How to Make Lamps from "Junk" and other Upcycled Stuff 

I love the tip on using old lamps instead of buying new lamp kits. Thanks for that!

Thanks for this video. This is exactly what I was thinking about today. Making lamps out of whatever. I am also interested in creating a shop here at home and make good use of my garage space.

I bought a 1956 Chevy Tail Light for $3 at a junk store. At the local Goodwill, I found a banana hanger (not sure what it's called) for $1. The hole for the screw on the tail light fit perfectly over the hook on the banana hanger. Finally, I put a cheap night lite clip into the hole made for the original bulb. Way COOL desk lamp. Total cost: $8. I sold it for $65.

1:18 That was a ceremonial lamp from the Yuan dynasty. The only one left in the world apparently. I just looked up the price. 153 billion pounds was the reserve auction price. Never mind - an easy mistake to make.

OMG I love you! lol I am very frustrated with the lack of lighting options out there and the ridiculous prices for some of them, so I thought (at 3 AM while I can't sleep) that maybe making my own was the way to go. The 1st two taught me basic wiring, but this one sold me on going for it! Thank you!

This is so crafty! I love these! Idea for any lamp bodies you don't break: My wife makes bird baths by stacking them together with a shallow platter for the basin. She gets all the stuff at the secondhand store really cheap! Plus, she makes a mosaic for the inside of the batch by gluing and grouting in broken pieces.

you could take the left over pieces of ceramic, clay or glass , smash them up into smaller pieces and glue those pieces to the outside of lamps that you create.

This is AWESOME! I just decided today to make a lamp for a young friend of mine and was looking for ideas. Heading to the thrift store right now! Thanks, will be checking out your channel for more ideas!

I made one from a old copper fire extinguisher I picked up at a junk store that was pretty cool and it was cheap. The "lamp kit" came from my neighborhood bulk trash pick up. Free from the curb. I score all kinds of stuff for projects like that.

ok! 6:52 mark and I'm hooked! Love the creative and manageable time/tool/cost to put them together. Quick Q- "I'm a property investor and starting to put together AirBnB cottages with unique things but I don't want it to look like unmatched trash.... Are there consistent items or themes that you are always searching for at garage/estate sales that look like great finished for matching wall lighting?" I'm in Michigan so any type of country rustic/wood grain/old industrial farm-auto usually peaks the interest of people.

Wow! When you look around your house and see all the money you have spent on expensive things. When you could have made it out of a junk. Thanks for all the inspiration!

This week I wanted to try turning old motorcycle helmets into lamps. The unfortunate thing about motorcycle helmets (even very expensive ones) is their impact foam degrades. Most industry standards recommend replacing a helmet after about 5 years of use. My uncle gave me his Shoei Neotec when I started riding, a helmet which I love, but has unfortunately reached the 5 year cut-off so I want to turn it into a unique gift that he can still enjoy.

What a great range of ideas, I love it. My shop is full of useless bits I can never throw away but your video has given me inspiration to do something with them. Thank you!

First, awesome video! And sometimes those ceramic looking lamp 'bottoms'(?) are actually just painted glass and make cool hanging lampshades themselves! I took a light blue one that looks a lot like your white one (about a minute in) painted it black over the blue and then sanded scratched and wire brush dabbed off spots then wired the light into it and it shines out looking like a cool night skyish thingy! Anyway again, thanks for this great spot!

Omg how fun! Cheaper than my quilting hobby 😂 I found this because I have a crystal lamp base from my grandmothers estate, And it needs to be turned into a lamp and I don’t even know how to put a basic lamp kit from Home Depot together so I’m pretty sure at this point I don’t need to hire someone else to do it don’t blame me if I watch all of your videos to try to find the very first basic one of “stick this here; don’t stick this there” LOL... good job! Will you be my neighbor 😸😎💡

This is a second video that I found. I did not realize it was the same artist that I saw building a table, which it was beautiful. I he a hard time throwing pieces of wood as well, and as well bamboo pieces, I saved an exterior light fixture just like the one in the video, I am taking your idea and building one, I thought what a great creative idea. I have copper bolts that I am going to use for the dining table, I do not have steel or metal to attach like you did. I save every little thing that I can, it becomes part of a piece of art. I am subscribing; off to find other videos of yours!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I love lamp! always great watching someone else make a lamp other than a bottle lamp!

Awsome I love the thermos lamp great job on all those lamps

Wish I had a neighbor like you. I could just pop over for occasional mentoring. Love the used lamp hack.

Great ideas!! A true maker. Your shop reminds me of my dad.

Great video! Thanks for the ideas. I like the directional from the vw 👍🏼

I wouldn't have considered going to the thrift store to get the guts, which is weird since it's pretty much my 1st stop for most everything else lol. Thank you for your video.

Great video!! You are very clever and creative!! I have made some lamps but never thought to get parts at Thrift Stores.. Great ideas! Thank you for this!👍

Broken potter and ceramics make great mosaics!

This was such fun to watch! Thank you!

Have you ever made any pendant lighting? I think a pendant light using a trumpet would be very interesting

This is inspiring! I have to clean out all the stuff in my garage from previous owners, and its full of electrical parts, fence pieces and random bits of stuff. I might be having a lamp sale this summer. Thanks!

Some really bright ideas there:) I like the thermos pouring out the light, very creative and the turn signals look cool!

love working with reclaimed materials, great job on the variety of lamps.

I use pottery shards in the bottom of containers for my patio plants, good drainage!

All lamps are awesome, but I loved the twins made from the LNB. So many cool ideas.

I LOVE the drum lamp you showed... Also, I gotta agree... Vintage VW bits and pieces are cool as the other side of the pillow. I'm also digging the satellite lamp.

Great job Tim! Really like the one with the drumsticks!

OMG! I wish you were my roommate or something... I would love to watch you brainstorm some of these badass ideas... and I feel like whenever I have a creative idea, you could help me figure out how to put it into motion (*I lack basic engineering and construction skills, haha)! Thanks for this video. SO cool, creative and entertaining!!! PS- I love how you are all about trying to reuse old stuff! ;-) You're my kind of person!

This is great Tim!... Can't believe I never thought of the scrap wood lamp. We must be on the same cycle or something--I just posted my lamp video a few hours before yours.

The remnants would make GREAT target practice at the range. I love smoking pots at the range. Watching them turn to nothing more than smoke after my 30-06 hits them at a 100 yards. YES!!!

Make flower pots with the old lamps. Thanks for sharing

Planning on making a stand-up lamp out of an old keg. This was very helpful😊

Very cool ideas! Love the drum stick lamp!!

Tim really snapped when he broke that lamp.... Sheeeeeeet

you could make a junk lamp with the broken lamp pieces, be pretty abstract but cool

Tim, this was a great watch! Very informative, I got a lot of cool tips from it, thank you!!

Great ideas, designs and inspiration

Thank you for this video you are so creative loved all of them!

VERY KEWL! lots of inspiration here. I especially like the globe lamps.

lamp pieces that are extra could be used for a bong, i mean water pipe chamber extention or a second diffusing chamber. 👌

I love the turn signal sconces. I hope Dish Network paid you for that sweet product placement.

Love LOve! LOVE!!! Lots of great inspiration there! thanks!

You're very creative and original. I really enjoyed your video.inspiring too. Thanks

Amazing. Great job man.

lamp remnants- paint them w a mixture of baking soda & brown paint & they look like ancient urns. Throw some literal dirt onto the wet mixture for dramatic excavation style

Awesome inspiration!

Very good ideas. Going try some for sure. Thks

Use the ceramic shards in mosaics (like stepping stones for your yard).

hey tim sway.. i really this your so brilliant crafty videos.... how i wish i have a lot of tools and equipment. creating some used stuff. here in my family house.. this video has a lot of great ideas, and also frugal things..that we dont need to buy some brand new stuff. kudos to you sir tim. from philippines :)

Cool stuff! I always pass by those junk lamps, wondering why they even bother to display them...not any more. Thanks for tip!

Tim...great stuff! Very motivational. I feel like The REplace is on the right track. I've been shopping at resale shops for lamp parts for some time...and I've broken my share of lamps just to get the guts! :)

Awesome lamps dude. love the satellite one!

Nice work Tim, I like the globe lamps!!!

Cool stuff! We are just getting started in the RU-vid world, hope we can become as good as you!

Great! Love ur ideas! Unique & original!

Wow man. Nice work! The VW lamps are exceptional.

I love the lamps !! I've been wanting to do this for years but never really had the nerve! Here in the UK you can't buy second hand electrical goods from charity shops anymore due to relatively new regulations. To make and sell lamps I think I have to get a qualification or get someone to assess them and give them some sort of pass certificate. A real chore, and of course it would make the price increase! No matter, you have inspired me, I'm gonna try and work out a way, I really enjoy your video's, keep up the good work !

Nice work man! the lamps look great. For me the coolest is the globe one. I made one with a friend a while ago but it was a plastic one that could be lit from the inside. I didn't know they are usually made of cardboard! Globes are very cool by themselves :)

Great stuff, it is kind of funny that this lamp video came out now. Last weekend was the city wide yard sales around here and I can not even count how many old lamps were in free piles. I looked at a few but controlled myself because I have too much stuff for my up coming move, lol.

I don't know if you do any wood turning, but you could turn a vase and inset some of the broken parts? Might look good?

Tim I love your video. What other cool things can you make? I bet your garage is filled with all kinds of gizmos. Is anything for sale? Keep up the great work.

awesome, loving the globe and twin sat thinggie ! Keep on trucking ! (from France)

brilliant as ever Tim

Very inspiring video. I especially like the repurposing of the Volkswagen beetle tail lights into sconces. May I ask a technical question? I would like to know how you record narration and not have any echo? It would seem that you are not doing the recording in the same location as your workshop. Thank you again for your creativity Dan

Those Beetle sconces are epic bro! Great video.

Very cool Tim.

wildly clever and super inspiring!

Make mosaic coasters with the remnants of the broken lamp base!

I'm loving your videos, mate. Cool lamp!

cool vids. for lamp hanging from ceiling, does the socket have to have a ground or can be ungrounded?

Turn old lamps in to vases or garden flowers make hole little bigger on top

Really dug this one Tim! Was actually thinking about making a lamp soon and saw the kits for $13. Glad I didn't buy one yet! Thanks for that!

All are cool lamps!

What to do with the discarded lamp bodies after you’ve taken out the “lamp kit”: Flower pots. Not all of them are easy to convert to flower pots, but some are.

I LOVE LAMP!! this was just simply GREAT!

Tim U R the man!

nice dude! I had that same idea with the wood scraps, I have buckets of them!

Great idea, awesomz design. Love it.

Nice work Tim They all look Awesome . Great job on them I think most strange lamp I ever made was from a set of Motorcycle forks lol I wish I still had the pictures. It was for one of my Brothers . Thank you for sharing this great video....Shared,,,

Make some really cool outdoor fountains or flower pots with the unused lamp parts

Broken up pottery makes a good filler for the bottom of planters, it doesnt restrict drainage but will help keep dirt from spilling out the drain holes.

I was cleaning out the shop recently and couldn't figure out why I had kept little squarish offcuts, I know now. Thanks Tim.

Very enlightening! thanks for the thrift store tip, I've made one lamp out of some scraps but I paid the 12.99. Oh and with the lamp left overs you could make some lamps

I have a pair of old boots I would love to make lamps out of.

You are brilliant!

I love this video!!

So "KOOL" ! Very ingenuous.

Awesome bro, iam starting a old camera with a Edison bulb and an old sears allstate oil can desklamp to match my vintage bike ..any pointers on the lamp parts? I liked your idea to just get an already made lamp and break it apart ..scott

They came out great

Awesome! I'd love to see a mosaic table out of those remnants :D

So awesome! Inspired to make lamps now!

Does ceramic smooth up in a rock tumbler?

Yes, this is epic! 👍

Cool! really liked the green one, it looks groovy, and the one with the globe on top almost looks like something you would find in a store, sexy!