Learn to how build your own (manly) “A Christmas Story” leg lamp by watching this DIY tutorial made by woodworker Jackman Works.
This leg is an exact full scale model of Jackman Works’ own leg. The leg and base are made from maple butcher block scraps from previous projects. The lamp shade is welded from scrap lengths of rebar and wrapped in pleather attached using paracord that looks like Carolina®’s boot laces.
The Carolina® ‘ELM’ Logger boot is attached using a threaded brass lamp rod through the entire leg with a nut on both ends. There are also a couple of screws into the toe of the boot/foot.
Woodworker Jackman Works created a lamp in an image of his own leg
It all started by taking photos of his leg
Then the materials had to be gathered
The maple butcher block is cut down roughly to size to make a sort of topographical layering
The leg is traced out onto one of the tall pieces and then cut down to size on the bandsaw
He cut out the inside of the center pieces where he carved down from the outside
After letting the glue dry overnight he took the leg blank out of the clamps. With the bandsaw he was able to make this piece the right shape in 2 dimensions and now it needed to be established in the 3rd dimension
He rounded things over to give this thing a real leg shape
And soon it looked like a real leg
He founnd the joint that holds the piece of paper and popped that apart with a chisel and hammer in the top of the leg
Each side of the joint is sanded down
With the glue dry, the final shaping was done by just sanding through the grits
The passageway from the top to bottom of the foot is completed by drilling a hole in the center of the new top leg plate and in the bottom of the foot
For the bottom plate, he cut down another piece of the maple butcher block scraps to a circle slightly larger than the boot and center the boot in place
The leg was coated with Waterlox Original to get some finish on the wood
After 3 coats with a high grit sanding between coats and then some really high 600 grit to knock off any little fuzzies after the final coat
assembly began
The threaded rod is cut down to the right height with a hacksaw and then the top of the lamp is threaded on
Then he attached the wires to the screws and installed the top of the lamp in place
Once the corners were ground down smooth, it was time to get the actually sides of the shade in place
To lace these in place around the metal frame he uses some paracord that matched the color of the boot laces best
And once the top was on, the lamp was finished
Building “A Christmas Story” Leg Lamp
