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These lamps are nearly identical to those I made before except they have a simpler base and slightly different shade design.

Tom makes some beauties and inspired me to try a few more myself.

The wood is Russian Olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia) which I harvested locally (neighbors dead trees). This wood stinks real bad. They say Red Oak smells a bit like cat pee, this smells like cat vomit. Once you get past the smell, the wood is actually quite attractive. These trees are fast growing so the grain is not very tight, but it has a nice amber color and aside from this, has similar working properties to Cherry.

The base has the typical A&C style 'pads' (2" x 2") along with a tapered cap. The construction is a tad atypical since the wood tends to have hidden flaws (cracks) and I didn't want the base to split and fail. If you look closely, the tapered cap is made from four mitered pieces and the middle layer of the base is two boards butt-joined together. The mitered pieces (glued to the piece below) help keep everything rigid and eliminates cracks from causing everything to fall over.


The stem is made from four sections mitered together to keep a consistent grain pattern showing. It also makes it easy to leave a channel for the wire carrying threaded rod. The stem has a very slight taper, about 1.5 degrees.



Cutting the corbels is an exercise in planning. They join the stem with mortise/tennons and cutting the part requires many operations to be completed while the part is still square. A template is used for the final shape.

The shade is amber Mica. It seems a standard sized sheet of this stuff provides enough material to complete two shades (at about $25/shade)



I followed Tom's lead and made the shade frame corner pieces a bit long and thicker. The extra thickness creates a nice shadow line, the extra length creates a nice corner detail, but during construction it creates a "T" style half lap joint which makes clamping these odd shapes way easier during glue up. The excess length on top is trimmed off after gluing.

Keeping the shade in place is an evolving design process for me. Before I used a square piece with cut corners to help vent heat. This time I went with a simpler cross bar.



These are nice projects to kill a few weekends, but I really hate all the sanding!

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Comments

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very nice looking lamp, good job
 

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Hey, Splinter, the lamps are a joy to behold. I especially like your latest shade attaching method. LOML always tells me that my shades "go flying if I even look at them." If I make any more of them I will definitely "borrow" your innovation. :)
 

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These are on my bucket list. I think I'm a little scared of the lamp shade dimensioning, but one day I'll pull up my big boy pants and give it a shot.
 

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Great job! Love the A&C style. What type of finish did you use? I agree that Russian Olive is a beautiful wood and I have several pieces on my drying rack. Never noticed any offensive odor, but I do all my work outside, and make sure the wood is thoroughly dry before starting a project (which can take several years in my humid environment). Thanks for posting
 

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Those are great looking A&C lamps! That olive wood looks good, and your lampshades really set the lamps off!
 

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That is a great build! Interesting about the wood.
 

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Notw, Bob, Greg, Scott, Dean, Chris
Thanks for the nice comments!

Art
Once again, thanks for the encouragement! You don't secure your shades? When I poured over Tom's version I wasn't quite sure he did either. The spousal unit likes cats, She sees them as 'cute', I see them as rampaging imps destine to cast asunder anything not secured.

Leaf
The finish is Forby's 'Tung' oil finish. Basically a wiping varnish and from what I understand, nary a hint of any real Tung oil. I like it because it behaves well and dries fairly fast. I'll usually apply 3-4 coats with a buffing with 4/0 steel wool between coats. After the final buffing I give it a scrubbing with an old sock or 'blue' cloth/paper shop towel. As to the wood, the stink may depend some on the soil it was grown in, but I almost gagged while re-sawing these semi dry logs. The wood seems very stable aside from wanting to split while drying (I coated the end grain with latex). Of course these were essentially standing-dead trees.
 

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You guys are really reeling me in to try one of these. Looking at some of the blogs there are some questions that I have about the Mica.

Looking at the Mica, it seems to come in 0.015", 0.025" 0.030" and 0.035" thickness. Which do you suggest?
https://www.ashevillemica.com/category/lampshade-mica
http://www.micalampshade.com/Mica_Sheet.html
http://woodworker.com/18x36amber-mica-sheet-025-mssu-941-273.asp

Also they recommend cutting with a "sheet metal shear or heavy-duty shearing knife or a fine tooth band saw can be used if both sides of the material are supported." What have you found to work best?

Steve.
 

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Steve
I've only used the 0.030", 0.015" would be a tad too thin (might get cracked or flake through). Of course the thinner will transmit more light and be plenty rigid for smaller shade openings.

I've cut the 0.030" with several methods. At first I use a straight edge and repeatedly score it with a utility knife until I cut through. Next was to free-hand it with a hack saw blade. Both methods worked fine, just took a bit of time.

My latest (and favorite 8^) is the bandsaw. I believe I had a 10TPI (1/2") blade, but just any fine blade should work. I sawed half way through a 12"x12" piece of masonite board then used double sided tape to secure it to the bandsaw table. This makes a perfect zero clearance insert. I created a template (also out of masonite) that fit my shade openings. This was used to trace the pattern onto the mica sheet for sawing (freehand, plenty of boarder available for slop).
I don't really see why "both" sides would need support on the bandsaw (blade only cuts one way), couldn't hurt though.

I'd expect a paper cutter (guillotine style) would work fine on the thinner material.

I could expect that different vendors have product that uses different glues, which in turn could change how flakey they get when cut (I bought my mica off of Ebay)
 

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Handsome lamps
 

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Excellent work, especially the wood details. And, of course, I like the mica!
 

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what is mica
Mica is a natural mineral material with high chemical stability and is inert to solvents.
The natural mica includs, muscovite, phlogopite and so on
The beautiful color and shape are used to make an elegant lampshade. thanks
 
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