ReMaking My Bedside Lamp

Back in my university days, I once purchased a rather spiffing bedisde lamp from the local lighting shop. It used low-voltage halogen bulbs, like many desklamps these days, but these were mounted in removable pods that could be attached to four rails coming up from the base of the lamp. This allowed the bulbs to be put on any side of the lamp, as well as sliding up and down.

Removable Pod

The whole thing looked marvellously space-age and for six years it sat by my bedside. Unfortunately the years haven't been kind to it, with the stainless-steel parts getting stained, the brushed metal becoming rusted metal, and one of the glass pods having an unfortunate meeting with a wall last Christmas.

Old and Busted

The worst part of it was the power switch, an unorthodox design that uses a rotating wheel to form a connection, had somehow cracked and started to turn itself on and off at will, as well as heating up alarmingly when the lamp was in use.

Cracked Switch

The time had come, my friends, for a new lamp.
I looked far and wide, seeing some attractive but hideously expensive models, and a lot of cheap rubbish, and never quite finding what I wanted. I started to think about whether I needed to throw away a still-working lamp when I could instead try to fix it, or even improve it.
I remembered the Maker's Motto: If you can't open it, you don't own it.
Well, don't I own my lamp? Sure, it was ugly and unreliable, but I knew that I had the skills to fix it, and even improve on it.
I knew I would need some kind of base, something to put the bulbs in, and a rigid structure to hold it up. The first two requirements were filled with a trip to the bargain store for some of my trademark stainless steel cookware, and the frame could be knocked up from something I already had lying around, my Meccano Big Ben kit. With plenty of long beams and some solid plates for mounting heavy things to, it would be just the ticket for my new lamp.

My first step was to put the two bulb assemblies into a single mounting, in this case made from a clear-topped metal jar.

Halogen Bulbs

The bulbs are kept in the same sockets from the old lamp, and screwed into the bottom of the jar. The two smaller holes are to provide ventilation in the sealed container.
That done, I attached the jar to the Meccano frame.

Bulb Holder

The frame is a rigid design, with the bulb holder pivoting up and down. I decided against making the rest of the frame movable, as I couldn't get the Meccano joints to reliably hold the weight of the bulb holder in place.

Back View of Lamp

The base of the lamp was made from a metal cooking bowl, which was the right size and shape for the job, and already had some nice-looking circular holes cut around the rim. Bolting a small Meccano assembly over one of these holes let me attach the power cable so it can't be pulled out. The lamp runs on 12 volts, with an external power brick, so I only had to deal with low-voltage wiring in this case.

Front View of Lamp

I used a simple toggle switch from my parts bin for the power switch, so now I can turn the lamp on and off without burning my hands on the cracked rotary switch it had before.

Finished Lamp

With all that done, I put the freshly rebodied lamp back on my bedside table, and sat down to finish my book...