Paint Can Lamp (Illegal in Russia Since 2011)

Basically, I was borred and had a bunch of junk layng around... So I made a lamp.

Also manufacturing and selling incandescent lamps of more than 100W is indeed illegal in Russia since 2011(so it's sort of, kind of only a halfbaked click bate title)...

But they can't get me! I'm not from Russia. Although if YOU live there, you probably should close this tab immediately and delete your browsing history.

Step 1:

Firstly I took this empty paint can and removed the plastic bit at the opening.

Step 2:

Then I used a can opener to cut the bottom out.

Step 3:

This old lightbulb socket I have fitted the opening in the can perfectly. Also the way it secures (with two opposing rings) made it very easy to attach it to the can.

Step 4:

The other thing I had was this flexible corrugated metal tubing. I believe it's used for gas connections. It has a conecting nut on one end and threaded section on other. Unfortunatelly the thread size didn't fit one on the bulb socket so I used a piece of vinil tubing to esure snug fit. Although it wasn't the perfect solution but for the job it was porpoused for it worked pretty well.

Step 5:

The whole idea with this lamp was to make it hanging out from the wall and be somewhat flexible to adjust light direction so I had to find out some whay to afix the whole thing to the wall. After tinkering for a while I eventually stopped on next option.

So basically I ended up using this broken pipe valve. We have a bunch of places where these are used outdoors and ocassionally they just rapture on the side during winter season, but it's fine for what I'm doing. So firstly I've unscrewed that part with the threads on the outside. It fitted perfectly with the connecting nut on the gas tubing.

Step 6:

Now, we can see the "sphere" detail in the other part of the valve. When it set to almost closed position you can hook the ball by the hole in it and accuratelly wiggle it out of the casing.

Step 7:

Then this detail... the turning thing... it has to go also. So after undoing a bolt that hods it in place (on the top) just push the whole thing inside the casing until it's removable.

Step 8:

I also removed the gasket and installed a robust washer of appropriate size instead. The scred that goes through the washer is what attaches the whole thing to the wall (I ended up using more robust screw eventually).

Step 9:

After digging in my pile of wire offcuts I found this electrical cord. It's not the prettiest but it's for free so It'll do.

I threaded it through the opening on the side of the valve casing and out towards the threaded side.

Step 10:

I used a steel wire to pull the cord through the gas tubing and attached the lids to the bulb socket innards.

Step 11:

Basically at thia point the lamp was almost complete and functional so put it together to check if it was working. It was. And immediatelly it became obvious that the lable on the can is not something I wanted to have, so I removed it (which makes more sence rather from practical sense cause when the lamp gets hot the lable would start melting/burning... I don't want it).

Step 12:

So this is how the lamp looked at that point fully assembled, but I wanted to add one more part.

Step 13:

So from a piece of plywood I've cut two equal circles.

Step 14:

Then I drilled a round hole in one of them to accomodate the valve casing.

Step 15:

After rounding the edges on the previously mentioned circle I glued two of them together.

Step 16:

After some sanding with some drill action involved I used a waterbased finish to paint the whole piece.

Step 17:

And this is how it was attached to the wall in my garrage. The hole drilled in the wall, the dowel is installed and the valve casing is screwed down through the wooden basis.