This lamp has a really great industrial/ mad scientist aesthetic and makes for a cool addition to any room and is an excellent conversation piece that is sure to intrigue your friends and family.
#BLACK PIPE LAMP DIY HOW TO#
Watch the video below to see how we build black iron pipe light fixtures at our place.In this Instructable you'll learn how to build a Bubbling Pipe Lamp. This is especially true when you use vintage-style Edison bulbs in your fixture. The look and feel of black iron light fixtures is not for every home and every situation, but there’s certainly something rugged and vintage about this approach. It doesn’t matter which part, as long as the ground wire is in solid and reliable contact with the metal fixture body when installed. As with any light fixture, be sure to connect the bare ground wire inside your ceiling electrical box to some part of the body of the steel light fixture you made. “Grounding” is an electrical term for a secondary wire that allows electricity to flow harmlessly to the earth in the event that a live wire inside the item becomes loose and touches the metal fixture body. You can’t go with a 1” flange directly because it’s too small to cover a standard electrical box. Take another look at the photo at the top of this article and you’ll see a fitting that allows the 1” vertical pipe to connect with the flange that’s made for a 1 1/2” diameter pipe.
It just so happens that the standard holes in a flange like this match perfectly with the threaded holes in every standard electrical ceiling box. That “something” is a rubber pigtail light fixture covered in tape to protect it from spray paint.Įvery light fixture needs to be anchored to an electrical box in the ceiling, and something called a 1 1/2” floor flange is ideal for this. Notice how they get a bit larger from one side to the other, and that there’s something in the upwards-facing elbows. Tip#2: Choose a 1 1/2” Flange for Mounting Take a look at the 90º elbows of this fixture. The fixture in the photo here includes a 90º elbow that transitions from 1” pipe thread to the 1 1/4” size that’s perfect for accepting the socket. It’s just the right size for a typical pig-tail light socket to slip inside. This is where a 1 1/4” diameter fitting comes in. And while 1” steel pipe is the ideal size visually for the overall fixture, it’s not large enough to accept a lamp socket. This black rubber lamp socket is very simple and inexpensive, with two wires coming off the end. Each light bulb needs to tighten into an actual electrical socket fitted inside the pipe, and the best type to use in a black iron pipe fixture is something called a “pig tail” socket.
There is an exception to the 1” pipe size recommendation, and it has to do with light bulb sockets. As you’re standing in a hardware store aisle, selecting pipe fittings, look at the bin labels not your tape measure for the correct diameter. The 1” dimension refers to the smallest inside diameter of fittings in this size family. The thing is, that 1” number is deceiving because 1” steel pipe actually measures 1 5/16” outside diameter. One inch diameter steel pipe fittings make the most sense for light fixtures because it’s pleasing visually and it offers plenty of room inside for wires.
Both types have threads that allow the pipe to tighten together. You can make light fixtures out of either kind, but plain, uncoated black iron pipe is easier to paint reliably. “Black iron” pipe is made of plain steel, while “galvanized” pipe is exactly the same except that the steel is coated in zinc to prevent rusting. Steel pipe and fittings are sold in hardware stores everywhere, and it comes in two types. As usual with how-to information, it’s the details that matter, and details are what you’ll get here. As I’ve discovered, there’s more to success than what you find from the many articles on this subject online. Long-standing disappointment is what got me interested in making my own light fixtures from steel pipe and fittings. Flimsy, fake, predictable and expensive, I can only remember buying one light fixture in my life that impressed me, and that was a refurbished antique. PUBLISHED 18Sep2020 + video below: Ever since I can remember, modern, store-bought light fixtures have disappointed me.
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