#HANGING PENDANT LIGHTS PLUG IN HOW TO#
#HANGING PENDANT LIGHTS PLUG IN FREE#

Place the grip mat down and secure the two pieces of wood in a 'V' shape in line with the table edge. Use the center punch and hammer to mark the center on the wood. Fold the square from corner to corner both ways to mind the center point. Using this dimension, cut a square piece of paper that will fit as close to perfectly as possible inside the wooden lip on the surface to be drilled (like pictured). Measure one side of the square, in between the inside of the wooden side pieces. (Using just the ruler and pencil to draw right on the top wouldn't be accurate enough because of that ridge that's higher than the surface to be drilled on.) You'll need a ruler, scissors, pencil, and piece of paper to help you find the center point of the 'shade'.

#HANGING PENDANT LIGHTS PLUG IN HOW TO#

Next up is how to find the center, and drill a hole, in a square top wooden container: And given that the connecting threads of this one are plastic, I wouldn't recommend using any bulb other than a low energy LED or compact fluorescent. That's it for this one! So easy right? And you'll see that the results give you a lot of style bang for your effort buck. (Remove the center knot, don't leave it like picture above.) Use the small wire cutters to cut away the fiber and connecting threads inside the socket circle you drew on - leaving the threads sticking into the empty circle about 3/8'. Use a thin marker or pen to trace the socket circle onto the basket. You can use your ruler if you'd like to confirm that it's centered - by measuring from the edge of the socket threads to the edge of the bottom in all four directions (North, South, East, West, or every 90 degrees). Place the socket threads over the center mark (there usually is one) of the basket bottom.

This one requires only hand tools, no power drill. We'll start with the easiest and most low tech one, the natural fiber basket. But don't worry, it's easy to achieve this in almost all shapes and materials of potential shades. If we aren't precise about the location of the hole, the shade will be off kilter/tilted. In order to transform a found object into a shade, we need to make a hole in the 'dead center' of it's top, large enough for the socket to go through. small channellock pliers (not pictured).Tools you'll need to wire up the cord set: And don't forget to test your connections before plugging in!

#HANGING PENDANT LIGHTS PLUG IN FREE#

If you're making your own cord set, I recommend putting the line switch 2' from the plug – but of course feel free to put it wherever along the cord will be most convenient for you based on where it will be hanging. I show you how to wire your own cord sets in lessons 2-6 of my Lamps Class.

Flathead (small) & phillips head screwdriversĪdditional tools you'll need to make either the wooden or plastic shades:Įither purchase or make your own 15' foot long cord set.

Tools you'll need to make any of these three pendants: *You only need this piece if you're going to use a natural fiber basket as your shade.Īpproximate parts cost (before taxes & shipping): $37.75 (x1 - $3.15) white rocker line switch w/ screw terminal connectors for SVT cord.(x1 - $4.50) white antique style polarized plug.

(x1 - $0.85) white shade ring for phenolic socket*.(x1 - $3.95) white threaded phenolic socket w/ shoulder and shade ring.(x1 - $0-15) waste paper basket made of wood, plastic, or natural fibers (the Container Store has many!).The parts you need to make one of these simple to make pendants lamps are: You can choose to customize them (like I did the wood one) or not (like the plastic). I decided on these three waste paper baskets to illustrate how to work with a few different materials to make pendant shades: natural fibers, wood, and plastic. Thanks to low heat emitting compact fluorescent and LED bulbs options, almost any material can be turned into a shade without worry of it melting or causing a fire. The wonderful thing about hanging/pendant lamps is that there are so many potential shades hiding in all kinds of unexpected places! For this first pendant lamp, I went to the Container Store and found about a million options for potential shades.

Hanging pendant lights plug in