DIY Pipe lamp (with valve switch and phone charger)

First I made a pipe lamp with a regular lamp switch...then I decided to kick it up a notch! Today I'm going to show you how to make a pipe lamp with a water valve light switch and a charging port for your phone! This is a great project to get those creative juices flowing. You can use the same pipe design I did, or you can get creative with your pipes and design something super unique!

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PART 1: TURNING YOUR VALVE INTO A SWITCH

First things first, you need a valve. There are two types of valves, gate valves and plunging valves. For this project, we need a gate valve https://structuretech1.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Stop-valve-halway-open.jpg. Once you've got your valve, use a wrench (you might need a torch to heat it) to take it apart. Take off the round piece and leave the t-pipe portion aside. 

Then we take our rotary switch, feed it though our 1"t-pipe with a 1"-3/4" hex. Using 1.5" of clear vinyl tubing (1/4" ID 3/8" OD), push the tubing over the tip of the rotary switch and then push the tip of the valve in the other end of the vinyl tubing. 

Once you have your rotary switch attached to your valve, use some JB Weld to hold the valve in place in the pipe. Also place some JB Weld on the bottom of the rotary switch so it stays firmly in place within the t-pipe.

PART 2: CONNECTING YOUR SWITCH TO THE REST OF THE LAMP

Here is a diagram of how your wiring should look. I found it confusing, until I drew it out and you can see that it’s really quite simple. Take a good look at, or come back to this diagram if you need to!

First, make it so that one wire from the rotary switch sticks out on either end.
Then pull your lamp wire through the base and separate the wires at the end. I decided to use the wire from an old toaster oven, so that third green wire you see is just a grounding wire that will sit under the base when I’m done.

Using crimp&shrimp connectors, I spliced one wire from my lamp cord to one wire from the rotary switch and used a heat gun to activate the glue.

Then I fed string through my pipe pieces in the desired order and glued them together using loctite. I used string rather than the wire itself to prevent the wire from possibly getting twisted while connecting the pieces of pipe.

I used 16 gauge primary wire and spliced it to my rotary switch. Then I spliced a separate pieces of primary wire to the other wire on my lamp/toaster oven cord.

Then I taped both strands of wire to the string and pulled it through the pipes.

Then I connected my wires to the socket. My wires ended up being too long though, so I has to shorten the wires coming from my socket.

PART 3- THE BASE

I used a piece of live edge that I had for the base. I used an 1 1/4” spade bit  to make a hole big enough for my plug on my lamp cord to fit through, and then drilled the four holes for for my base.

Then I flipped the base over and routed a straight line from the large hole to the end of the base to that my cord would sit flat inside.

As an afterthought, I decided to add a phone charging port to the base, So I routed a slot on the top using a 1/2” flush trim router bit  just long enough for my phone to sit in and then used a small round nose vaining bit to router a tiny hole inside the slot for the plug of the charger to sit in. Then I routered a slot on the back  for the charging cord  so that the base would sit flat.