DIY Baseball Lamp
In this article, I show you how to make a DIY baseball lamp. This is a super easy project and the DIY Baseball Lamp is perfect for a nursery or boys room.
The weather is warming up here in South Louisiana (actually, it barely cooled down at all this winter), Mardi Gras is in full swing, and daylight savings time is around the corner. Most importantly, it’s Baseball season already! My family and I love the game of baseball, so I decided to build my son a DIY Baseball Lamp.
Materials and Tools I Used
- Make a Lamp Kit
- All Thread Lamp Pipe Kit
- Irwin Combination Square
- Band Saw
- Jig saw can be used in lieu of band saw
- 4 new or used baseballs
- I’m a baseball coach so I had plenty of these laying around.
- Disc Sander
- Palm or orbital sander can be used in lieu of disc sander
- Digital Caliper
- Any caliper can be used in lieu of digital caliper
- Drill Press
- A regular Drill can be used in lieu of drill press
- Drill Press Vise 4″
- Any clamp can be used in lieu of drill press
- Orbital Sander
- Darbin Orvar Linseed/Beeswax
- Variable Speed Compact Router
- Hot Glue Gun
- Lamp Shade
- Any shade will do – I used the one I from the original lamp.
- 8″ (length) x 8″ (width) x 1″ (thickness) quare piece of wood
- I used a piece of scrap IPE in my shop.
Step 1
Make sure you have all the materials you need for the diy baseball lamp before you get started. It is quite frustrating to start a project and realize you don’t have the materials you need – trust me, I do it all the time.
Find or cut any piece of wood that is 8″ x 8″ square to be the base of the diy baseball lamp (home plate). I had a piece of IPE laying around my shop from a previous project that was 9″ x 9″. You can change the size of home plate as long as you follow these measurement guidelines: Back of home plate = x. Each side of home plate = x / 2. The 2 remaining sides are set at a 45 degree angle until they intersect. The standard size of home plate is 17″ (Back) x 8.5″ (straight side) x 12″ (angled sides).
Home Plate Dimensions
Step 2
Trace home plate on your chosen piece of material with a pencil and a combination square. I chose a scrap piece of IPE.
Next, cut out the plate with a jigsaw or bandsaw. Remember to always cut outside the lines and trim the remaining material off with a sander.
Home Plate (IPE) cut
Home Plate cutout complete on bandsaw
Step 3
Trim remaining material using a sander. I used a disc sander, but an orbital sander would work as well.
Remove excess material from Home Plate on disc sander
Step 4
Make a mark on the baseballs in the same general area. I chose an area on the ball that would minimize the logo/emblem once stacked on each other.
Marking baseballs for drilling accuracy
Note: I chose 4 baseballs because they fit on the threaded rod perfectly with about a half inch of thread remaining on each side.
Step 5
Use a digital caliper, regular caliper, or any measuring device to measure the width of the threaded rod. As you can see from the picture, the rod one is 3/8″.
Measure width of threaded lamp rod with digital caliper
Step 6
Secure the ball with clamps or a vise.
Next, drill a hole on the mark with the same size drill bit as the width of the rod. This hole will be a bit too small for the rod, but it is better to have it too narrow rather than too wide.
The holes I drilled were too small for the rod to fit, so I stepped up to a 1/2″ bit. This size worked perfectly.
Drilling 3/8″ hole in baseball
Drilling 1/2″ hole in baseball
Step 7
Place the baseballs on the threaded rod and secure them in place with the lock nuts/washers that came with the lamp kit. Make sure to leave about a half inch of threaded rod on each end so that it will be easy to secure the remaining lamp pieces and it can be attached to the base plate.
Detailed instructions on how to assemble the different nuts/washers come with the lamp kit; however, I didn’t use some of them. You should be good to go as long as the balls are secure.
Threaded Rod with baseball stack secured
Step 8
Thread the wire through the rod.
DIY Baseball Lamp wire through threaded rod
Baseballs secured to threaded rod
Step 9
Attach the remaining pieces for the DIY baseball lamp kit to one side.
Top hardware installed
Step 10
Find the center of the plate using a combination square, speed square, or tape measure and mark the center with a pencil. This is where you will drill the hole for the threaded pipe.
Depending on the size of your base, you may want to move the mark 1 or 2 inches back. My homeplate is rather small and having the lamp directly in the center did not look right.
Finding center with combination square
Center of baseball home plate
Step 11
Drill a hole using a drill or drill press the same size as the threaded rod, which was 3/8″ in my case. This hole can always be widened later if needed. You may want to place a scrap of wood on the underside of the plate to prevent tear out.
Drilling center hole with drill press
Step 12
Use a router with a 1/4″ roundover bit on the top edges. You can also use an orbital sander, or sandpaper to accomplish this as well.
Using router with a 1/4″ round over bit
Step 13
Sand the entire plate using 80 grit, then 120 grit, then 220 grit sandpaper. This will provide a very smooth surface. Skip the 80 grit and 120 grit and go straight to the 220 grit if you are extremely impatient.
I don’t recommend doing this for many reasons, but I realize a very smooth surface is not important to everyone.
Sanding with an orbital sander and 220 grit paper
Step 14
Use a damp rag or paper towel to remove the dust from the wood and raise the grain. Optional: While the wood is damp, you can quickly sand it again with 220 grit paper. This will make a very smooth surface since the dampness in the wood raises the grain.
Wiping loose debris with a damp rag
Step 15
Now for my favorite part. Apply your favorite finish to the wood for the DIY baseball lamp. This can be stain, varnish, poly, etc..
I chose to use Linseed oil & Beeswax polish made by Darbin Orvar. Darbin is a very talented maker/creator who I follow on youtube. She makes this polish herself and sells it on her website – I included a link to it in the materials section of this post. I try to support people like Darbin whenever possible and I encourage you to do the same. This was the first time I used this product and it is AWESOME!
Applying linseed oil and beeswax polish
