Making a Lamp from a Wood Block

Wood is a great medium for lamps. It can be shaped, painted, stained, or unfinished. We can teach you how to turn any wood block into a lamp.

A customer of ours is a furniture maker and can do anything with wood. He asked us to make a lamp out of a turned block. We did and wanted to share the process.

The tools we use are a file, 23/64 drill bit, 1/8IP tap, and drill press. The lamp parts we need are a socket with a cord hole in the socket cap, 2 inch threaded rod, polarized lamp cord, harp base, lock washer, and seating ring.

Since this block is solid and does not have a path for the cord to come through the lamp, we will need to only drill a short hole in the top of the wood. The lamp cord will connect from the socket cap. We start by filing a level top on the wood.

Next we place the seating ring on top of the wood and make sure it is level. With a marker, we mark the position of where to drill the hole.

Then we load the drill bit in the drill press. You can use a regular drill, but it will be more challenging to get the whole in a plumb position.

Using the 1/8IP Pipe tap, we create the threads in the wood for the threaded rod to pull on to.

Now the lamp is ready for the seating ring, threaded rod, harp base, lock washer, and socket cap.

Wire the socket interior (don't forget the UL knot and polarized wiring as discussed throughout this blog). The lamp is ready.

Total Cost < $15.00 Total Time < 25 minutes