Thread: Sourcing wood to make lamp bases

Pine sleepers 100 thick x 200 wide would be treated pine and pretty much useless for anything other than garden sleepers, and not great there either. Treated, so discoloured, porous and very prone to twisting and bowing as they are processed from timber that is not up to scratch for structural purposes.

Am I correct in assumng that you plan on standing these on end as suggested by the 350 high dimension, if so I am wondering about stability given one of the base dimmensions is 100 mm and the block would be 3.5 times that in height, and presumably have fittings/shades on top of that. You have probably factored these considerations into your design, but if not you should.

I think you might have to consider gluing up thinner blocks of material to get the required thickness, 190 x45 and 240 x 45 are common sizes if you could work around those sizes. Otherwise look for recycled timbers on ebay or similar, there are a lot of recycled bridge/wharf timbers with character around, but they come in long lengths.

How many pieces are you after? I have Redgum and I think some Cypress as well in those dimensions that I can cut to length for you, but it'll depend on far you want to travel, as I am in the Yarra Valley.

Thank you so much for your replies, very informative & helpful. I perhaps need to reconsider the dimensions I originally calculated... And especially the use of pine sleepers
I would definitely consider picking up some timber from Yarra Valley so will be in touch regarding this, I was thinking 6 pieces at lengths of 30 cm+ but as mentioned may need to rethink sizes
Thanks again for replies, v. much appreciated

No worries , once you've worked it all out, let me know.