About a year and a half ago I wanted to design and make a steampunk style lamp for a bedroom. I wanted it to have interestingly shaped Edison light-bulbs and for people to be able to charge their phones from it. Below is the finished result.
I built the crate from several pieces of wood and used wood glue to hold it together.
I turned a clockwork key into the dimmer switch (on the right)
The plumbing was made out of black iron from a local company
I wired it up so that the piping was earthed and the power supply (containing 2 USB slots) would charge without the bulbs being switched on.
It was a fun project to do and considering the time it took and the price of the parts to make it I can see why they cost so much to buy!