Plumbing pipe lamp

Since a few years kozo lamps made of plumber pipes are fascinating people all around the world. And at the same time many people think the prices are quite high and start a self-building project. There exist a lot of different instruction sets and lamps in all different kinds. Unfortunately most of them are made in the United States and so not all parts are easy to get in a local home improvement store in good old europa (Austria).

THE GOAL: Make a lamp that look likes a humanoid robot. The head will be a bulb and the hands will have magnets to keep my keys.

You will need:

*) Assorted plumbing parts; I used 1/2" pipes and pieces. The head is a 3/4" to 1/2" reducer.

*) A bulb socket + wiring (set with socket, switch and wires costs just a few euros)

*) pipe wrench

*) small screw driver

*) super glue

 

STEP 1

Go to the next home improvement store and play around with the pipes, t-pieces and 90°-angles. It is not easy to get all parts at one store and it is not easy to imagine all necessary parts in advance. I was 3 times at the store, so do not worry if you miss a part at your frist try.

STEP 2

Put the pipes and other pieces together, but keep all parts loose. At first you build the lamp to see if you have all parts and it looks as expected. 

STEP 3

Now you have to add the power wire into the lamp. I used special parts as foots, so the wire could be entered easily:

STEP 4

The blub socket is placed inside the reduction piece (3/4" to 1/2"). I used a E14 socket because of its size. It nearly fits perfect, so I did not have to worry a lot how to fix the socket.

The power wire has been put through the lamp near the head. Now connect the bulb socket + short wire with the wire from the bottom with two eccentric clamps. Afterwards the head can be screwed on the body.

STEP 5

I took two magnets from my whiteboard in office, and used superglue to attach the magnets to the "hands" of my lamp.

Take care that you use strong magnets, so they will hold more thant just a few paper clips. I use the lamp as key-holder.

That´s it. The material costs are around 60 Euro (if you have to buy some things more often as I had to it costs a little more). Anyway with this lamp you get a much cheaper option than the ones you can buy online.