Make a Lamp From an Vintage Soda Bottle

The aim of this build was to showcase a vintage soda bottle that I had found at a local junk store. I actually was going to use an old Fanta bottle but decided to use one with some graphics on the front. This helped difuse the LED's which are quite bright.

I'm really happy with how the lamp turned out! I had an idea outlined when I started the build with how I wanted the lamp to look. The bottle was always going to be the hero of the build but I wanted the rest of the parts to work as a whole which I managed to pull off.

I also wanted the feel that the bottle was still filled with liquid so I used a mixture of yellow and red filament LED's to create a really nice orange/pink glow.

As with any build of this nature, there are sections of the build where you might have to come up with your own solutions. For example, I have no idea whether the soda bottle I used can be found in other countries! However, I have provided links to just about everything you need or tried to steer you in the right direction on where to find some parts.

Let's get building...

PARTS:

1. Vintage Soft Drink Bottle - There are literally 1000's of different bottle designs to choose from! If you type in 'vintage soft drink bottle' into eBay then you'll be able to find something you like. The one I used can be found on eBay Try to choose a bottle that either has graphics on the front or the glass itself has some type of wave in it (Look up - vintage Fanta bottle to see what I mean). Oh and somehow I managed not to take one image of the bottle so the ones shown are ripped from the net.
2. LED's - I used filament LED's which are super bright and look great. I used a red and yellow one - Ali Express
3. 10R resistor - Ali Express
4. Thin cooper wire - Ali Express
5. Acrylic tube - Ali Express
6. Copper Tube 1/2" - You can get this from any hardware store such as Bunnings (in Australia)
7. Copper Tube 3/4" - Hardware Store - Bunnings
8. 1/2" to 3/4" Coupling - hardware store - Bunnings
9. Brass Tube - 4.5mm ID) - Ali Express or hobby store
10. To make the copper 'rings' that hold the bottle in place I used some 1" and 50mm tubing I had. You could also make the rings yourself from brass strips - Ali Express. or hobby store
11. The section that suits on top of the bottle I made from some brass fittings. However, you can use a brass light bulb socket which I would have used as well but I couldn't wait for one to be sent!
12. Wood for the Base - I used some old, thick ply wood that I had. You can use any wood really for the base - it just needs to be relatively thick (20mm or over). To keep the vintage ascetics I went with a weathered piece of wood
13. Long USB Cord - eBay
14. Braided Sleeve - 6mm - Ali Express
15. Potentiometer with on/off switch - Ali Express
16. Knob for Potentiometer - I used a shotgun shell custom knob which you can make here. You can also use a brass knob - Ali Express

TOOLS:

1. Soldering Iron
2. Sander
3. Wire Cutters
4. Router
5. Grinder
6. Dremel (always comes in handy!)
7. Brass cleaner
8. Band saw (or just a hand saw if you don't have one)

STEPS:

1. The first thing you should do is to work out what size you want the base. to do this place the brass tube onto the wood and also the bottle and work out how big you want to make the base
2. Once you have the dimensions (my base is 121mm X 210mm X 25mm) you can now cut the wood to size
3. As I was using an older piece of wood I decided to stain the sides which I did in a later step. I used aged teak to get a nice finish.

The brass section is quite simple in design but I did this on purpose to keep the focus on the bottle.

STEPS:

1. The 1/2" tube will be the main section of the lamp holder. Cut a piece of this to the desired length (mine is 320mm long)
2. Next it's time to cut a small piece of the 3/4" tube. This pieces forms the base of the lamp holder so doesn't need to be too long. Mine is 70mm long
3. Lastly, you need to place the coupling onto each of the tubes to make the lamp holder. To secure them together you can either solder them which is what I did, or you could just use some super glue which will work fine as well.
4. The rest of the lamp holder will be made in a little while

There's a few modifications you need to make to the wood. This is to be able to include the lamp holder, potentiometer switch and hide the wires.

STEPS:

1. Work out where you want to add the lamp holder. Mine is 55mm from the right hand edge. Use a 15mm (1/2") spade bit and drill a hole until the tip of the bit comes through the bottom
2. Enlarge the hole in the bottom slightly with a 5mm drill bit
3. Next is to drill a section out for the potentiometer switch. This hole needs to be drill from the bottom up. I used a 19mm spade drill bit and drilled the hole until again the drill bit poked out the top. Make the hole a little bigger so the potentiometer will fit through it.
4. Lastly, I decided to route out a section on the back so I could hide the wires. I used a router bit on my dremel to do this.

The arms are made from 4.5mm brass tubing and some cut off pieces from larger pipe. If you don't have 22mm and 50mm tubing, then you could use some brass strips, bend them around similar radius's of the neck and base of the bottle and use them instead

STEPS:

1. Cut a piece of the 22mm copper tube off, making a ring aprox 6-7mm wide
2. Mark and then cut the ring through one side
3. Round off the cut ends and clean off any burrs
4. On the opposite end of the ring, drill a 4mm hole.
5. Place the 4.5mm brass tube into the hole and add some flux and solder it into place. This ring will be used to go around the neck (top section) of the bottle
6. Do the same for the 50mm tube and make another ring This ring will be used to hole the bottom section of the bottle. Initially I wasn't going to add a ring to the bottom but the bottle wasn't stable enough with just 1 at the top.
7. Place the top copper ring around the bottle neck. You might need to give it a good wiggle and push as it should be a tight fit. Don't worry about adding the bottom one yet

As I mentioned in the parts list, I made my own top section from brass fittings I had around. However, there is really no need to make your own as it'd easier to just add a brass light bulb socket. This should will fit really well onto the top of the bottle. Make sure you don't remove the carboard inside the socket though as this helps secure it onto the top of the bottle.

STEPS:

1. I don't go through now I made mine (I've included some images though).
2. You need to add a small piece of dowel inside the socket though. It should be a tight fit and can be glued into place. This will be used to hold the thin acrylic tube into place

To power the LED's I used some thin copper wire which is threaded through the acrylic tube

STEPS:

1. First, place the length of acrylic tube into the bottle and rough out how long you will need it and then cut to length
2. Bend a length of copper wire and thread it through the acrylic tube
3. Next, add a little solder to the ends of each of the LED's. Test each with 3 volts to make sure you know the polarities
4. Slightly bend inwards the legs on each of the LED's so they can touch when the LED's are together. Solder the LED legs together.
5. Cut the bent section of the copper wire and with a small file, remove the coating on the ends of the copper wire. Tin the ends with some solder
6. Connect the tinned wires to the soldered LED legs. When you have done the first one, pull the wire from the other end until the legs meet up with the end of the acrylic tube
7. Align the other copper wire and solder this to the other LED legs
8. Test and make sure that everything is turning on. Don't use more than 3 volts
9. To secure the LED's to the socket, drill a hole the same size as the tubing through the middle of the wood dowel.
10. Push the copper wires through and then the acrylic tube. No need to glue it into place as it should be a tight fit.

STEPS:

1. Place the socket into place onto the bottle and then measure where you need to drill the hole into the lamp holder for the top arm. I tried to get the bottle even with the top of the lamp holder
2. Mark and drill a 4mm hole into the lamp holder
3. Push the arm through. You can decide from this point how far you want the bottle away from the lamp holder
4. Place the other arm to the bottom section of the bottle. Mark where you need to drill the lamp holder
5. Remove the arm again from the lamp holder and drill a 4mm hole.
6. Now place both arms into place on the bottle and thread the arms through the holes in the lamp holder
7. Trim off the ends of each of the arms so they are at a lengh that you like and are even with one another

I wanted to make sure that I had a long wire from the lamp to a wall plug. This meant that I used a different length of wire to go through the lamp and then connected it to the wire with the USB end

STEPS:

1. Trim the copper wires coming out of the top of the socket and remove the red covering at the ends
2. The ends need to be connected to wire that will go through the lamp holder. You can use another USB cable for this - just cut off the ends
3. Add a bit of small heat shrink to each end of the wire and solder these ends to the copper wire. Use the heat shrink to protect the connections
4. Next, place a 150mm length of braided sleeve to the wire and pull it up so it goes over the copper wire connection.
5. Push the other end of the wire through the lamp holder and thread it through t the bottom. You will need to juggle it when it hits the arm's but it should get through ok

The last thing to do is to connect the wire from the LED's to the switch and also to the USB input. The whole thing runs off 5V's which is the same as what your phone uses to charge up.

STEPS:

1. Connect the positive wire from the LED's to one of the switch solder points on the potentiometer.
2. Next, add a 10R resistor to the negative wire from the LED's and connect the other end to the negative on the USB connector wire
3. Solder the positive from the USB connector to the other switch solder point on the Potentiometer
4. Probably a good time to also secure the pot to the base. I didn't have enough room to add the retaining nut so I added a little superglue to the pot to keep it in place. Be carful though when doing this, it's easy to get glue inside the pot and it will stick fast it you do that. I added to the glue to the 3 other terminals on the pot which worked well.
5. Plug in and test to make sure everything is working ok.
6. I also added a small piece of brass strip to the back where the cable comes out of to hide the routed section . If you do do this then don't forget to thread the USB wire through it first!
7. The last thing I did was to add 4 little rubber feet to the bottom of the base. This gives it stability and I think it adds a nice finish to the base it it looks like it is slightly floating.