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Several years ago I had an idea for a floor lamp that would be a Steampunk robotic hand holding a a light source. This was another creation I made for my Steampunk Living Room.
I had a telescope tripod for the base and an arm from a desk lamp. Some large gears would serve as a counter weight and I added a sewing machine hand wheel as a center adjustment knob.
Connector Base
I machined a center shaft where I mounted the arm. In the end the arm proved to be too weak to support the weight and needed to be replace.
The connection proved to be too brittle and was replaced.
Counter Weight
The arm was still used but an outside stainless steel support tube was machined for the arm to slide into.
The Steampunk Hand
The hand itself was fabricated from copper and brass. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures of the making of the digits.
The sides of the digits were cut from copper strips. The tops were brass plate cut to fit. Brass rod was bored out and the copper and brass pieces soldered together. In this way 14 digits were made, three for each finger and two for the thumb.
The back of the hand was also covered in brass, with antique clock gears imbedded to look like they powered the fingers.
Each of the brass rods in the digits were tapped with 6-32 threads so brass screws could be used to hold the fingers together from both sides.
In this way the fingers were fully articulated, so the hand could be wrapped around any lamp that I made.
The original lamp was fabricated from scratch, shown here with the hand.
Picture Gallery
I was never satisfied with the original lamp. Eventually I found this shell for an antique automobile head light on ebay.
This worked much better. I added the skirt and spikes to make it more menacing.
The counter weight was twisted 90 degrees,
and the lamp was complete.
Another view of the hand wrapped around the new lamp.
A closeup of the hand and lamp.
Another. Notice my binnacle in the background. This is a new addition to the room.
One more with the lamp lit up.