How to Make a Trumpet Lamp

I was helping my brother clean out his garage when I came across this old beat up trumpet. I did some research online and learned it was made in the 1930’s as a student model. I felt bad to see it so forgotten so I had to breath some new life into it.  

Needed:
Trumpet
Lamp
Paracord
Cotton Ball
Rubber Chair Feet
Hot Glue
Multi-Meter

You’re going to have to run a power cord through the trumpet and in order to do that you need paracord and a cotton ball.

Gut a section of paracord long enough to run the length of the horn. Tie the cotton ball to the end of a strand of the inner paracord and start to feed it through the trumpet at the end where the mouth piece goes.

Use compressed air to blow the cotton ball through the horn. Once it’s through you’ll have a threaded trumpet.

In the picture you see the valves removed but leave them in when you do this.

Now tie the paracord strand onto the section of paracord you gutted. You should be working at the bell end. Take some all purpose cleaner (any soapy liquid will do) and lubricate the paracord.

Pull the gutted paracord back through the horn until it comes out the other end.

I bought this lamp brand new, with a shade, for $10. Take it apart so you can get to the cord. Make sure you use a multi-meter to identify the negative and positive wires so you put it back together right.

Take a rubber chair foot and drill a hole in it. The pack of four cost me $1. Place the drilled foot onto the shaft of the base. Trim another foot and place it at the top of the shaft so it the trumpet has two points of contact along the shaft.

Tie the paracord onto the free end of the lamp wire at the bell side of the horn. Lubricate the wires with the same soapy liquid and begin to pull it through. This will take some effort. It helped to wiggle the valves a little as I pulled the wire through.

Just make sure you use a constrictor knot when you tie off the wire. You don’t want it to slip off mid trumpet.

Drill a hole in the switch housing so that it fit’s snuggly on the mouth piece end of the trumpet. Re-assemble the lamp components and adjust the base into the horn.

Use hot glue to put the felt back on the bottom of the base.

Make sure your new trumpet lamp dries out before you plug it in or turn it on.

I would recommend using a larger base then I show. As it is right now it can be knocked over fairly easily. I’ll be adding a small wooden circle to the base to make it more stable. Update: I added a wooden base. You can see it in the pictures for the first step.

Thanks for viewing.