Straight lamp

I made a fully turned lamp using steel and cherry wood as a Christmas present for my sister and brother-in-law. I got the cherry wood as 2 sections of trunk about 4 years ago from my tree-surgeon house-mate. He cut them down from a tree on Colebrook Row in Islington, London. After letting them season as planks for 3 years, this is the first time I’ve used any of them.

For the design I wanted a tall thin lamp and to use a large round bulb. To make it sturdy  and resistant to being knocked over, the base is solid steel and weighs a number of kilos, but the stem and connector cup are both hollow with thin wall sections. It is made from 3 sections that screw together with the cord going up through the middle. I designed the bottom of the base to have a cover plate that can be used to mount the lamp on any wall or ceiling. The stem has a steel pipe as the core inside the cherry, so it is very rigid. The bulb holder had an earth connection and all the metal parts are touching one another, so the whole lamp is earthed as well, so I guess it would pass a PAT test.

It was fun to make it and I would be up for making more, but it does takes a real long time to finish them.

I had to turn the rough saw log between centres as I had no other way to mount it.

I turned one end down so it was cylindrical and I could mount it in the chuck.

From that point I could drill it out. Luckily I had an extra long drill to do this.

Next up was to thread the ends of the 20mm steel tube. This was M20 X 1mm

I glued the steel tube into the wood using expanding polyurethane glue, or gorilla glue.

With the tube core glued in place, I could turn the wooden outer down to size.

This is the finished piece, With M12 X 1.75mm on top and M10 X 1mm on the bottom

Here’s the plate in the bulb holder

Then I turned the holder sleeve down to size.

Next I drilled it out.

Then bored it to fit the bulb holder.

This is it after I parted it off.

I had to make a mandrel that I would superglue the part on to machine the other end.

Once on the mandrel, I turned the taper and drilled and threaded the stem end.

The base piece started off with drilling the hole for the cord with a hand drill

Once in the lathe I could turn the diameter and face the bottom.

Then I drilled it out before all the boring work.

I cut a foot ring for the base and put a large chamfer for the cord to travel up through the centre hole.

At the edge of the relieved section is a M60 X 1mm female thread

The base cap has a male M60 X 1mm thread. I cut the thread then this was used for a mandrel for turning the other side.

Here is the base screwed onto the threaded mandrel

I turned the taper with the compound. This took hours!

When I finished, I drilled out the top end .

Then I could check that the stem would screw into the base.

Here is the base cap just before I part it off.

I drilled 2 holes in the base cap to fix it to a wall or ceiling.

Here it is screwed into the base.

The finished lamp, standing upright in the daylight

Same position, illuminated

Showing the underside of the base, with the cover in place.

This shows the cover taken off.

The lamp can be mounted vertically, hanging down.

The base can be simply screwed into a wall.

Then the lamp is screwed in place.