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Cust0m Weighted Bases for Swing Arm Lamps
Cust0m Weighted Bases for Swing Arm Lamps
Truly, one of the most important if most overlooked tools in any profession or project is light. Proper lighting can be the difference between making that cut perfectly, or just okay; getting that measurement dead on, or almost there; professional results or pretty good.
I like the function and form factor of the traditional architect-style swing arm lamps (think Pixar), but I had struggled in the past with how to mount them. Most of these lamps come from the box with a clamp meant to attach to the edge of a table. This is okay for a shallow desk or perhaps the back of a drafting table where there is space to clamp it, but for a bench that sits against a wall, the only real option is to clamp to the front edge of the bench top, which quickly gets in the way. Additionaly, I many years ago I hit on my ideal placement for a lamp like this was with the pivoting "base" at about eye level. This allows the lamp to be positioned in a high arc above me, or pulled down to table height, making it much more versitile.
Accomplishing these goals was a challenge though. Mounting a lamp like this on a desktop either requires drilling holes in the desktop itself (making the lamp stationary) or attaching the lamp to a wall (also making it stationary). A free-floating base fits the ticket as it allows the lamp to be moved anywhere, but it must be suffieiently heavy to allow the extended lamp arm to remain in extension without the unballanced arm tipping the whole thing over. Adding "height" to this makes the problem worse.
In 2013 I hit upon a solution, and designed a lamp base for my bench in the violin shop which used a wide wooden plate and a plate weight ("dumbell" weight) for the base to prevent tipping, a cello endpin to get "height" off the surface of the table, and a particularly complicated adjustable counterweight system using another plate weight. Over time, I found the conterweight adjustment system wasn't necessary, and I could streamline the design.
Armed with my experience, I set about making a set of 4 new weighted bases for the bench top lamps in my new workshop. I followed a similar design: wide wooden plate, heavy plate weight, cello endpin. I cut a series of "biscuits" to fit in the cutouts of the plate weights, which I made a snug push fit allowing the weight to be held captive to wood plate without permanant attachment. The cello endpins are carbon fiber, and I modified the plugs to be epoxy-fit into the weights.
The lamps turned out great, the bases look uniform and intentional, and best of all hold the lamps at a nice height off the table while allowing exceptional freedom of movement and solid stability.
Truly, one of the most important if most overlooked tools in any profession or project is light. Proper lighting can be the difference between making that cut perfectly, or just okay; getting that measurement dead on, or almost there; professional results or pretty good.
I like the function and form factor of the traditional architect-style swing arm lamps (think Pixar), but I had struggled in the past with how to mount them. Most of these lamps come from the box with a clamp meant to attach to the edge of a table. This is okay for a shallow desk or perhaps the back of a drafting table where there is space to clamp it, but for a bench that sits against a wall, the only real option is to clamp to the front edge of the bench top, which quickly gets in the way. Additionaly, I many years ago I hit on my ideal placement for a lamp like this was with the pivoting "base" at about eye level. This allows the lamp to be positioned in a high arc above me, or pulled down to table height, making it much more versitile.
Accomplishing these goals was a challenge though. Mounting a lamp like this on a desktop either requires drilling holes in the desktop itself (making the lamp stationary) or attaching the lamp to a wall (also making it stationary). A free-floating base fits the ticket as it allows the lamp to be moved anywhere, but it must be suffieiently heavy to allow the extended lamp arm to remain in extension without the unballanced arm tipping the whole thing over. Adding "height" to this makes the problem worse.
In 2013 I hit upon a solution, and designed a lamp base for my bench in the violin shop which used a wide wooden plate and a plate weight ("dumbell" weight) for the base to prevent tipping, a cello endpin to get "height" off the surface of the table, and a particularly complicated adjustable counterweight system using another plate weight. Over time, I found the conterweight adjustment system wasn't necessary, and I could streamline the design.
Armed with my experience, I set about making a set of 4 new weighted bases for the bench top lamps in my new workshop. I followed a similar design: wide wooden plate, heavy plate weight, cello endpin. I cut a series of "biscuits" to fit in the cutouts of the plate weights, which I made a snug push fit allowing the weight to be held captive to wood plate without permanant attachment. The cello endpins are carbon fiber, and I modified the plugs to be epoxy-fit into the weights.
The lamps turned out great, the bases look uniform and intentional, and best of all hold the lamps at a nice height off the table while allowing exceptional freedom of movement and solid stability.