Tripod lamp

Overview

Restoration Hardware’s Royal Marine Tripod Floor Lamp planted the idea for this project. Here’s my completed lamp:

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Here’s a view without the lampshade. The first two photos show old parts.

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The tripod

This cinema tripod came to me through a friend of my mom’s who got it from an elementary school auction. All of parts are original and have authentic wear marks. Amazingly, the fluid head is still very smooth.

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Each leg telescopes and tilts independently, which makes it really hard to get the lamp straight. Here are some detail shots of the legs:

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Lamp assembly

Lamp shade

My artistic vision included a gray cylindrical lampshade, but after vigorous searching I determined there is no such product. I could’ve ordered a custom lamp shade for a lot of money, or I could’ve tried to make one myself which probably wouldn’t work. Neither option was appealing.

I chose with a gray drum/barrel lamp shade from Cost Plus World Market, which I’m very happy with:

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Socket and fittings

There are a few different ways to mount a lampshade. 

I started with a Westinghouse Make-A-Lamp Kit from Home Depot, which has a harp meant to support the shade’s spider. My lamp shade had an Uno fitting, which attaches to the fixture below the light bulb. See the diagram below. 

I replaced the socket housing with an Uno housing and ended up using few parts from the lamp kit.

Adapters

I turned two parts from scrap aluminum. First, an adapter screws onto the lamp’s 1/8 IPS nipple, lets the power cord go out, then screws onto the tripod’s 1/4-20 thread. Second, a riser with male 1/4-20 threads on both sides holds the lampshade higher up so it doesn’t obscure the tripod head.

The exploded views below show the parts of the lamp. From left to right are:

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Here it is with hand for scale, also showing the part that screws onto the shell and holds the Uno lamp shade on.

Last updated November 2021