DIY Lamp From Trash

First posted over at Survival Punk, this is a creative way to re-purpose trash.

I’m back with another quick, easy and cheap DIY project. When cleaning up the other day I saw a oil lamp I had made a few years ago. I had completely forgot about it.  After having sat for a few years I gave it a try and it worked just as good as ever. For this tutorial, short as it will be, I wanted to make a new one. That way I could show you step by step and now I have two and two is one after all. Let me show you how to turn trash into a great little oil burning lamp.

Light it up

 

Re-purposing owns Recycling

If recycling makes you feel better about yourself, because your keeping something from a garbage pile, without actullay having to do anything but put something in a different bin. Then you really need to think bigger. I always prefer to keep things from entering the waste stream, or recycle stream, at all. I keep can’s, jars, junk mail and other odds and ends. Don’t worry I’m not a crazy hoarder I keep things orginized and use them do to things. When I get too much I get rid of them. Today I’ll show you how to use an empty glass jar and some scrap cotton to make a oil lamp. A much better use than sorting into a different bin.

 

Salsa Jar

To start with we’re going to need an empty jar with a metal lid. For this one I’m using an empty salsa jar, before I’ve used an olive jar. You could use mason jars but to me that seems like a waste of a canning jar. These empty jars could also be got for free from friends and family.Clean out the jar good and remove the label from it.

Cutting a hole

Next up we need to cut a slot in the top of the lid for our wick to go into. You want to cut the slot so that the wick will be snug into it. Too tight and adjusting the wick will be too hard. Too loose and the wick could fall into the jar and cause some serious issues.

Cotton cloth

For the wick you will need a length of cotton cloth. Make sure you use 100% cotton for this. The first time I made one of these I used old shoe laces. Turns out they were not cotton but a synthetic material and wont wick and burn but will melt. For this I just cut up an old t shirt. You will need to cut it a little longer than the height of the jar. I like mine to stick up about an half inch and have about an inch extra in the bottom. This will allow you to have many burns out of the lamp.

Read the rest here