Antique Coffee Grinder Lamp Conversion

**astroracer** · Feb 24, 2016, 05:14 AM

I've had this old coffee grinder gathering dust for years. I dug it out the other day thinking I could do some repurposing. After I got it cleaned up I took some pics.

I will degrease this, as is, and spray it with clear satin to seal it up and hopefully preserve the patina.

I just hit this with a brass wire brush to clean it up. A little Tuff Stuff spray cleaner got all of the dust and brushing residue off. I took it all apart and removed the "grinding guts". These were pretty nasty...

The plan is to make a plate that will screw into the top and run the cord up thru the middle of the grinder.

Continued in next post.

**astroracer** · Feb 24, 2016, 05:22 AM

After removing the grinding cones I had to put a stop collar on the shaft to hold it in. You can see a pin in the "guts" pic above that held everything together in the body.

I have a big piece of 1/4" thick copper plate, 6" wide x 5' long. I cut a chunk off that and laid out a circle to use as a plug for the top.

I cut it out on the bandsaw and knocked off the corners.

and ground it to a circle on the 6" belt sander.

Continued...

**astroracer** · Feb 24, 2016, 05:34 AM

To mount the plate I drilled three holes in the lip of the grinder and tapped them for 1/4-20 set screws.

I centerdrilled the edge of the plate so the screws seat very well and hold it tightly.
I was thinking of building the upper lamp portion with black pipe but then I had another thought...

The plate is COPPER.... Why not flaunt that...

Setting the plate up in the mill for some embellishment. That is a grinding stone for a Dremel tool chucked into the mill....

Continued...

**astroracer** · Feb 24, 2016, 05:57 AM

After doing a bit of math I settled on a pattern and, using the Tpac Tools DRO, I got busy.

It doesn't look that good initially but, the more I did, the better it got.

It's far from perfect but it does add a bit of character.

The plan now is to build the lamp portion out of copper tube and fittings.

The important part is, the BOSS liked it. So I am happy. That's where I'm at right now. I have ordered some "antiqued" bronze hardware, harp and light socket, and a cloth cord with an antique plug so I am waiting on those to come in to get this wrapped up.
Thanks for looking!
Mark

**astroracer** · Feb 29, 2016, 05:23 AM

Other then finding a shade this project is done.!

I used some 3/4" copper cutoffs I had in storage to make the riser. The harp, antiquey cloth covered cord and bulb socket came from Antique Lamp Supply and a couple of fittings from the hardware store got it all bolted together.