Desk Lamp

I’ve made a desk lamp. But since I didn’t take pictures of the first one during its construction, I had to make another one.

Some time ago I saw a picture online of a similar looking lamp and thought to myself “self, you could make a lamp like that. But it needs more”. I ended up making the orange lamp seen above, then a year and a half later, decided to make the blue one. The pictures below are from the construction of that one.

First off, the base. It’s an inch and a half thick piece of oak – cut into a six by six inch square. This piece of floorboard was found in my dad’s scrap wood pile, which he says he got from his grandfather; it’s older than either of us. I added 4 coats of finish to it after cutting and sanding.

Sanded

Cut to size

Finished

Now, I gathered the rest of the pieces:

They are:

• 1 keyless lamp socket
• 1 7/16” dia. Lamp rod, 5” long
• 1 lamp nipple (fits lamp socket)
• 1 ½” cord grip connector
• 1 ½” rigid steel threaded coupling
• 1 ½” raised steel outlet covering (2 GFCI)
• 2 ½” rigid steel nipple fitting (2 came per 1 package)
• 2 ½” conduit locknut (2 per package)
• 2 ¾” – ½” reducing washers (2 per package)
• 1 two-gang steel 1½” deep box
• General purpose replacement cord
• Paddle switch (white)
• Outlet with 2 usb charging ports (white)
• Various lengths of wire
• Spray-paint

Most items I picked up at the hardware store, some I found lying around. The brown lamp rod for example, I found in a bin with tennis rackets in the basement – no idea where’d you purchase one.

I drilled a hole right in the middle of the base, slightly deeper than half the length of the nipple fitting with a 13/16” bit. This diameter is just enough for the fitting to screw into the base making a tight fit. Another hole was drilled along the edge of the base for the wire to go through. This’ll be dependent on the diameter of the replacement cord; in my case it was 3/8” diameter. I had to head out to the hardware store to get this bit. And spend several hours searching for the calipers.

The outlet cover was given a few coats of spray paint; I also gave it a slight sanding to rough it so the paint could adhere to it. Also some point, I found out I got the wrong threaded coupling, so I had to go out to the hardware store again.

The lamp rod I found with the tennis rackets in the basement was a foot long, so I cut it to five inches – four inches of it will be visible when the lamp is completed. Spend too much time finding the hacksaw.

The threaded coupling is attached to the base via one of the steel nipples, and the box is connected to the coupling with the other nipple and locknuts (on either side of the box). The lamp rod and socket are held in place with the cord grip connector; two reducing washers were used here to get the connector tight. While the paint on the outlet cover was drying, I wired up the switch, usb/outlet receptacle and lamp socket with more than enough wire. Realize the screwdriver is not where it should have been.

Once the cover is dry and ready to be added, I found out that the more than enough wire I had shrunk, so I took it all apart, added more wire, then wired it back up again.

Then I got to place the cover on and… forgot to cut off the flanges on the receptacles that made them too big to fit in the cover. Sooo… I had to take it all apart yet again to cut them off.

Finally, I spent one minute attaching three of the four screws to the receptacle and switch and spend a half hour on the last one. If you’re making a lamp like this, this is a good spot as any to bleed on your work.

Once completed, realize you don’t have a spare lampshade. Go on out again to the store to find multiple stores don’t have a shade that attaches directly to the light-bulb.

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