mistake) which necessitated more<\/span>\u00a0sanding to fix my error.<\/span><\/p>\n

We had some really awesome winter weather this year in Portland, so that killed nearly a month of time I might have worked in my shed, but I didn\u2019t want to because it was really, really cold and breathing in a shed where you are producing sawdust without sufficient ventilation is really unpleasant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, about a month ago, the weather turned sufficiently and I put in the time to get the bases close to done. \u00a0Then it was time to turn them from a dry looking piece of wood into something nice and once again Larry steered me in the right direction: \u201cFor projects like that I prefer a rub on finish. \u00a0I finished one of my first woodworking projects with Watco Tung Oil. \u00a0Like boiled linseed oil but penetrates better and leaves a warmer tone. \u00a0Boiled linseed oil is ok, but not what I think of as a satisfying finish.<\/span>\u201d \u00a0It was his next piece of advice when we talked about how many layers to apply that cemented the realization that woodworkers are nuts: \u201cJust wipe on, let sit for a half hour, wipe off – then wait a day. \u00a0They say a coat an hour for a day, a coat a day for a week, a coat a week for a month, and a coat a month for a year, and yearly thereafter.<\/span>\u201d \u00a0Yeah, nuts. \u00a0I gave up after a dozen coats. \u00a0They looked nice. \u00a0I was happy with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

In parallel with this i acquired the pipe fittings. \u00a0I figured (correctly) that they were \u00bd\u201d pipe and fittings. \u00a0I did some quick figuring for parts and made a trip to my local big box hardware store and bought the basic pipe bits. \u00a0Unfortunately, they\u2019re pipes. \u00a0From a hardware store. \u00a0So, they were greasy and kind of gross and I wouldn\u2019t want them in my house, so I had to do some cleaning.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I was putting together parts and looking at what I wanted to do, I started to notice that a lot of Steampunk uses brass or copper. \u00a0And some of the shades and lamps that I found were kind of cool looking with brass accents. \u00a0So, I decided that instead of strictly industrial, I was going to class mine up a bit and I would use brass bits (technically termed \u2018nipples\u2019) to connect the pipe parts. \u00a0And, I would paint my pipe black so I\u2019d have the wood and black pipes and brass accents and old-timey bulbs.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wanted to find some nice sockets but I didn\u2019t want the standard pull cords or knobs to turn them on\/off because I planned on using a switch on the cord. \u00a0That resulted in me exploring a very cool store my wife and I happened upon one weekend in Portland called Sunlan Lighting<\/a><\/span>. \u00a0They source any number of cool bulbs, sockets, wiring, lights, lamps, hardware and various bits and bobs. \u00a0It\u2019s a very cool and very Portland store and everyone in there was very nice and very helpful.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Here I found several difficult to find things:<\/span><\/p>\n