Hookah Lamp

Or What one can do with a non-functioning Hookah…

So, you have a hookah that has out lived it’s usefulness as a water pipe. You don’t want to just throw it away, it make not work, but it may still look nice. Don’t toss it yet, rather turn it into a decorator lamp – what more styling of a way to show off your love of Hookah than with your own custom hookah lamp!

Materials:

• Hookah, complete w/ stem, grommets, and base (hose optional)
• Complete Lamp wiring kit: harp, socket, rod, base (or an old thrift store lamp)
• Electrical tape
• Razor blade
• Locking pliers
• Screw driver (Philips)
• Something for ballast (gravel, marbles, sand)
• Lampshade (unless you got one w/ old lamp)

Step One

Collect your hookah and all it’s trappings: base, stem, ashtray, hose, and base grommet. Make sure they are clean. Next, either make a trip to the store to purchase a lamp wiring kit (complete kit w/ wiring, socket, harp, and pipe) or visit a thrift store and see if you can find a nice cheap lamp to salvage parts from. If you hit the thrift store, your lamp will probably have a lampshade – otherwise you’ll have to buy one (and they can cost!)

Now, you’ll need to find something for ballast – depending on the height of your stem, the lamp will be top heavy and wobbly. Sand, gravel, marbles all work fine.

Last off you’ll need some basic tools: hammer, pliers, razor blade, electrical tape, and a screwdriver.

Step Two

Dismantle the lamp or open the wiring kit. In my case, we had to tear apart the lamp to get all the parts (although we bought new wire). If you bought the kit, you are ready to go, but stop to read the instructions.

First thing to do is take the small threaded rod (your kit should have this – if not, you’ll either have to go back and get the complete kit or buy some – it will be in the “lamp/lighting” section in the hardware store) and thread it into the top of the stem. This is where the socket, harp, and base sit. If you’re using an older Egyptian style, you shouldn’t have too much difficulty. If the hookah is Modern or Syrian, you may have a time getting that rod into the top. If need be, go purchase a new smaller DIA rod.

We used a pair of “channel locks” to hold the pliers and thread it into the opening at the top, with brute force. The metal was soft enough to allow this and it sealed perfectly.

You’ll have to base the amount needed left sticking out on the kit size you bought (the socket/base depth). Trail fit everything together and adjust as needed.

Step Three

First thread the wiring, up thru the stem, with the cord on the bottom. If need be, run a piece of yard down the stem and tape the wire to it – makes threading the wire easier.

When the wire is thru, place the ashtray on the stem, followed by the securing nut, the harp loop prong, then the socket base.

Pull a section of wire out and connect the two ends to the screws on the socket. After they are tight, thread the socket cover onto of the socket and squeeze in into the socket base.

If you want, test the wiring to make sure you have it done correctly. If a bulb lights, you’re good to go on to the next step. If not, then stop – backtrack and figure out what when wrong.

Step Four

Take the cord (the wire will now be referred to as cord) and pull it snugly down, then loop it up toward the base seat (and grommet) and tie a knot in it. This will prevent the cord from getting tugged out of the lamp and getting cut on any sharp parts.

Now, take the grommet off the stem and using the razor blade, make a complete slice thru. Measure out the width of the cord and cut out a section of the grommet – effectively turning it into a rubber “C”. This is needed to have the cord run out of the base jar WITHOUT drilling into the jar.

Step Five

Now take the base and your chosen ballast material (I used fish tank gravel – 5lbs) and slowly fill up the base.

Be careful NOT to drop the material from any distance as it could break the glass. The amount you need will depend on the length of your down stem. You want the jar full enough to be heavy, but not full enough to cover the cord – about 1” below the bottom of the down stem.

Now assemble the stem and base together. Make sure of your base jar has a pattern or design, that the side you want shown on the OPPOSITE side of the grommet cut and cord.

Stand everything up and low, you have a lamp! Make sure to seat the stem as well as you can, if need be use some electrical tape to thicken up the grommet area, you don’t want any wobble between stem and base.

Step Six (optional)

For all intensive purposes, you have a lamp. With a cheap (Ha ha ha, good luck finding one) shade, you’ll have a one of a kind lamp. You’ll be the envy of your friends and everybody will love it! But why stop there?

This is a HOOKAH lamp, so why not make it look as close to the real thing as possible, right? You need a hose to complete the “picture”

If you don’t have a spare hose lying around, you can “make” a hose or leave it off. If you want to make one, see my DIY Hookah Hose instructions – it’s very easy and cheap. You can use a functional hose as well, just be careful removing it from the lamp – I highly recommend not removing it often, so don’t use you’re only functional hose.

I had a Mod hose lying around, but it had a green cover. So a quick trip to the fabric store scored me some matching crushed velvet and I made a cover (See my DIY Hose Cover instruction). Same deep blue as the base.

Now, my sacrificial lamp came with an old style lampshade. If you had to buy one, you may or may not want to dress it up some. Mine was alright, but I did do some modifications to it. I added some matching blue cording (with a hot glue gun – fast and easy), then some ultra cool looking old coin beaded fringe to the bottom edge.

It really just makes the lamp have more character, but what you want is up to you.

I hope I’ve made this as easy to understand as possible. This lamp is still a functional hookah. If I remove the wiring and socket, it would still work as a hookah (with a new grommet of course).

So now you have no excuse to throw away that old hookah – make a one-of-a-kind lamp and continue to enjoy it for years to come!