One other practical project uses more waste material, this time it is simply an old, but intact 150W halogen light which had suffered from the usual contact corrosion and would not make contact with the halogen tube.
The light was stripped down and the glass removed, the aluminium reflector was removed, and the mounting bracket for the tube was removed, but the screws kept.
The mounting points were used to mount a flat steel plate, onto this was mounted a ceramic 12volt halogen bulb holder, it was drilled for the mounting holes, and a slot cut for the wires of the new bulb holder.
The reflector was cleaned and polished until it shone, a hole was drilled in the centre of the bottom plate to allow the bulb holder to pass through.
The new mounting plate and reflector holes are now lined up and screws passed through the two, and screwed to the original tube assembly mounting points.
The glass was cleaned and refitted to the hinged front, its original holding screw was removed and its threaded hole drilled out to accept a nut and bolt to prevent seizing as the originals do. If the original screw is seized then simply drill out the screw to open the front.
A 5 watt halogen bulb was installed in the holder and the front was closed and bolted shut so it is now waterproof.
The connections from the new ceramic bulbholder were connected into the original wiring box on the back of the unit, a length of two core cable was installed into the screw gland and the wiring connected into the wiring box, the gland, once tightened and gripping the cable, had a little black silicone sealer applied to waterproof it fully.
The original mounting bracket was removed and painted, onto this was bolted a round pot magnet, one of many i had lying around, and the bracket was remounted onto the lamp unit with two new bolts and one nut, the other was fitted with a plastic knob for easy tightening when it was adjusted during use.
Instead of fitting a cigarette lighter plug i opted for a plug to fit my bulkhead sockets as i replace cigarette lighter with much better sockets, and often add more around the vehicle, but either will suffice.
The rest of the lamp housing was painted, and now a nice 12 volt, 5 watt halogen worklight which draws less than 0.5 amps and can be mounted on any metal surface, yet provide a nice working light.
Components:
Purchased components were from Toolstation -
www.toolstation.com Ceramic MR16 bulbholder £0.42 Part number 99286
Halogen G4 bulb £ 0.40 Part number 43677
Lamp bracket - made from sheet steel offcut lying around.
Cable and plug were from stock lying around.
The light was free as it did not work due to corroded contacts, which were obviously removed and scrapped.
Fri Sep 02, 2011 1:04 pm
Cheap, effective and worthwhile.