How to Make Lamps

Once you discover how easy it is to create lamps, you will never look at your favorite objects in the same way --- they will always be "potential" lamp materials! The list of what you can use as a lamp base material is limited only by your imagination.
The tools for lamp engineering are a little more than basic because of the electric drill, but with patience and some willingness, you'll do great. Following are instructions on how to take an object and make it into a lamp.

Instructions

Turn Favorite Objects into Works of Light

1




Select your lamp base. Whatever type of article you select should be hollow in the center, so you can run the lamp cord through it. Lay your piece on a folded blanket or towel; for our example we'll be working with a bust. Find the near center at the top of the head: the lamp works (the wiring base, the harp and the bulb) will rest above it. Make an "x" with masking tape over the intended hole if you are worried about the ceramic bit jumping or breaking the surface.
With an electric drill and the correct bit, form a hole in the top of the head. Enlarge the hole to accommodate the lamp rod.

2




Drill a second hole near the base, but in the back of the bust. You do not want the cord coming out of the bottom of the lamp because it won't sit flat on a table.

3

Threading the lamp. Put the cord into the hollow rod or pipe. (If you're not using a rod, attach a piece of stiff wire to help thread the cord through the base.) Approximately six feet of cord will trail out the bottom of the lamp with a pre-molded plug at the end.
Make sure the top, that is, the unplugged end, sticks out enough to allow you to work; you'll need several inches.
Secure this rod shaft by screwing (or gluing) the pipe (and the eventual socket seat) into the lamp hole.

4

Now you can begin to wire the socket. Take the new socket apart by pinching the shell and twisting it free from the base.
Pass the cord up through the socket base. One lamp cord holds two strands of conductors; each has a series of copper wires with insulation around them. Pull up the cord about six inches through the top of the lamp base. Split the cord and strip about a two-inch piece of insulation from each cord, exposing many fine wires. Twist these fine wires tight. They will need to be attached to the socket terminals.

5

Tie an underwriter's knot with the two cord pieces: make a loop with each strand of the cord, circle it away from where the strands meet, (it will look like a pretzel shape at this point); then pass each strand through the opposite loop and pull tight. The underwriter's knot just keeps the cord in the socket and the wires apart --- if they touch each other they will short out.

6




The smooth wire of the split cord is the hot or positive wire. The neutral wire has ridges.
Twist one wire into each screw terminal (wrap wire around screw, and then tighten it down). Loosen the brass or yellow screw and wrap the smooth wire once around the screw; make sure that the edge of the insulation is sticking up right next to the edge of the screw and that no wire is sticking out. Turn the screw clockwise. The wire should be pulled toward the screw.
Attach the other neutral wire, the one with the ridges, to the silver or white and screw in the same manner as the previous wire.

7

Reassemble the socket by twisting the shell back onto its base.
Pull the cord from the bottom of the lamp until the bulb socket is in its base. Tighten the screw and secure it. Test your light.

8

Trace around the bottom of the lamp on felt. Cut felt to fit the lamp base. Glue into place to finish and to keep the item from scratching your table surface.

9

Attach the harp to the mounting bracket, add the bulb, and then place a proper-sized shade on your lamp. Test your light.