Floor Lamp

[Frank Pellow]

(part 1 of 2)

Last year I made a lamp shade utilizing stained lass, oak, and walnut and gave the shade to my wife, Margaret, for Christmas.  I promised to make the base ASAP.

Here is a photo of that lampshade under our tree:

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The lampshade plan was for a table lamp but I thought that I could easily extend the plan to make a floor lamp base.  So, in January, I made a prototype base out of scrap wood but it didn’t seem right.  Somehow, the in extending the table lamp base to a floor lamp base then proportions got out of whack; so I set the project aside.  As with so many things that I set aside, it was not until many months later that I got back to it.  This time I decided to make a base using a floor lamp plan that I found in Wood magazine. (The plan for the shade came from Fine Woodworking.)    

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The rough quarter-sawn white oak that I put into my work shed to acclimatize a year ago:

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is certainly now well acclimatized.    [smile]
Before I get started, I should explain that, by mistake, I left my MFT at Pellow’s Camp  [crying]  when closing up last September.  So, now my MFT is 1,000 kilometres away and some tasks that would have been done utilizing that table and either a track saw or router will have to be done using other tools.

I planed the boards I am using on my new Hammer jointer-planer combo.  But, rather than using the jointer to make a square edge, I prefer to use my Festool track saw equipped with a  Panther blade for ripping:

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Using the same saw, I ripped a the 33 millimetre board that had just been jointed into a couple of pieces approximately 65 millimetres wide.  These pieces will later be glued together to form the floor lamp’s column.  Once these boards have been glued together, I will trim the column to be 60 millimetres square.
 
Next, I routed a channel wide enough to hold a 3/8 inch threaded rod in the inside centre of both the column boards:

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The rod fits well:

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The short piece of rod that came with the standard lamp kit that I purchased was much too short to provide adequate support, so I had to cut a longer piece from a separately purchased rod:

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I want the rod to be both adjustable and removable so I embedded a bolt within the channel.  In order to do this, my drill press was used to “carve” a slot at right angles to the channel and a little way down in the channel:

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I glued the two sides of the post together with the bolt attached to the rod and crossed my fingers  [scared]  to hope it would be possible to unscrew the rod once the glue had dried.  It was!  [big grin]  Even better, it was then possible later to screw the rod back into the captured bolt.

The post was then planed down to 6 centimetres on each side (being careful to keep the channel in the middle):

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The lamp base plan calls for the exclusive use of oak but, since the shade utilizes both oak and walnut, I decided to use some walnut on the base as well.  So the four pole supports are to be walnut.  In this photo the pattern for a support is being transferred to a template make use of a sliding bevel and a blending curve (both purchased at Lee Valley):  

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The column support pieces were cut out of this 25 millimetre thick walnut board using a Festool jigsaw equipped with a scrolling blade:

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Unfortunately, this particular blade snapped when it hit a knot:  [huh]

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That surprised me.  I have used this type of blade a lot over the last nine years in two different Festool jigsaws and have seldom known one to break.  I carried on with the replacement blade and the results were great in that all four column support pieces were almost exactly the same size.  I ganged them together with a couple of clamps and sanded the curve a little bit with 80 grit paper on a Festool linear sander (Duplex) in order to remove the slight differences:

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The feet are constructed from two oak blocks assembled with a half lap joint.  I cut the large dados for the joint using several passes with a “newish” Forrest dado-set on a General 650 table saw:

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I’m quite happy with the joint.

I cut a 19 degree bevel at both ends of both feet, again using my table saw:

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Next, I needed to cut these marked pieces out of the feet:

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I decided to use my large bandsaw for the angled cuts and the dado blade set on my table saw for the straight cuts:
       
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The results were acceptable:

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[Frank Pellow]

(part 2 of 2)

The cuts shown above will be at the bottom of the foot assembly, so will not normally be seen.  Nevertheless, I cleaned them up a bit with a file and a hand sanding block.  The four angled cuts at outside top corners of the feet will be seen, so I hauled out my old and, now, little used Delta stationary belt sander and tidied up those cuts:

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It did a great job!
 
I rounded the appropriate edges of all the parts made so far for the lamp base using a ¼ inch roundover bit to a router mounted in my (home made) router table:

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I use a Triton 2.25 hp router in the table and it is connected a Festool vacuum.

Grooves for splines were cut in the bottom of the column and in all four column supports:

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This went well except for one small glitch:

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I cut the groove starting at the wrong end (that is the visible top) in one of the supports.   [embarassed]  Later on, I glued a small piece of walnut into the top of the groove and the goof is difficult to detect.

All parts were sanded with my Festool Rotex 150 and Deltex 93 sanders using a progression of 80-120-150-180-220 grits.  Most of the sanding was done with the Rotex but the Deltex came in handy for some surfaces because it can get right into the corners:

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One thing that I do when sanding for a prolonged period, is to frequently clean the paper with a crepe block (purchased at Lee Valley).   The block does a great job as can be seen in these before and after photos:

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The splines were glued into the column:

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The plans called for 3 inch #8 screws to attach the column to the feet and 2.5 inch #8 screws to attach the supports to the feet.  Because one of the surfaces in all these butt joints is an end grain meaning that glue will not work well, I think that these screws would not be strong enough.  Instead, I used 4.5 inch long ¼ inch lag bolts to attach the column and 4 inch long #12 screws to attach the supports.  In the picture below, I am pre-drilling the holes in the foot assembly.

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In the past, I have had screws and bolts snap off in very hard wood and, to avoid this, I prepared each hole in the column in advance by screwing a lag bolt to a suitable depth then removing it:

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In the next photo, the feet, column, and supports have all been assembled and the lamp has been wired with a tri-light socket and an extra long lamp cord:

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I finished the lamp with polymerized tung oil.  First, a coat of tung oil sealer was applied:

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Then wiped after 10 minutes.  After one day, a mixture of one part sealer and two parts oil was applied then wiped.  This mixture was applied and wiped two more times with a 24 hour interval between each application.

Here are photos of the lamp being tested in my workshed, the first using a flash and the second without a flash:

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Unfortunately, the second picture does not capture the glow of the light through the stained glass.  I find the light as seen through the glass on the lowest setting of the tri-light bulb to very relaxing.

I think that too much of the lamp socket is visible below the shade and am going to attempt the get a shorter lamp harp in order to lower the shade.  It should be possible to lower the shade by about  five centimetres.

Here is a photo of the lamp in its place in our living room:

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[Theshipstore]

Frank.  Nice job on the lamp, I like your stained glass shade and the lamp post really sets it off nicely.  Good luck in the contest

Sal

 

[tjbnwi]

Nice looking lamp Frank.

You could have make this Christmas present part two.

Tom

 

[nclemmons]

Nice work and step-by-step photos, Frank. 

Good luck in the contest!

neil

 

[stvrowe]

Nice work.  I particularly like your interpretation of the timeframe associated with ASAP.

 

[Frank Pellow]

Nice work.  I particularly like your interpretation of the timeframe associated with ASAP.

Thanks.

I am fortunate in that Margaret and I have known each other for 53 years and she has learned that, for me, ASAP might take a very long time.  [big grin]

 

[ScotF]

Frank,

Nice job!  I made a floor lamp several years ago, although with a regular shade.  Used similar technique to cut the groove for the wires.  You really do a nice job with cut-glass.  Very nice.

Scot

 

[Frank Pellow]

I have had a couple of queries about the shade for the lamp.  The making of the shade is described in the thread: http://festoolownersgroup.com/member-projects/oak-floor-lamp-with-stained-glass-shade-build-thread/

 

[tiralie]

   
The short piece of rod that came with the standard lamp kit that I purchased was much too short to provide adequate support, so I had to cut a longer piece from a separately purchased rod:
 

Frank:
Great explanation and photo's.
Just wondering why you have a cork between the lamp and the top of the stand? Is that just for the photo or is that to keep heat away from the wood?

(part 2 of 2)

Grooves for splines were cut in the bottom of the column and in all four column supports:

The splines were glued into the column:
 

Seems like a perfect job for some Domino's  [poke]

Thanks again for posting your WIP photos.
Tim

 

[PaulMarcel]

Really nice photo documentation and project, Frank, though I expected no less from you

Thanks, too, for posting the link to the shade; that looks interesting.

Good luck on the contest!  Just don't move to Québec between now and the drawing...

 

[Frank Pellow]

   
The short piece of rod that came with the standard lamp kit that I purchased was much too short to provide adequate support, so I had to cut a longer piece from a separately purchased rod:
 

Frank:
Great explanation and photo's.
Just wondering why you have a cork between the lamp and the top of the stand? Is that just for the photo or is that to keep heat away from the wood?

(part 2 of 2)

Grooves for splines were cut in the bottom of the column and in all four column supports:

The splines were glued into the column:
 

Seems like a perfect job for some Domino's  [poke]

Thanks again for posting your WIP photos.
Tim

Tim, when I took the photo of the lamp with the cork installed, I was testing to see if it might be needed to keep the heat way from the wood.  I decided that thecork was not needed so removed it.

Domino tenons could have done the job (rather than the splines), but I don't own a Domino. 

 

[tiralie]

Domino tenons could have done the job (rather than the splines), but I don't own a Domino. 

Yes, I know Frank, it's well documented.
I was teasing you  [wink]
Tim

 

[dltflt]

I like it.  Where did you find the shade plastic?

 

[Frank Pellow]

I like it.  Where did you find the shade plastic?

Thanks Don.  The material in the shade is glass, not plastic.  To be precise, the majority of the glass is Kokomo 14t.  I forget exactly who the manufacturer of the dark blue glass is.  I purchased all the glass at the 'Fantasy in Glass' store in Toronto.  The glass pattern is my own.

 

[Frank Pellow]

OK, I managed to find a shorter harp and further modified that harp's shape employing a file, an anvil, and a hammer.  This allowed me to lower the shade by about 8 centimetres and this means that one does not see the socket when looking straight on at the lamp.  I am much happier with the appearance now.   [smile]

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[Frank Pellow]

As I talked about in the thread:

http://festoolownersgroup.com/building-materials/help-please!-how-can-i-insulate-a-wooden-lampshade-top/msg282055/#msg282055

there was a serious [/i] (and dangerous  [embarassed]) flaw in the design of my lamp.

The lampshade burned!

What to do?

I decided to see if the lamp shade itself could be extended down in order to hide the bulb and socket.  This allows a bigger harp and gets the bulb further from the wood.   Because of the shape if the existing frame, the top edge of the extension needs to be a V shape.  Here is a prototype:

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Margaret likes it.   [smile]

The prototype has clear glass but the real thing will have matching blue glass.  The 12 parts for the extended sides required some precise and tricky cutting, all done on my table saw:

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Here, some of them are being glued up:

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The assembly of the extension to the frame was a little tricky:

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There is a lot going on at the corners.  At each one of the eight corners there is a dowel, a screw, and an interior corner brace.

A hand sanding block and two sanders were used to sand all surfaces in stages to 220 grit:

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then Tung oil was applied in several coats.

Here is a photo of the shade being tested on the lamp:

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
For esthetics, I decided to piece each glass insert with a seam carrying down from the seam above.  Here are the four new inserts:

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The glass was stapled into place with my special picture frame stapler:

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In addition to installing a bigger harp to get the bulb further from the frame, a fluorescent tri-light bulb that gets much less hot is now being used in the lamp.

I find the new larger lampshade to be somewhat overpowering:

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but I guess that we will get used to it.



 

[Slappy]

Frank,
Nice work , looks great  [big grin]