Parts:
A. Wide mouth mason jar with lid.
B. Lamp socket with threaded tube and wiring.
C. Light bulb. I used a red bulb at first than swapped in a white one. A spiral florescent probably not work well.
D. Wood for base.
E. Broken glass to fill jar. (I used safety glass, beach glass should work. Other heat resistant translucent material will probably work: salt, glass beads, etc).
1. Make a base.
2. Attach lid of mason jar to base.
3. Drill through lid and base for wire and socket.
4a. Fill mason jar with bulb and glass. I played around with this several times to get a feel for how the bulb should be positioned. In the end, I found what works best is:
4b. The socket should not be firmly attached to the base.
4c. The bulb should be screwed into the socket before filling with glass around the bulb.
4d. Hold the jar and wire still, and rotate the base to attach the jar to the lid.
5. Plug in, turn on, enjoy.
The bulb is not easy to change, and I expect it is easy to break while changing, so this is not a very practical light.
Later this design was reused as a lamp with a knit cover. Heat becomes a critical problem and that only works with very low wattage bulbs. I've been using five watt CFLs.
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