Make a lamp out of anything

A long time ago I made a hanging milk can lamp out of an antique milk can that the bottom rusted out. Just recently I turned an antique kerosene lamp into a modern light fixture.

A lamp is easy. Just get a socket, plug, switch and lamp wire long enough to go from your lamp to a wall outlet. Lamp wire is two strands stuck together. Does not matter what kind for a lamp. My hanging milk can got 10 feet which was a little much. Put your wire through whatever you want to put it through. It might need to go through lamp pipe that threads to the socket depending on what you are doing. Then strip the wire ends. You should have four stripped wires, about half an inch showing bare. Put the socket on one end and the plug on the other. Home Depot's had instructions in the bags for which end goes on what. The switch I got just snapped onto the wire, no cutting or stripping. Put in a bulb and bam! you have a lamp. Don't hang a lamp just by the wire, you can attach a chain and loop it through a plant hanging hook to take the weight off.

For a fixture you just need a socket, and some 16 gauge lamp wire.  Any home improvement store should have it. Get enough to go from the bottom of your fixture plus at least 6 inches above. I used two feet for my hanging kerosene light.  I also used a socket that had a threaded switch hole on the bottom to stay upright in my specific light.

The strand with the words on it is the hot side. This goes to the gold screw on the socket. The other goes to the silver. You will need to split the wires. I used a diagonal cutter to start then pulled with all my might. Now strip about a 3/4 of an inch off the ends. With my socket I had to make U shapes with the exposed wire and wrap it around the screw shafts. Face the U shape so when screwed, the screw will pull the wire tighter.

I put the bottom switch through an existing hole at the bottom and used the provided nut to screw it tight.

Now I had to drill holes for the wire to go through in the base and top. I used a chainsaw (rat tail) file to deburr the holes. That is very important so you don't tear the coating off the wires. I also used zip ties to keep the wire flush against the fixture to hide the wire. Once fished through everything split the wires at the top just like the bottom and strip the ends.

Now kill the power to the circuit you will be working on. My circuit breaker isn't labeled well so it took a few flips and running inside to flip the light switch and back out to get the right one.

I had a "boob" light where the decorative "nipple" unscrews and then the glass drops to reveal the screws holding it to the box. Drop the light and unscrew the wire nuts on the wires to fully remove it. If it is black and white wires then the black is the hot and goes to your hot lamp wire with the writing on it. The green or bare copper wire is the ground.

Use new wire nuts to place the bare end of your lamp wire to the bare end of the wall wire. Just put them together and twist the wire nut until you can see the wires twist around at least twice. Tuck the wires back up into the box.

My fixture also had existing holes in the top piece to screw the fixture into the electrical box so I used the old screws to install it. Now I put the bulb in and turned the circuit back on.

Flipped the switch a few times to make sure it worked so now I have a rustic modern light fixture.