The Flower Lamp

by Horatius.Steam

8.5K748

Intro: The Flower Lamp


An easy and fast project.
In a special shop for light bulbs I found a beautiful glow lamp. Inside is a flower and if you provide mains it lights up in red with green leaves. For this bulb I needed a stand with a connector to the wall outlet and a switch. And YES Steam Punk stile was a must. :-)

I build two different types dark wood and light wood with brass applications.

STEP 1: The Switch and Cabling


I found a black switch with a 4mm leaver. I attached a brass ball nut to the leaver.
Than I started the cabling of the mains line.

The mains lines is connected to the lower pair of contacts of the switch (blue and brown)
The cables to the bulb socket are connected to upper pair of contacts.
I soldered the cables to the contacts.
For more safety I insulated the wires by a shrink hose.
Please don´t forget to connect the EARTH (yellow / green) wire to the bulb socket!

STEP 2: The Stand


I decided to do it the easy way.
I bought three pieces of multiplex wood:

100mm x 150mm x 6,5mm for the top plate
100mm x 150mm x 21mm for the body
110mm x 160mm x 6,5mm for the base plate

This is an extremely easy and fast way to build a wooden case. Even for other projects like radios or other gadgets:

- Cut the holes for the switch and the bulb socket into the top plate
- Cut a rectangle out of the body plate
- Glue the top plate onto the body plate
- Drill some holes for the mounting screws to mount the base plate.

On the last picture you can see the case ready for painting and mounting.


STEP 3: Painting and Mounting

I used mahogany wax stain for the stand and than a brush to polish it.
Then I mounted the bulb socket and the switch and then I connected the cables inside the bulb socket.

STEP 4: Brass Applications

I glued some brass application onto the top cover.

STEP 5: Finished :-)

Here you can see the flowers glowing in the dark :-)

Have fun!

With kind regards,

H. Steam

STEP 6: Disclaimer


These lamps are operated by 230V mains. Working on mains can be dangerous. If yo are not not sure how to do the cabling please have the cabling done by an electrician!


8 Comments

fretted 11 years ago

Where did you get that wonderful bulb ?
I would love to make 1 or 2 of these for my outside tables

Beautiful !

Horatius.Steam 11 years ago

This bulb is not longer constructed. It is the last of its kind. It coulb be found on ebay in the Netherlands if you are lucky.

fretted 11 years ago

Guess what i found

http://stores.ebay.com/I-CAN-SEE-CLEARLY-SUN-READING-GLASS/CLOSEOUT-BARGAINS-/_i.html?_fsub=130249519

Close outs too better et some while there here i am !

Regards

jblackwell3 12 years ago

Would a good way to do this be to use the plug from another lamp? So, rather than wiring it direct into the mains, you just use a plug socket. You could make it portable then. Unless you have and I missed it :s (which is entirely possible haha)

uhclem 12 years ago

Nice instructable and bulb. I have found these bulbs used as-is tend to darken themselves quickly by sputtering the electrodes onto the inside of the glass. This can be reduced with a current-limiting resistor.Try 100K 1/4 watt in series with the bulb. It will not be as bright but it will last a lot longer.

Horatius.Steam 12 years ago

Oh, thank you very much for this advise!

H. Steam