astroracer
Well-known member
I've had this old coffee grinder gathering dust for years. I dug it out the other day thinking I could do some repurposing. I'm thinking a lamp will look nice. 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.
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.
To mount the plate I drilled three holes in the lip of the grinder and tapped them for 1/4-20 set screws.
I center drilled 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....
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
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.
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.
To mount the plate I drilled three holes in the lip of the grinder and tapped them for 1/4-20 set screws.
I center drilled 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....
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
