Could an amateur make a floor-standing arco light?

[skotl]

This;

Is a '60s arco style floor standing lamp. The nicer ones reach a little further over (presumably with much more lead in the base).
Last year,my mrs was very excited that she found a place in Italy that could ship a replica to the UK for £120.
The company became infamous for just being a boiler-room operation in Spain that was taking peoples' money and running - even featured on BBC news and Watchdog.

She was gutted cos she always thought she was savvy about this kind of thing and the bank was of no help at all.

Anyway.... I'm a software engineer with a garage full of amateur kit so hardly a seasoned fabricator - is there a way that I could fashion that kind of precise arc out of tube, do y'all think? I could certainly do a lashup but that wouldn't do it justice. I'm fine with the shade and wiring it up, but it's the precision of the arc that I don't know how to achieve.

If the answer is no, then no worries - I'll take her to dinner instead

 

[BrokenBiker]

it certainly looks do-able. get some tube, fill it with a weak mix of water and fairly liquid, freeze with a central heating freeze kit and then bend it like bar in a vice. the soapy water stops the pipe collapsing. same way trumpets are made

as long as the base is heavy enough (or screwed to the floorboards) the arc shouldn't matter too much, as long as it looks right it shouldn't tip over with a nice heavy base

 

[DanielW]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_f...arco+floor+lamp&_nkw=arco+floor+lamp&_sacat=0

 

[bigegg]

yes there is.
but you'd need a ring roller with dies to fit the size of tube.

draw a template in the floor, and roll until it matches.
buy lots of spare tube so you can practice first.

 

[mike 109444]

Get a length of steel conduit, borrow an electricians bender and mark out (after working it out) the arc on the bench or floor and away you go.

 

[BrokenBiker]

or just buy one from the link dan posted...

 

[chunkolini]

You could do it with a tube bender. or probably just a round former if you use hydraulic tubing.
Hell, cut a curve out of MDF and pull the tube round it?
A curve is just a series of bends close to each other, mark your tube carefullyish then tweak it say every 20mm and you will get a nice curve.
Think how most of us draw a curve; a series of very short straight lines.

 

[mike 109444]

Bit off subject but is it just me or does Daniel's avatar look like Chip Fosse

 

[chunkolini]

A bit off topic?
Who is Daniel? and who is Chip Fosse?

 

[mike 109444]

A bit off topic?
Who is Daniel? and who is Chip Fosse?

DanielW Post 3
Chip Fwould take to long to explain to you sir as I believe you are not into cars....
It's just that every time I see his avatar, that's who I think of.

 

[optima21]

A bit off topic?
Who is Daniel? and who is Chip Fosse?

think you should have asked Boyd Coddington who Chip Foose is

 

[the snooper]

think you should have asked Boyd Coddington who Chip Foose is

who is boyd coddington

 

[mike 109444]

And another look a like avatar (Skotl) and Jason Stathan Assuming that is not where he got his from....

 

[mike 109444]

think you should have asked Boyd Coddington who Chip Foose is

You mean Boyd aka Captain Haddock....

 

[optima21]

the Boyd Coddington / Chip Foose story from wikipedia

"however Coddington was able to convince Foose to work for him instead.[1] Working for Coddington full-time, Foose eventually became the president of Coddington's company Hot Rods by Boyd. While working for Coddington, Foose designed many of Coddington's well known creations such as the Boydster I and II.[2][3]

In 1998, with Hot Rods by Boyd facing bankruptcy, Foose left his position and with his wife Lynne started his own automotive and product design company called Foose Design in Huntington Beach, California.[1] Foose's departure from Boyd's was not an amicable one as in a 2006 interview, Foose stated: "Boyd has chosen to not have any relations with me, since I stopped working at his shop." One of the main reasons for the bitter relationship between Boyd and Chip is claimed to be that Chip retained many of the talented builders from Boyd Coddington. Mike and Charley left Boyd shortly after Foose had established his shop.[3]

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Foose

probably one of the only real parts of American Hot Rod "reality" tv series.

 

[skotl]

Errr... curves, folks?

Anyway - thanks to the suggestions re the curves

There are some available online at £250 - £1500 and there are definitely some cheaper ones at £100...£120.

I just thought that it would be nice if I could make it up to her by making something that looked good, rather than paying someone else

Thanks for the suggestions, though - looks like it's worth some practise. I have no doubt that I will spend £300 getting the right curve and spending more than it would cost to get one off ebay. I think I'll have a play with sand, or soapy water, and see how well it turns out.
The base, wiring and shade are the easy bits!

Will let you know how I get on...

 

[Robotstar5]

You could do it with a tube bender. or probably just a round former if you use hydraulic tubing.
Hell, cut a curve out of MDF and pull the tube round it?

Make it a smaller radius to allow for springback.

 

[optima21]

the wooden former sounds good to me or another option is a hydraulic bender made from a few offcuts of wood and a jack, but getting the curve even would be more difficult, and stopping it from spiraling would be harder too. but it it can be used to tweak the curve if you use a wooden former

and making the former on the jack, using a forstner drill in a drill with the peice of plywood being mounted on a rotary table. that was bending 16mm dia 1.6mm wall steel tube

 

[fixerupper]

Make it a smaller radius to allow for springback.

Yep thats How I would do it , 18mm ply or MDF mark out the curve twice screw the two profiles together ,get some bright steel tube ,make up fixing for the start ,mabey weld a bit of flatbar on the end of the tube and screw to the former , some guides and plenty of clamps or ratchet straps will help...jeff

 

[skotl]

Grate stuff - cheers!