Project Information
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!
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!