Steel Oil Lamp Chandelier
So I have been wanting to try making a larger project and something decorative. So i had the idea of making an oil lamp chandelier. About two years ago we swapped all of our candles for oil lamps in our main pavilion at Pennsic. We never found a good alternative for a hanging oil lamp chandelier, so
i decided to make one. I had an idea of the design I thought would be useful and relatively evocative of a period design.
This particular design was going to force me to take a on a few skills which i have been working on but have not yet mastered. Scroll bending can be quite a bear, especially if you want them all too be the same size. I thought i has solved this problem by buying scroll bending jig for the shop. Apparently this jig is less than happy bending stick over a half inch wide. So while i got a basic scroll from the jig i had to fix them all on the anvil.
The next obstacle was forging the ring in my gas forge which is not really meant for forging something that large. Then creating the ring itself. So i heated the steal up one section at a time and lacking any sort of circle jig of the correct size, we (my assistant and I) wrapped it around the anvil stump which was mostly round. Once it was close to round and closed i used an acetylene torch to heat the rough spots and round them out on the anvil.
Next came the receptacle cups.. I started with 6 inch stainless steel discs. I heated them up in the forge and using a swage Master Danr had made out of an oxygen tank, I formed the discs into cups.
The hooks were made from 1017 mild steel. As was the hanging ring which I forged and welded shut.
Once all the pieces were fabricated, assembly would have been easier with two people. That being said i learn a few lessons with regards to riveting multiple pieces of oddly shaped metal together. Firstly build a jig. Build two jigs if necessary. It would have gone faster and cleaner if I had the right jig to rivet against. All in all the pieces went together as planned.
I'm pretty happy with the end result, though I know I could have done so much better and I will on version #2.
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