I wanted a new challenge involving more than just carpentry, and I had a lot of copper pipe around from building a couple tables. I’d seen these pretty cool looking pipe lamps for sale using a lot of copper, and figured that it wouldn’t be that hard to make my own.
It didn’t go completely to plan in the end, as I underestimated just how long the lamp holder assembly was (pretty long – but maybe this was because I was using a switched one that I had around), so I had to change the final shape of the pipe to make it work (with the original design, the bulb was hilariously close to the base…). I tried out a couple different shapes for the lamp, but I think that the one I settled on worked super well.
Most of the parts were acquired from lampspares.co.uk, but the hardest thing to find was the coupler from the 10mm pipe fitting to the lamp holder (which didn’t have a 10mm fitting like I thought it did). The Ryness lighting store in Soho came in super useful here!
Parts
- 22mm copper pipe (I had lots around from previous projects)
- Wood for base (again, lots lying around)
- 22mm -> 10mm pipe lamp holder fitting – £4.99
- Old S Lilley brass switched lamp holder (I had it around from a really old school DT project)
- In line switch – £1.99
- Antique style LED bulb – £5.99
- Extra cabling – £1.99
- 10mm to 1/2″ coupler – ~£0.79
All in all, a fun little project and I’ll definitely be making some more lighting in the future!