LED-based faux gas lamp

Our old house still has some of the original (now disconnected) gas lines stubbed out on the walls.  I was thinking of how to make a relatively realistic looking gas lamp without having an electrical cord dangling from the fixture.  Having done a previous Instructable using hacked LED tea lights, I decided that flickering  LEDs might hold the answer.

Step 1 Materials

LED tea lights - obtainable at most craft, and decorating stores.  I've even seen them in bulk at warehouse stores.  We're only interested in the LED component from these tea lights.  I haven't been able to find a source for the flickering LED components themselves, so tea lights seem to be the easiest way to obtain them.  For this Instructable, I used three yellow-colored flickering LEDs.

Additional LEDs - Experiment with different colors, brightnesses, etc. to get the effect you like.

Gas light fixture - I found this one on eBay and cobbled together some other gas lamp components that I had already.  The gas light fixtures mostly use the same screw thread size (US 1/8 in pipe thread), so mix and match to get the look you want.  Gas light parts can be bought here:  http://www.acrosstheboardwoodwork.com/

Candle-type light bulb - I used a burnt-out frosted CA-9 (flame shaped) bulb. (The frosted ones seem to be getting hard to find with the standard-sized base, but still can be found in the smaller chandelier base.)

Jar lid or something similarly round which can serve as the base of the lamp.
Black paint (to paint the lid black)

Comments

[electfire]

Hmm at first though I though you had run the wiring from the LEDs through the gas piping.. and then having the LEDs connected to a power supply instead of a battery....

[HarveyH44]

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G17848

Flickering LED $1.49 each, little expensive...

[makermike]

Good find! You're right, a bit expensive. The entire tealight is usually cheaper and you get a switch and a coin cell along with it.