Thread: Vintage (or not so vintage) machine lamps

Originally Posted by jcge

Inspired by Camoz' WTB post for vintage machine lamps, I thought I'd share the following.....

PLEASE NOTE. THIS IS A MAINS POWERED 240 VOLT LAMP. I MAKE NO RECOMMENDATION AS TO THE SUITABILITY OF THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR APPLICATION. ALL MAINS WIRING SHOULD ONLY BE DONE BY A LICENSED ELECTRICIAN. ALL CARE, NO RESPONSIBILITY ETC. ETC.

Last week I was walking through the hardware store that we love to hate, when I spotted this desk lamp (about $16). For scale, the reflector is about 120mm diameter, and the flexible gooseneck measures 265mm long, and it's mounted to the base by a simple nut and washer arrangement. The threaded spigot (15mm long) on the bottom of the flexible gooseneck is M10x1.0 (unusual size). Hardware store part number 4370830. It takes a 40W SES globe.
Lamp 4370830.png

So what about a retro bulb to suit....A 40W rangehood bulb (about $3) fits the bill nicely. Rangehood bulb's are designed to handle vibration, and this particular one gets the filament out into the center of the reflector, and has the old vacuum tube shape as well. It's plenty bright enough for a machine lamp, but I guess you could go for fluoro or LEDs if you're a hippy, or you get tired of burning your arm on the hot reflector, or the colour temperature doesn't agree with your eyes. 40W does get the reflector hot.


40W Rangehood globe.png


I'm in the process of machining a small conduit adaptor (3/4"-16 conduit to M10x1.0) that will mount directly to an old industrial metalclad switch that I have. So for about $20, I have the makings of a machine lamp.

Hope this is of use to some of you.

Pics to follow.

Regards
John

John,

I can see that could be the making of a good workaround for what I am after, and the price is right. I was just hoping to be authentic (OK maybe lazy). Looking forward to the pictures on how you go.

Cheers,

Camo

A few pics of the complete assembly

The switch is an old Wilco S21, but it could easily be adapted to any conduit fitting, junction box, or even a simple bracket and metal gland

Components small.jpgGlobe small.jpgAssembled small.jpg


I'm also looking at the scandanavian furniture store...they have some interesting lights named FORMAT and HEKTAR.

I really do like the original machine lamps with their rugged industrial design and patina......but for $20 you can't go too far wrong.

Regards
John