Yay, my first Instructable! A little background: I don't have much in the way of resources, other than the tools and various types of scrap I've managed to gather over the years, so I've become a bit of an expert at making useable art with, well... junk. Anyway, since my job allow me to listen to music while I'm sitting around waiting for people to call, and I've been on a bit of a steampunk kick for a while now (what can I say, all that brass and Victorian design is just plain neat), I decided to make a steampunk "aural enhancer" to stick on my desk and play my media through.
Most of the parts used in this project were things I had laying around the house, but I did purchase a few things:
2 - Sweet lighting sconces, $3 a piece @ the Habitat for Humanity ReStore (Best. Home improvement. Store. EVER.)
1 - single pole, single throw switch - $4 from O'Reilly Auto Parts
1 - tube of JB Stick, probably $2-3
The donor for this project was a cheap $5 USB powered mp3 player amp I got as a last minute gift for my then-girlfriend-now-wife a few years back (sorry honey... Love Ya!)
Now, obviously it would be next to impossible to make the exact same piece, and besides, who would want to? The purpose of this Instructable is to show others that you can make useful art out of just about nothing, and hopefully inspire someone to try their hand at scrapyard folk art.
OK, I think I covered all my bases, so let's get rolling with the build.
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1: Fixture Disassembly and Re-wiring
Obviously, the first step, once I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do, was to take the sconces apart, remove the lamps, and rewire. As you're removing the lamps from the fixture, attach your new wiring to one of the old wires before you pull them out of the fixture so you don't have to try and fight around the C-curve.
The lamps are connected to the fixture with a screw-mount that is riveted to the bottom of the lamp. Make sure you save them if you want whatever you re-mount in the fixture to be removable; a finishing nail and ball peen hammer work well for removing the rivet.
The lamps are connected to the fixture with a screw-mount that is riveted to the bottom of the lamp. Make sure you save them if you want whatever you re-mount in the fixture to be removable; a finishing nail and ball peen hammer work well for removing the rivet.
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
One suggestion: You might want to consider decorating the input cable, as I did with my Steampunk USB cable.
Keep up the good work! Looking forward to seeing more;-)
I actually sleeved the USB cable with some brown fabric (specifically, the drawstring from an old pair of sweat pants) since taking those pictures, but haven't gotten around to taking new ones.