LAMP BUSHING

Sometimes, besides the usual lighting in the shop, you need an extra light near the working area. Two links found in Pinterest (AW Extra 7/5/12 - Bench Dog Light - Popular Woodworking Magazine, Lamp Bushing - Lee Valley Tools) gave me the thought to make some bushings, in order to place an additional lamp in the holes for bench dogs of the workbench. They are made with discarded plumbing nuts.

With this bushing, the lamp can easily be mounted and dismounted. Besides, since the lamp is fixed in the middle of the workbench, it won't interfere with working, as when the lamp is clamped at the edge.

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Regards, morsa.

morsa,

This is a great idea and I will do the same. I have several lamps like the one in your photos and can use your technique. Thank you for the photos and references.

Regards, Paul

Thanks, Paul Jones.
My first thought was to make this bushings out of one of the round materials that I had in the shop: aluminum, brass, or polyethylene, but in the end I decided to reuse this discarded nuts, with the advantage that more than half of the work was already done.
I must say, my knowledge and ability to work with the Unimat lathe are rudimentary, as compared to yours.

Morsa,

Thank you about my Unimat work. The Unimat is not very good at hogging cuts so whatever you can do to reduce the machining work is the best approach. You just have to have patience and using the U100 continuous duty motors eliminates cool-down periods. Sometimes I rough-out the machining on one of my larger lathes and use the Unimat to do the fine finish work. The book "The Shop Wisdom of Rudy Kouhoupt" (the first in a series), edited by Joe D. Rice from Village Press is an excellent reference for making tool accessories for the Unimat and example projects (several cool stationary steam engines).

Regards, Paul

Thanks for the advice, Paul. I only have this lathe for metalworking, and a wood lathe.
I reviewed the index of the book in Scribid; it looks interesting, but I’m not sure if I could get to use all that information, since, unlike woodworking, I don't have training in metalworking.

Regards, morsa.

Thanks for posting this morsa. It's truly one of those "well yeah!" type things. I have a double bulb mechanical drawing light like that, that I use for all my assembly work. And the major drawback is the silly edge clamp. I have no idea why I'd never thought about drilling a hole in each of my bench tops and put some kind of bushing in it to position the lamp better.

Thanks for your words, C-Bag. I agree that sometimes, small tricks may be useful, and by sharing them on this forum, we all win.

C-Bag,

Now that you mentioned those silly edge clamps used for the adjustable drafting lamps, I did post a simple modification for the edge clamp that seems to keep it in place better than the original design. See http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/r...0115#post11980 where these are not as elegant and with a much smaller footprint as the ones developed by morsa but I did place the wall bracket versions in several locations along the walls of the work benches and seem to do the trick.

Sorry morsa, I didn't want to hijack your posting but had to reply about the silly and almost useless edge clamps that the lamp suppliers provide.

Paul

Thanks for linking those Paul, I think those were posted before I joined.

Thanks for the link to your post, Paul. Alike C-Bag, I had not seen it, but I did see the white lamp base in those photographs of the cabinet for the Unimat lathe, and I must say I liked the idea. So, nothing to be sorry; it is a useful complement, and I think I will make something like your bases.

I guess I was lucky. My workbench, a product of the previous homeowner, was too thick to allow use of the typical plastic clamp that comes with the articulated lamps. While I'm not a great fan of electrical cords snaking across the benchtop, I decided that, for best illumination flexibility, holes in the (already well ventilated) bench top would be best. I liked the result enough that, later, when I resurfaced the benchtop, I redrilled the holes. I never bothered to put in any bushings because the lamps aren't moved frequently and I consider the benchtop a sacrificial surface.

If you ever need to mount a lamp on the edge of a table, I suggest you replace the crappy plastic clamp with one of the design shown in the picture. It consists of a piece of steel bent into a U-shape with a hole in the bottom threaded to take the clamping screw. The top has a large hole in the top that fits over a tall bushing with a foot on the bottom. The original bushing that came with this commercial clamp was made of plastic and soon broke so I turned one from aluminum. This clamp has worked flawlessly for at least two decades.

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Bottom line for me is edge clamps are a little too far away from where I need the light and I've let myself get lazy/complacent because the clamp was such a PIA to move. My two benches are so close they overlap so the one lamp almost works for both, but not really. Just drilling a hole in both of them and see if I even need a bushing later is so simple as to be embarrassing. Ideas with the accompanied "dawning" is why I like this place so much. The very definition of outside the box.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by C-Bag

... Just drilling a hole in both of them and see if I even need a bushing later is so simple as to be embarrassing. Ideas with the accompanied "dawning" is why I like this place so much. The very definition of outside the box.

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Yes, indeed. Not every "tool" has to be something that is constructed for the intended purpose. In my book, evidenced by many of my posts, "tools" include repurposing an existing tool as well as minor modifications that make the device more useful, more capable, safer, or easier to use. Sort of a "Zen and the Art of Toolmaking" type thing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by C-Bag

..... edge clamps are a little too far away from where I need the light.....

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Another drawback of the edge clamps, is that the clamp and the arm of the lamp obstruct the work area. By using the holes for bench dogs (or holes made for this use), the light is right where you need it, and the arm doesn't hinder; a way to solve the mess of the cable is by hanging it out of the way.

On the other hand, a drawback of the wall brackets is that the lamp must stand high, since the wall impedes the flexion of the arm.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by C-Bag

My two benches are so close they overlap so the one lamp almost works for both....

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I took advantage of a similar layout of my benches and installed a magnifier-lamp in the corner of the nearby table of the lathe. This way it does not interfere when not in use.

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Thanks morsa! We've added your Lamp Bushing to our Lighting category,
as well as to your builder page: morsa's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-lamp-bushing"> <img src="/uploads/159149/homemade-lamp-bushing.jpeg"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-lamp-bushing">Lamp Bushing</a> <span> by <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/builder/morsa">morsa</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/holder'>holder</a>, <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/lamp'>lamp</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>
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Thanks mklotz! We've added your Work Lamp Holder to our Lighting category,
as well as to your builder page: mklotz's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-work-lamp-holder"> <img src="/uploads/159153/homemade-work-lamp-holder.jpeg"/> </a> </div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/homemade-work-lamp-holder">Work Lamp Holder</a> <span> by <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/builder/mklotz_3">mklotz</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/holder'>holder</a>, <a href='http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/lamp'>lamp</a> </div> </div> </div> </div>
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