A partial list of things to do tomorrow:
chop the nipple
screw the lamp
yank the cord
shove it all tight together
find/fit/finish fine finials
I found tonight, when I all but finished the first lamp, that I forgot, somewhere along the line, to make finials for my lamps. The finials, for those of you who don’t already know, are the little screwy things that hold the lamp shade to the top of the harp. Based on my research, lamps of the sort I have made are typically fitted with manzanita finials. That is, with little bits of wood that match the vertical part of the lamp. In order to do this right, I need to find an appropriately sized nut to screw onto the top of the harp, an appropriately sized and colored piece of manzanita in reasonable shape, cut it, sand it, put a hole in it, glue the nut into it, then finish the entire thing.
Which, if you were paying attention to my earlier posts, you know that the last step alone takes around 30 hours. Because the finish requires two coats, 4-6 hours between coats and 24 hours to harden after the final coat. Because of hate me.
Finding the wood shouldn’t be too hard; I may even have trimmed an appropriate piece or two off these pieces in the process. If not, I can get something from some too-twisty or too skinny piece that isn’t good for anything else. That’s no trouble. Cutting it, easy. Getting pretty good at that part. Sanding it; smooth. I’ve got several good tools to choose from to get that job done right, though I expect the abrasive buffs on the dremel will be about the right size and coarsenesses for the job.
Getting the nut into the wood … actually finding the right nut may be time-consuming … but getting the nut into the wood, I don’t know how to do. Which means I have to ask dad for help. Which, almost inevitably, means I have a good chance of getting stressed out by the project. But that at some point in the future, it will get acceptably done. And then 30 hours or more later, I can actually attach it to the lamp and then, perhaps, sell the lamp.
Or, uhhh… I guess I could ask my dad to pick up a pair of reasonable finials while he’s in town tomorrow, or I could find some myself when I go to town this week to try to watch that movie again. Just buy something simple and reasonable for these lamps and do something out of wood for future lamps. Like, I could do simple brass finials for these two lamps and start on a wood finial for the floor lamp, then finish the finial for it at the same time I finish the floor lamp itself. That would be okay.
What do you think?
What do you mean you’d never thought about finials this much before?
Are you saying …
Look, I know I’m not quite ‘normal’ in a lot of ways, but that doesn’t mean you can just …
Cut it out! Just because I’m making a post about finials, you…
Fine. Look. There’s no point in continuing this conversation. Good night.
No, you shut up!
