Materials: FRÄCK mirror, RANARP wall/clamp spotlight
Seems there are several scissor lamps out there that cost an arm and a leg; the average price being around $160. I found a few hacks using the FRÄCK mirror but nothing newer than a few years ago. Here is a step by step description of my hack. The best part about this hack is I was able to reuse the existing hardware that came with each of the two items I purchased at Ikea for a total of $26.98 (plus tax).
The FRÄCK mirror was the given for this lamp, so I needed an attractive lamp to complete it. Walking the isle of lamps at the IKEA store, I was drawn to the RANARP wall/clamp spotlight for its simplistic white smooth character, braided power cord echoing of days past, and its golden industrial style cage. It was perfect!
Voila! What you will be building.
Purchase the FRÄCK mirror ($6.99) and RANARP wall/clamp spotlight ($19.99). Some of you might even have one or the other already in your home, so SCORE!!
First thing you will need to do is separate the gold mounting bracket on the end of the large mounting clip of the RANARP wall/clamp spotlight. It’s held on with several locking washers and a nylon nut, as you can see here. Be sure not to discard the locking washers because we are going to reuse some of them in the next couple of steps. Congratulations…you now have the world’s largest chip clip as a bonus to building this lamp.
Since the FRÄCK mirror already comes unassembled, the only thing you need to do is gather your scissor extension arm, lamp shroud and the bracket/hardware you just removed from the large clip.
The threaded post that you are going to be attaching the lamp shroud to on the scissor extension arm is of a larger metric size than what was on the lamps original mounting clip, so you will need to drill a larger diameter hole in the gold mounting bracket. The threaded post you will be mounting to is a size 6 metric. Using a ¼” drill bit will allow you a perfect size mounting hole in your bracket.
So here we have the hardware that is going to be reused to secure the lamp shroud using the existing threaded post on the end of the scissor extension arm:
1 Gold Bracket
2 Locking Washers (the wavy ones)
1 Gold Locking Wing Nut Screw
1 Nut from the scissor extension arm post
1 nylon nut (¼”)
Please note that the nylon nut that was removed from the clamp bracket cannot be used again as it is too small. I had a handful of ¼” nylon nuts laying around so these work just fine on a metric size 6. Finding a size 6 nylon nut in my area is nearly impossible as it’s just a very odd size. The ¼” nylon nut is easily obtainable at any hardware store if you do not have any.
Now we can assemble the lamp. First you want to turn the nut on the scissor extension arm down to its lowest point on the threads as shown here. Next, place one of the locking washers on top of the nut.
Place the gold bracket over the locking washer. After you’ve placed the bracket, place the last remaining locking washer over it.
Using a ¼” nylon nut, tighten the nut until the bracket is secure.
This is what your assembly should look like. Now all you need to do is attach the lamp shroud and add a bulb of your choice according to the manufacturers recommendations for the lamp.
Using the gold locking wing nut screw, attach the lamp shroud by placing the screw into the mounting hole of the lamp through the bracket. You just completed your DIY Industrial Scissor Lamp.
The longest portion of your build will be drilling the hole on the bracket to fit the new mounting location on the scissor extension arm, and that’s only dependent on your access to a drill or drill press. Other than that, the entire assembly takes less than a few minutes, start to finish. I made another one so I could mount one on either side of the bed in place of lamps on the nightstands.
For me, the focal point of this lamp was not the lamp, it was the cord. I loved the fact that it was fabric braided like that of the old silk versions as far back as the days of Edison.
Included with the RANARP lamp was this little plastic clip to secure the cord to where you feel necessary. I placed my clip at the top of the bracket and let the switch hang to the side. Using a little piece of double sided tape, I secured the switch to the wall mount plate as seen in the first photo. There’s a lot of cord to this lamp so you can adjust it how you would like. Every scissor lamp I have seen so far attempts to hide the cord…this fabric cord deserves to be shown in my opinion.
~ Michael E McClelland CFE