Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
What do you do when the cat throws a table lamp on the floor and breaks the glass shade in the process? Some people would probably go out and buy a new table lamp but not me. I used the opportunity to make a wooden lamp shade. This has been done a thousand times already on YouTube so I'm not taking any credits for the idea. You could rather say I wanted to see for myself if this really worked and guess what: it did!
I used a piece of relatively green Poplar for this and that might have been a mistake. On the outside it cuts very well but the hollowing was an ordeal! Because this is all endgrain, the wood comes off in very small pieces. My carbide inserts were constantly clogging up with wet, sticky particles. I was unable to get a proper cut and the hollowing took forever. Still I managed to record some nice footage while doing this.
It turns out that the wood becomes less translucent when it dries and so I had to put the workpiece back on the lathe after one night indoors to make it thinner.
This project was turned on Nov.01. Today (Nov.02) I'm at about 3 mm wall thickness and I'm hoping the piece will stay intact while it dries out. If it cracks I will update the description to tell you.
Update Nov.18: The piece is still intact and dried quite well by now. Lamp gets used every day. Success!
00:05 - Making a Tenon
00:47 - Turning the outside
02:21 - Hollowing
03:42 - First light coming through!
09:00 - Finishing the outside
10:45 - Demo
Let me know what you think!
Camera: Nikon D3400
Video Editor: OpenShot 2.5.1
Music: YouTube Audio Library
What do you do when the cat throws a table lamp on the floor and breaks the glass shade in the process? Some people would probably go out and buy a new table lamp but not me. I used the opportunity to make a wooden lamp shade. This has been done a thousand times already on YouTube so I'm not taking any credits for the idea. You could rather say I wanted to see for myself if this really worked and guess what: it did!
I used a piece of relatively green Poplar for this and that might have been a mistake. On the outside it cuts very well but the hollowing was an ordeal! Because this is all endgrain, the wood comes off in very small pieces. My carbide inserts were constantly clogging up with wet, sticky particles. I was unable to get a proper cut and the hollowing took forever. Still I managed to record some nice footage while doing this.
It turns out that the wood becomes less translucent when it dries and so I had to put the workpiece back on the lathe after one night indoors to make it thinner.
This project was turned on Nov.01. Today (Nov.02) I'm at about 3 mm wall thickness and I'm hoping the piece will stay intact while it dries out. If it cracks I will update the description to tell you.
Update Nov.18: The piece is still intact and dried quite well by now. Lamp gets used every day. Success!
00:05 - Making a Tenon
00:47 - Turning the outside
02:21 - Hollowing
03:42 - First light coming through!
09:00 - Finishing the outside
10:45 - Demo
Let me know what you think!
Camera: Nikon D3400
Video Editor: OpenShot 2.5.1
Music: YouTube Audio Library
