Frugal Living: How to turn a lamp into a bird bath + video

lampshade birdbath.jpg

a pretty good tutorial on how to turn an old lamp into a birdbath.

Here are

go:

A table lamp united with a ceiling lamp globe transforms

into a gorgeous birdbath, sturdy enough to keep birds and

gardeners happy.

This birdbath made from a recycled lamp fixture

is functional as well as decorative. If you don’t have a

lamp finial for your final top screw, you can use a plain

lamp nut and glue on your own decorative touch, such

as a metal button or even a small glass dish.


Materials:

• Solid metal floor or table lamp base

• Decorative and sturdy bowl-shaped glass ceiling light

fixture shade (one with a hole in the middle)  -- YOU CAN GET THESE AT THE THRIFT STORE TOO.

• Chandelier crystals  -- OPTIONAL

• Clear, waterproof, and UV-resistant glue

• Small piece of plastic food wrap or plastic bag

• Lamp nut and washer (to fit standard threaded 1⁄8-IP

lamp pipe)

• Any miscellaneous lamp parts you may have gathered

over time, such as the metal spacer circles and decorative

tube shapes that compose the top part of the

lamp base below the socket

• Lamp finial (optional)

Tools:

• Wire cutters

• Chopstick

1. Disassemble the lamp by cutting the cord off at the

lamp base, using wire cutters. Remove the socket by

unscrewing it and/or popping it out of the socket

base.

2. Unfortunately, you usually just can’t place the ceiling

lamp piece on the exposed threaded rod and be done

with it. The empty socket space needs a little adjusting.

You want 1 inch of bare threaded rod. Most

lamp bases are composed of separate sections secured

together with nuts on the top and bottom of the

inside rod. The easiest solution is usually to remove

a small spacer section from your lamp base to create

the 1 inch of space needed for the glass lamp shade

and finial. If your lamp has more than 1 inch of bare

threaded rod exposed after the socket was removed,

add a small section of lamp base spacer tube. (If you

don’t have this stash of extra lamp parts, see the alternative

instructions at the end.)

3. Place the light shade over the rod. You want about 1⁄4

to 1⁄2 inch of rod exposed above the glass. It’s a good

idea to seal the base with glue. The threaded rod

might be hollow, so stuff some plastic wrap or bag into

the opening with a chopstick. Seal the inside of the

rod with a squirt of glue. Add some glue in the space

between the rod and the opening in the ceiling shade.

4. Place the washer and nut or finial on top and tighten it.

Alternative instructions (if too much threaded rod

is exposed and you don’t have extra lamp spacers):

On the inside of the bottom base, loosen the nut

around the threaded rod that goes up through the main

part of the lamp. Keep track of the order of the various

lamp parts and arrange them in sequence as you remove

them. By reassembling the lamp, you can sometimes get

the parts to take up more room, shortening the length

of the exposed rod on the top.

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