Simple Mounting of Ikea Späcka Lamp

You know of course what the KISS principle is and what it means. If not, it's just 'Keep It Simple, Stupid!' :-)

The Ikea Späcka lamp is very cheap and very lightweight. I installed some of them a few years ago in my house's hallway and staircase.

However, since most houses in my country are built from brick and/or concrete, using three plastic wall plugs and three screws for fixing this lightweight lamp on a hard wall or ceiling, as suggested by Ikea's installation instructions, is total overkill. In addition, the back of the hole where the electrical wires come out of the wall is usually made from wood or plastic. Inserting a screw there is rather convenient, because then you even don't have to drill one single hole.

When trying to do so by inserting only one screw through one of the three mounting holes in the lamp's base, I managed to fix the lamp, but could not persuade it to remain level with the ceiling or wall - it always tended to list.

My solution: Use one new central hole in the lamp's base, together with a trick for installing this lamp easily.

BTW, even if the Ikea Späcka is no more available now, there are other products for which you also might profit from my simplified mounting idea (such as the Barlast or Stoftmoln lamps - or lamps from a different manufacturer).

1 wall or ceiling lamp, e.g. Ikea Späcka/Barlast/Stoftmoln

1 countersunk wood screw, e.g. SPAX (chipboard) screw, the length of which has to match your particular application

1 washer 3-4 mm larger than the head of your screw, with a hole 1-2 mm larger than the diameter of the shaft of your screw

Tools:

Drill press (or power drill), with a drill bit a little larger than the diameter of the head of your screw

Sheet iron shears (or hacksaw)

Bench vise

Screwdriver matching your screw

Clamp the washer in your bench vise. Using sheet iron shears (or a hacksaw), cut a slot in it, as shown above. The slot has to be wide enough so that the shaft of your screw can slide laterally into the washer's center.

As you can see from the picture I borrowed (or should I say stole?) from Ikea's installation instructions, they want you to use three screws for fixing the lamp. To do so, they provided three holes in the lamp's base arranged in a triangle.

In order to fix your lamp with one single screw, however, drill a hole more or less in the centre of this triangle. The diameter of this hole must be a little bit larger than the head of your screw.

DO NOT FORGET TO TURN OFF THE CIRCUIT BREAKER (OR REMOVE THE FUSE) NOW! (... you will, of course, prefer to perform this and the following steps as long as there is sufficient daylight - or use a flashlight doing it).

The 2nd picture above shows the screw already inserted at the lamp's mounting location, its head protruding through the new hole in the lamp's base.

Leave some slack between the screw and the lamp's base for the time being, the screw will be tightened in the next step.

Guide the wires coming out of the hole in your ceiling or wall through the large hole provided in the lamp's base.  

Slide the washer prepared in Step 1 sideways over the screw's shaft, then carefully tighten the screw as shown in the two pictures above until everything is fixed while not overdoing it.

Connect the wires to the bulb socket. If a green/yellow wire is provided, connect this wire to the PE (protective earth) terminal in your lamp.

Now you can insert an (LED) lightbulb into the socket, switch on the circuit breaker (or re-insert the fuse) and do a short test.

After having installed the lamp's cover you're DONE - let there be light!