Thread: Big Lamp

Break a chisel. (As in break a leg and don't mention the "Scottish play" only for wood turning.)

Yes good luck CH. Can't wait to see how these turn out.

Thanks for that touch of forum luck guys, it can only help. Next couple of photo installments blanks have now been cut to length ready for turning.

You need way more clamps than that!
and a bigger drop saw!

Hi Steve, it all hinges on the size of the shed untill it gets bigger I'm snookered. You can never have enough clamps it's a written law isn't it? and the saw worked well I just had to rotate the little work piece 3 times to get all the way through. (Was surprisingly quick and effective though) Oh, what's that you say? you are going to send me half a dozen complimentary clamps, thanks mate.

Originally Posted by Claw Hama

This should have been in the turning forum but it's big. I am making a floor lamp for a new cafe/restaurant, it's oversize. It will stand over 2m high and the turned stem will be up to about 190mm in dia and in modules up to 400 long they basicly will look like oversize finshing floats threaded onto the stem with an oversize lamp shade on top. So I needed a quick 190dia log with a 27mm hole up the middle for the steel spine and electrical cable. Also had to be cheap and soft easy tuning. All the floats will be painted and stained to look like floats and cork etc. Wish me luck. Some of the jobs I get??

Hey it's a challenge!! From the way you describe it, it sounds it will turn out really great. Can't wait to see what the finished project will look like!! I would wish you 'good luck', but it doesn't look like you will need it. What I will wish you instead is 'have lots of fun!!"

Will the lamp be painted or have a clear finish?

Hi Guys & GIrls, yes Woodwould it will be lightly painted (if that makes sense) which is why I was happy to use Pinus Crapus. It's, so far so good, I will put some more pics up tonight and show the progress.
Woodworklady, it,s all fun, this was a lifestyle change for me, so far the money is only ordinary but looking better but the work is just fantastic fun.

Got 6 out of the 7 floats turned and sanded today in amongst the phone calls, visitors, quotes etc etc here are the first 3. Quite nice plane forms on their own.

Looks really good so far claw, really good!!!

UPDATE, added another couple of pods to extend it to a full 2m high. Cut and rounded up the base which is 4 layers of 18mm ply glued together with recesses for the electrical, the top layer is loose and will be screwed down once the 3 bottom layers have been bolted to the floor. Being in a public area the base will be bolted to the floor on installation so climbing rodents don''t knok it over.
Pods undercoated, probably one more coat of undercoat before the colours start going on. Looks like I will also have to make the shade now too as we cannot buy one large enough for it. Photo of the base on the lathe (only an MC1100 but it does quite well) with my nephew "gee it's smooth uncle Claw".

Almost finished, just have to recover this lamp shade and install it at the restaurant. It's been a fun little project. I will have to put something in the next shot to show the scale if this thing.

The chairs in the background provide a pretty good sense of scale. I didn't realise it was going to be THIS big. Very well done, mate.

What, if anything, is the meaning of the lettering on the largest float?

Joe

Hi Joe, the bobbley elements of the lamp are simulated fishing net floats so license numbers or the like. The design is loosely based on something my partner saw in a magazine and she adapted it to use on this project.