Steampunked Craftsman Festoon Lamp

Hi everybody

One year ago I started my first real DIY project, and nearly at he same time I realised that I`m a Steampunker in my thoughts and doings.

DIY means to me "Keep it short and simple K-I-S-S" in its best way. So I chosed this first DIY-Project also to my avatar.

The "K-I-S-S" Tools: You only need a folder rule, a small screw driver and an universal pliers, nothing more!!!

Now I want to present it to you. This instrutable is very !!! detailed and contains two parts.
In the first steps you will see how to build one single festoon lamp module.

In the second part I show how to make a very stylish festoon lamp for steampunk craftsmen using four of these modules. If you watch this short video you can get an impresssion of its impressive light.

In the following pictures you can see the festoon lamp. This minature light I saw first in my life when my father built a dollhouse for my sister in the early sixties. Since then I was always fascinated of this wonderful warm and glowing light.

Nowadays I use several of them taken from the indoor light of wrecked autombiles. As an instructor for volontary fire fighters in Germany we need a lot of wrecked cars to train with. So I get these lamps for free.

If you like to buy them there are also festoon lamps with LED inside on the market.

Here you see all the parts you need for this project.

Tools:
-a small srew driver
-a combination pliers
-a folder rule

For the holder:
-two pieces of a welding wire
-a string of six srew terminals with both sides open
-four smaller luster terminals as connectors for the power supply
-two blind rivets made of aluminium which fit in the srew terminals
two pieces of electric wire in different colurs for the optical effect;-))))

an at least a festoon lamp.

We start the constructrion with cutting two pieces of the electric wire and the welding wire. The length depends on your own construction.
To make the contacts for the festoon lamp, we take one electric wire, and one blind rivet head. After dismanteling both ends of the wire we put one end in the hole and crimp the rivet´s neck carefuly two times, one time turned clockwise with the pliers.

The first picture shows you -as the result- one single festoon lamp module.

In this step we only need a small screw driver.

Now we screw the holder step by step together:

In this step you see first some single modules, a combination to create a double holder and my most beloved first single holder with an very old festoon lamp from the thirtees with brass ends. You can also see this lamp as my avatar.

Now let us build a steampunk craftsman lamp:

We need a normal craftsman lamp ant put the normal bulb and socket away. We only need the metal cage, the glass and the rubber made holder. In this lamp we place a group of four single festoon lamp modules (with four 12 Volts needing festoons). All these modules are connected together as you can see on the picture. Be careful with it and maybe you ask an electrician after finishing your work to control the safety berfore yo turn on the switch.

I took an used halogen light transformer with a switch and a plug to 230 Volts from an old halogen lamp. Then I connected the two pairs of wire from my new lamp, the orange and the yellow one with screw terminals to the outgoing wires of the transformer (11,5 Volts). And that is it.
Screw the lamp together, control everything, switch on the light and

enjoy it;-))))

At the end I think this instructable is an universal one and I´m really interested in your own creations and ideas with. Have fun and a lot of inspiration.

Yours Aeon Junophor