LAMP BUSHING

[morsa]

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.











Regards, morsa.

[Paul Jones]

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

[morsa]

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.

[Paul Jones]

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

[morsa]

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.

[C-Bag]

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.

[morsa]

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.

[Paul Jones]

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

[C-Bag]

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

[morsa]

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.