Wood an Copper Pipe Lamp

This Instructable is directly inspired from a lamp I found on the web (third picture), I liked the hollow part inside the frame and wanted to use it to put forward the copper pipe. It is an easy project, perfect for anyone who is beginning the DIY adventure : cuts are straights and the tool used are basics.
The budget for this project varies depending on the finish look you want and if you are reclaiming some material or not, in my case I bought everything from the store and it cost me approximately 30-40 €.

Material :

• One wood beam 170*55*2400 mm
• Wood dowels
• Copper pipe diameter 14/16
• Copper reducing connector 16/22
• E27 socket
• Steel screwing nozzle
• Electrical wire (about 3m)
• Foot switch
• Male plug
• Hot glue
• Wood glue
• Varnish

Tools :

• Circular saw
• Drill
• Sander
• Screwdriver

Here is the video of the build, for more details keep scrolling =)

First of all I cut my 2,4m wood beam in four pieces in order to use the whole length. In the end I have two 21cm pieces and two 99cm pieces which will make my 99 by 31,5 cm structure.
Then I trace the diagonals on the smaller piece and drill a 16mm hole in the first piece. On the second piece, I only drill half the depth with the 16mm drill bit, and I switch to a smaller diameter for the rest, that way the copper pipe won’t slide when the lamp is lifted. Finally I make a grove on the bottom face of the second piece, this will be used for the electrical wire. Once everything is prepared, I glue the four pieces together and reinforced the corners with two 8mm dowels. When the glue has dried, I sand the lamp structure with 80 grit sandpaper up to 180 grit.

This step begins by cutting the copper pipe at 1,3m and gluing a steel screwing nozzle (not sure I got the translation right) on the top part using hot glue that will allow the socket to be screwed on the copper pipe. I also added a reducing connector on the top part from a smoother transition between the pipe and the socket.
The structural part is now done, I can continue with the electrical part.

Before wiring the E27 socket, I pass the wire into the copper pipe and let a few centimeters out. Then I wire the socket and screw it on the pipe, if the wire are exposed don’t forget to isolate them and double check that nothing is going to touch the metallic parts.
I put the wire in the groove I made earlier and glue it with hot glue so it won’t be pulled. I wire the foot switch about 30 centimeter away from the structure and finish the wiring with the plug. If you are not comfortable with electrical wiring, ask someone who knows better, accidents happen and it can have very important consequences.

The lamp is now functional, all that is left to do is to customize it as you like it by adding a lampshade or a specific light bulb.
For the wood, I chose to apply some medium oak dye that I cover with three layers of clear varnish. If you do the same, don’t forget to sand with high grit sandpaper (300 or more) in between layer so you get a really smooth surface. If you liked my Instructable, please consider subscribing to my Youtube channel ;)