Swing-arm Magnifying Lamp

glenn bradley

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Not the usual sort of thing I post. I gracefully and cleverly stepped on my $10 cheap-o magnifying lamp that I set down "over there" for "just a moment" a couple days ago. That is I set it there for "just a moment" a couple days ago and then stepped on it days (not moments) later.

I have been scouting for one of decent quality without an outrageous price tag and stumbled across this one at Staples for $60. I had a 20% off coupon so the sting wasn't too bad for the quality of the fixture. The parts that were plastic on my cheap-o are metal on this one.

Very handy for my post-youth eyeballs when doing detail work now and again. I hate getting farther along on a project and realizing I've missed some tool marks or grit scratch on a showy piece of end-grain. And no, that's not the box-swap box :) The base is just a scrap of wood (as you can tell by the old nail holes) thick enough to keep the lamp's peg from scratching the workbench top with a dog-hole sized dowel glued into it. All in all, nice and bright, good color, good focal point (for me) and moves about easily.
 

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Another great tip from Glenn! :thumb:

I've got a couple of swing arm magnifiers. One with an incandescant bulb and one with a circular flourescent. The incandescant is going in the trash.

Love the flourescent one. It helps for so many things, from reading drill bit sizes, pulling splinters, etc... Makes a halfway decent task light as well...
 
I could probably use something like that, but I'm kind of afraid what I might see in some of my already-completed pieces. :rolleyes: :p Actually, I've got the magnifying head from an old fluorescent one. It's just the metal lamp fixture and the magnifying lens...the articulating arm and base are long gone. I might ought to dig it out and see what it'd take to get a bulb working in it. I could probably find a way to attach it to the heavy-duty articulating lamp arm on my lathe.

I like the cover your new one has for the magnifying glass, Glenn. I don't think I'd seen that on one before. Is it reflective on the underside?
 
Glenn I know you were taking a pic of the lamp head. Was wondering if you could convince your camera to focus on the virtual image of the wood. If you can, you should get better focus on the wood grain and softer focus on the luminaire.

Now you can play with it some more.

Enjoy,
 
I picked up one at a yard sale that the fluorescent connection was broken. I haven't found the link (on an old pc that died) again, but I found a place that sold a replacement circuit board with LED's for the light.
I am hoping to find another at a yard sale, so I don't have to buy one new. (been using the magnifier and a trouble light)
 
My dad carves birds so I bought him one of those a few years ago. He uses it all day long but he sits in one spot. My projects are usually large architectural pieces so I move around a lot.

Now I need one.....:(

Have you tried those flip up glasses I see advertised? I wonder how they would be. Most times I don't need them except for setting machines up or like you said looking at drill sizes, and I can never remember where I put my glasses. I tried one of those lanyards that holds them around your neck, but I kept taking them off anyway because it annoyed me.

I miss youth.......
 
swing arm magnifying lamp

I use a couple of them on my workbench as well. One uses the circular fluorescent lamp and the other an incandescent bulb( I changed it out with
a CFL bulb) like it about the same. I noticed that price of $60, too... a little too steep for that light.I bought mine from a thrift store for less than $10 each...
and they work just fine too! I hate having to pay new prices for things like that,
also helps keep stuff from hitting the landfill...recycling and all that.:thumb:
 
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