Propane Lamp From Copper Pipe and Other Stuff

I've had a bot of copper and brass fitting laying around at my mom's house for decades. I built another instructable out of some of the pieces and thought I might as well build another. From the first picture you can see I built a fire pit and had a couple of the burners still laying around. We have a bbq that uses the little green Coleman cans and I got the idea to build an art lamp from the fittings, burner and propane can.

Step 1: Supplies and Tools

To Build -

This is a total Lowes or home depot project. Tools - Basic hand tools. You will need a butane torch, solder & flux to be able to solder the copper together. Pipe cutter or hacksaw to cut the copper.

Supplies -

Copper pipe, copper joints, a burner, special fittings for connecting the propane can to the copper wire

Cool shade

Skills Needed -

The biggest skill you will need is how to use the torch to solder the copper pieces together. Plan on practicing some before building the lamp. Once you build out the frame you have to make sure it doesn't leak and it becomes very tedious to try to unsolder even one joint since it's in the shape of a square.

Step 2: Design!

So I had all all these copper and brass pieces laying around and Just started futzing around with what I wanted my lamp to look like. Some of this, some of that, what pieces I really wanted to incorporate.

When I initially figured out what I wanted I cut the copper pipe to length. You can use a tubing cutter or hack saw. The tubing cutter is nice because it rolls the end of the pipe making it easier to put in the joint. With a hack saw you have to do a little sanding/maybe filing. Still easy stuff though.

Step 3: Assembly!

With soldering copper joints together, 'cleanness is next to godliness' is the the name of the game.

There are videos out there how to do this - and practice a few time until you understand the process. Also practice un-soldering a joint.

With that said, any copper being soldered together needs to be sanded so it's bright and wiped clean of dirt, grit and oil. Then any connection fluxed very well before putting the heat on a connection.

For the burner - that was 4 solder joints. I was also able to solder copper to brass - the burner. A little sloppy on the solder but very happy will pulling that one off!

Step 4: Attaching the Lamp Shade

Hit the internet and found a couple of shade that I wanted to use for a few dollars. I liked the green/rust color because it's going to match the copper when it oxidizes over time. Making the base for the lamp was a bit ulgy. Copper solders to copper just fine and I figured I could solder copper to steel. Just didn't work for me. I put something together that held and went with it.

Step 5: Testing

Very happy with the results. It's not going to light up the back yard but I like the flame and the effect from the lamp shade.

One thing about this is - when the propane is turned on, it fills up all of the tubing. When I turn the propane off there is enough propane in the tubing that the lamp runs for another couple of minutes before it runs out of gas.