$5 at Target
Target is selling cheap desk lamps for $5.
I’ve long wanted some task lights near some of my power tools, and this looked like a cheap way to do it. I grabbed three of them.
They look like this:
The bottom looks like this:
Removing the bottom, one finds a plastic “bladder” weight, filled with … imported Chinese gravel!
Discarding that and doing a bit of shade-tree engineering, one can now proceed to mount the lights on a drill press…if there are appropriate holes in the machines!
The bandsaw is made of sheet metal. Relatively thick sheet metal, but sheet metal all the same. So I drilled holes in both the lamp base and the bandsaw body and then bolted them together.
The drill press is old American cast iron, so I consulted Machinery’s Handbook and drilled some holes with a numbered bit (specifically #7), then tapped the two holes 1/4 x 20.
I’ve only tapped aluminum before, and I’ve heard that cast iron can be a bear, so I was especially careful.
It all worked out well.
and
The third lamp is sitting next to the wood lathe, unmounted, ready to be put wherever I need it. I might end up epoxying some rare earth magnets to its base.
July 19th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
This is just like one of my blog posts where I write about going shopping and then take pictures of the things I bought. If you now share an amusing anecdote about Ocho eating a throw pillow you will be a mommy blogger! Keep the shopping posts coming- they’re my favorite!
July 19th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
[quote comment="207383"]This is just like one of my blog posts where I write about going shopping [/quote]
Man, you know how to cut to the quick!
July 20th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Hmmm… At $5 a pop, you won’t be out too much… BUT…
If it were me, I’d spend more money and buy LED. I have to think some of the vibration of those tools will play hell with a standard incandescent bulb.
Of course, at $5 a pop, you can keep quite a few incandescents around if you need them!
July 20th, 2009 at 8:27 am
If you were a gambler, you could go with compact florescent. Every time you broke one, you could play the game of trying to get out of the house before being over come by mercury. Kinda the rich mans revision of having a meth lab in the basement.
July 20th, 2009 at 8:54 am
[quote comment="207424"]Hmmm… At $5 a pop, you won’t be out too much… BUT…
If it were me, I’d spend more money and buy LED. I have to think some of the vibration of those tools will play hell with a standard incandescent bulb.
[/quote]
I thought about that, and decided that I can experiment with aftermarket LED bulbs, or even just toss away the $5 lamps and replace w something different in the future. The holes I drilled in the bandsaw and drilled/tapped in the drill press will be useful no matter how I go. Heck, even if I decide I don’t like the lamps (and so far, I love them), I can use the tapped holes to mount an accessory shelf / pistol rack! ;-)
July 20th, 2009 at 8:59 am
I might end up epoxying some rare earth magnets to its base.
Kinda surprised you didn’t do this with the other two.
The holes I drilled in the bandsaw and drilled/tapped in the drill press will be useful no matter how I go.
… no, wait, actually, I’m not surprised at all. Perfect excuse to drill and tap some holes.
Heck, even if I decide I don’t like the lamps (and so far, I love them), I can use the tapped holes to mount an accessory shelf / pistol rack!
Maybe a nice bud vase…
July 20th, 2009 at 9:09 am
[quote comment="207491"]I might end up epoxying some rare earth magnets to its base.
Kinda surprised you didn’t do this with the other two.[/quote]
Actually, I experimented with that first: I put three magnets on the metal and applied weight with my fingers, and found that they slid far too easilly, because of the texture of the painted metal. I thought about experimenting with sandwhiching some sandpaper, but…
[quote comment="207491"] Perfect excuse to drill and tap some holes.[/quote]
Exactly!
Also, I’ve always wanted to be one of those cranky old geezers with about 400,000 old tools, and the ability to use every one, with half of his tools being ancient American Heavy Metal, and the other half being hand-built, or hand-hacked.
I want to mix my labor into the metal, basically. And gluing magnets is a bit too Martha Stewart for me, when taps, TiN coated bits, and oil are close at hand.