Genie of the Lamp

I'm like the crazy cat lady, only with lamps! 
 
This is my 3rd, no wait, 4th lamp tutorial on Pregnant with power tools!  And I have 3 more in the pipeline!

Maybe I should rename the blog Genie of the Lamp?

You may remember the tin can pendant light I submitted for the last Iron Craft Competition...

It looks awesome, but ... it doesn't provide a lot of light.

Sooo... I had to change it some.


And while I'm at it, I switched to the SVT wire and strain relief bushings I bought for the original project but didn't use because shipping took too long.

A little more detail on how I wired this too...

I used an underwriter's knot.  Much of the weight of the lamp will be on the knot instead of the socket screws.

These strain relief bushings are awesome!

Just slip one in the hole, thread the wire through, and screw the cap to "clamp" the wire in the bushing - no worries about the pendant lamp falling down!

Importantly, these bushings are made to work with SVT-type wires (both can be bought at Grand Brass Lamp Parts)

Hot glued the aluminum worklamp shade to the socket.  (Added: Do not use hot glue, it will melt (learned that the hard way.  Duh.) I'll use Gorilla Glue instead - it says "resistant to extreme heat")

I used wire nuts to connect the three lamp wires and the ceiling wires.  Anyone want a tutorial on using wire nuts?

I was also *really* careful to connect the neutral wires to the silver (neutral) socket screws. If the wiring were reversed, the threaded socket would be hot (instead of the socket tab) and if the cardboard insulation sleeve ever wore through, all metal parts of the lamp could become hot too - and that would be really bad on a metal shaded pendant light like this!

If what I just wrote doesn't make sense, read my electrical wiring tutorial!

Much more light and bright and still works with the vintage auto theme (think auto repair shop!)

I might swap these bulbs for some diffusing ones, though.

If you want more info on doing this, it is very similar to this project, there's my electrical wiring tutorial, or you can always email me pregnantpower(at)gmail(dot)com!

What do you think?  Did you like the other lamp better?

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