Upcycled RetroPhone Lamp

I've found an old phone on a flea market the other day and decided to build a lamp out of it. It turned out pretty nicely so I want to share the process with you. Please be careful with all the tools, do not mess with electricity unless you know the safety measures and realize the dangers.

• Old phone
• Goose neck (Microphone extension)
• LED Lamp (5cmø 5w 230v 3300K Warm-White in my case)
• 230v cord + EU plug
• 230v Switch + 230v luster terminal
• Duct tape, double-sided tape
• nice to have : glue gun, pliers, wire stripper, drill, compasses, zip ties, cutter

Better be safe than sorry! Besides, they look cool. At least, I hope so.

Remove the screws from the base panel, unplug the cables.

Unscrew the covers of the speaker and the microphone, remove the magnets.

My LED has a diameter of 5cm and it fits perfectly into the speaker of the handset. Note that the speaker and the mic covers are exchangeable and since the mic cover has a bigger perforated area, it is easier to cut a hole in there.

• Take a compasses and set it at around 2,3cm, set the dull end into the center hole of the mic cover and scratch a circle into the plastic
• Repeat the first step with the backside of the cover (remove the rubbery part, but do not throw it away!)
• Deepen the circle scratch with a cutter
• Drill the holes with a 10mm bit
• Cut out the plastic with a wire cutter
• Break out the rest of the plastic - if the circle scratch has been done properly, the plastic will break neatly
• Clean up the edge with a cutter and a sandpaper

• Double the length of your gooseneck to get the right length of the power cable. In my case it's 2 x 20 cm = 40 cm. The inner diameter of the gooseneck is only 4,8mm so it's a tight fit for the cable - I decided to take off the black cover and only put the blue and brown cables.

• Strip the wires from both ends for about 5mm

The original hole for the phone cable was a bit tight, so I had to drill through with an 8mm bit.

• OPTIONAL - Drill a second hole below the main one. This will come in handy if you'd like to wrap the original black wire around the gooseneck like I did.
• Secure the gooseneck both in the handset and in the base with nuts.

Then close the cover

My switch has a 10mm neck = 10mm bit works great

In my opinion, this switch looks best on the right front corner, but it really doesn't matter where you put it - just make sure the cables are long enough to reach it. I learned it the hard way ;)

I usually put the brown wires into the switch and connect the blue cables with a terminal

Looks good. Back to work.

It works!

Load the glue gun and secure all the connections, wires, nuts, etc.

I like the look of the black phone cable more than the shiny metallic gooseneck, so I put a layer of black duct tape on the metal and then apply the double-sided tape on it. Then I tightly wrap the original black phone cable around the gooseneck.

I also realized that the white of the switch did not fit into the color scheme and painted it black.

Well done: less plastic went into the landfills and now I have a cool lamp!

If you liked the build, let me know in the comments :)

If you feel a bit too lazy to make one of these, you can get a lamp like this from my shop.

Support and feedback will be appreciated ;)

https://www.etsy.com/listing/832901893/