Valve Lamps

These large stainless steel valves came from an old hydroelectric plant. They are quite handsome and had great potential to become awesome lamps, but a few major issues were holding them back. The first was that the valves didn’t stand sturdily on their own, and needed stabilization at the base. The second issue was attaching lamp parts to the hardened steel drive screw and routing wire to the socket, which had no obvious path. This instructable documents the steps taken to achieve lamp transformation status from some super neat old hunks of metal. Hopefully, you’ll glean some useful info for your own lamp projects!

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Gather Tools & Materials

Materials:

  • lamp base (valve)
  • lamp shade
  • lamp harp
  • socket with side out
  • plug
  • finial
  • electrical cord
  • threaded rod to match socket
  • two part epoxy
  • various other metal bits

Tools:

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Moon Secrets LED Jacket

I had the opportunity to build an LED jacket for Buzz Aldrin to wear in a segment on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Have you been to the moon? Do you know what secrets it holds? I was invited to construct an LED space uniform jacket for Buzz Aldrin to wear in a segment on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. It’s a fairly straightforward NeoPixel and LED sequin project and I thought you might like to learn how to build something similar at home.

Before you begin, you may wish to check out these helpful prerequisites:

Photo with Stephen by Derek Moreno, wardrobe supervisor for The Late Show

To create an illuminated jacket with NeoPixel motif and LED sequin emblem, you will need some sewing supplies and some electronics supplies from Adafruit. I made a parts wishlist and link individually to them here.

Parts & Expendables:

Tools:

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