Soldered lamp
This was one of those: "This post on Pinterest looks awesome. I have to try it." It was a lamp made out of recycled copper pipes.
Fun fact—my uncle installs heating systems, so I had a box of scrap copper pipes and attachments lying around. I had a design in mind, but once I started scavenging through the shed it continued to develop.
Idea​
I wanted to make a lamp out of plumbing copper tubes, but I found an old clock and decided to make it a central piece of the lamp. Just to complicate things. Because, what is life if not an opportunity to do something weird?
Challenge​
This design decision meant that I had to:
- Polish and solder rusty copper tubing.
- Invent a way to mount the clock piece.
- Attach the light source using scrap.
- Construct some sort of a stand.
Outcome​
Steel wool, sandpaper, and a power drill work wonders. I made a quick jig to mount individual copper pieces to the power drill. Then simply pressed them against steel wool or fine-grit sandpaper to restore their original sheen. For corner pieces that are harder to rotate with this approach—I switched to a wire attachment for the drill. It's like a circular brush with fine wires for hairs.
To mount the clock piece, I cut out a thin strip of sheet metal. To match the pipes, I painted it with that copper-colored spray in a can. The metallic sheen looked almost the same as the polished pipes. I then curled it around the clock and fixed its upper part inside the copper tubing. A screw held it in place, but you could not see it as copper tube was soldered last.
For the light source, I just pulled a regular insulated power cable through the pipes. I had to be careful about insulation because copper is conductive. At the end, I sprayed a plastic lightbulb mount with a silver-colored spray to give it some contrast. The final part was, again, a plumbing supplies leftover nut which attached the lightbulb.
The last thing, and a total oversight, was the stand. I was out of ideas at this point and just grabbed the remnants of old wall clock. I made the central hole match the radius of the pipe and jammed it in there.
The finishing touches were still not there at this point, but it held together and it worked! The clock, the light, and it did not give an impression it would fall apart.
Learnings​
This was a fun little experiment for me. More of a proof-of-concept than anything else, it confirmed that making these types of sculptures or pieces was not as complicated as it seemed online.
In retrospect, had I planned on selling it, or exhibiting it anywhere, I wouldn't have used some of these scrap materials like the stand and the lighting. I would have probably polished it with a higher grit and used some sort of an agent to protect it from humidity so it does not lose its sheen. Then again, copper does tend to look cool as time goes by—it gets darker and then kind of greenish. Stronger too, unlike iron.
Most importantly, as long as there was an idea, execution was secondary. I was happy to test it out, work out the kinks in the process, and learn to solve a couple more handyman problems.
On to the next one!