Steampunk/Industrial Bottle Lamp - Rüdllampen

This project uses a blue water bottle with the bottom cut out for a lampshade and standard plumbing fittings for the base. It casts a lovely blue light with some direct light reflecting off the table top. It has an inline dimmer switch. It uses a bulb that has LED's but is made to resemble a squirrel cage bulb. If you prefer, you can easily swap out an incandescent squirrel cage bulb or even a straight long (fishtank) bulb.

• Tools used
  
  • screwdriver for the inline dimmer switch
  • butane torch
  • ice-water bucket
  • lazy susan turn-table (optional but helpful)
  • bottle-cutting jig
  • wire cutters
  • drill with 1/4 inch metal bit and sanding disk with 60, 150, 220 grit or higher sanding paper
• Materials
  • plug and cord
  • inline dimmer switch (optional)
  • 1/2 plumbing fittings (create your own configuration). Mine used mostly 3" for the legs and for the uprights a total of 14" but you will have to adapt it to your own bottle's height
  • 1/4 inch threaded pipe for the stem going into the bottle. Again, the length will depend on your bottle. Mine was 2 1/2 inches.
  • 1/2 to 1/4 inch reducer
  • two or more rubber washers for the top of the lamp socket to cushion it against the bottle
  • lamp socket with 1/4 inch base
  • Ikea LED Squirrel Cage Light bulb

1. First score the bottle using a bottle cutter. There are a lot of different bottle cutting jigs. You can see mine. It is based on a design I saw here on Instructables.
2. Fill a bucket with 5 inches of ice water
3. use a butane torch to gently heat the bottle but turning it whilst holding the torch about 1 inch from the glass. You will begin to see the scoring whiten
4. Plunge into the ice water
5. Gently tap it on the side
6. Keep repeating steps 3-5 until the bottom pops off. It should be rather smooth and not jagged.

1. Begin with the 60 grit paper.
2. USE EYE AND HAND PROTECTION AND WEAR A DUST MASK. YOU DON'T WANT TO BREATHE IN THE SILICA DUST!
3. Hold the bottle flat against the sandpaper and continue to sand until you don't see any more shiny areas on the bottom of the bottle. Is should look like a smoothly polished glass surface.
4. Tilt the bottle inward and outwards to sand the edges
5. Repeat with 150 and 220 grit papers

• Basically screw together the piping in any configuration that suits your fancy.
• You will need to disassemble parts when you pass the power cord thru.
• Drill a 1/4 inch hole in the upright to get the cord into the pipe and sand that through. You want no rough edges to snag the power cord
• pass the 1/4 inch pipe through the bottle neck and attach to the reducing fitting on top
• I wired an inline dimmer switch but you can use a simple on off or no switch at all

• It's a nice project
• It's a great gift

I hope you enjoy this Instructable and hope you will share with me your own creations!