Workbench lamp

Having struggled to find a decent workbench lamp, this recentish purchase has proved to be rather good. It doesn't take up much bench space, has a heavy base for stability, good reach, goes where it's adjusted to, has adjustable brightness and the light head is small enough not to get in the way. It's not universally articulated, but has not yet been found wanting.
A splendid successor to an erratically behaved anglepoise which refused to stay in one place for very long before collapsing in a sulk.

 

Light. Let there be light. Lots of light. Hard to have too much light on the workbench. Do you know what colour temperature the LEDs produce? Close to daylight?

Yes, you need to buy a damned expensive angle poise to have it stay where you put it without slack in every part of the linkage!

 

Not that it means much to me, unfortunately, but the book says the four modes give the following ranges.

2000- 3000K Colour temp
3500- 4500K
5500- 6500K
4500- 5500K

5 level Brightness control

Lumens- 530Lm

 

Which means buying the genuine article, not cheap these days. I was fortunate and got a couple out of a skip when my school's drawing office shut about 25 years ago. I've subsequently picked up another couple through car boot sales and still have three in use. The fourth failed by a clumsy friend .

Steph

 

Talking of Anglepoise I have a 1973 lamp which needs some spare parts......

 

My workbench Anglepoise is late 60's vintage and came from the old WD & HO Wills factory on the Coast Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, in exchange for some Embassy coupons!! Anyone know if the building still exists? It was classic architecture of its day (30's ?) and close to the ECML just north of Heaton.

Richard

 

I'm not sure how old this Anglepoise is - rescued from a BBC Glasgow engineering maintenance room in the 1960s when it was being refurbished.



...with the original brass bayonet socket and strip, rather than box, section struts in the lower arm. It is probably immediate post war at latest or maybe even prewar. The BBC moved into Queen Margaret Drive in 1936 so it wouldn't have been earlier than that.

Jim.

 

I remember Q Margaret Drive so well - which is probably where we first met. The Beeb used to do old houses so well! Such a shame that really useful equipment could not be recycled. But you've recycled it very well.

B

 

You can check this on the Anglepoise website How can I date my vintage Anglepoise® lamp?

 

Angle poise website. And I thought we were the individuals who wore anoraks.......

B

 

Jim/Brian
I did a spell at QMD in the eighties, so we might well know each other unknowingly, if you see what I mean. Apart from Studio 1 and the original mansion that still stands, there is nothing else to suggest the BBC were ever there. I remember it fondly, so much more character than Pacific Quay will ever have.
Regards
Martin

 

Hi Martin - I wonder.....

I didn't go back to QMD after 1983 when I changed employers, but was a regular visitor, selling for a certain large photographic manufacturer, until then. I had a wonderful patch, selling to TV North of the Thames - that's as far as Aberdeen of course, not that the Beeb in Aberdeen ever used much film! For some reason the patch also included LWT, which was just South of the Thames. Mine not to reason why......

Even now I'm occasionally accosted by people with the "I remember you when you visited Leeds/Ealing/Euston Road etc". I used to be very good at remembering faces, but age has taken it's toll.

Brian

 

And my model doesn't appear on that site but other investigation shows that mine is the original four spring industrial Anglepoise which was the first design which pre-dated the more popular three spring "domestic" version. I'm off to Antiques Road Show to see if I can get an inflated value on it. I'll need to find an original tungsten filament bulb to get it back to original condition.

Jim.

 

Martin,

I left BBC Glasgow in December '81 to move to BBC Film Unit, Bristol. In Queen Margaret Drive, I would have been down the corridor by the TV studio, at the back of the main building overlooking the Kelvin where the Film Unit offices were situated. So our paths might have crossed if you were there - more than likely in the canteen or the club.

Jim.

 

I still have a supply of tungsten filament lamps......bought by the truck load when those awful "energy saving" bulbs became the norm. D'you want one?

B

 

I'd be very surprised if the energy "saved" by the CFL's covered that expended in their production, and promotion.

Particularly the hot air expended in their promotion...

Best
Simon

 

Brian
Possibly not then, I was in engineering and didn't have much to do with film.
Jim
Ah the film unit, next to the mech workshop in the tunnel. The folding bars still in my workshop came from there courtesy of Ken who seemed to find it a more interesting project than modifying Vinten peds. Flying spot telecine isn't a phrase much used today, in television or any where else for that matter. I was there from summer 1980 until spring 84 and then from 86-87, building firstly the CTA and then a Tv continuity suite. It's a while ago but we must have met at some time, the club is most likely, small world isn't it.

Regards
Martin

 

Brian,

No thanks. I've changed the house over to CFL and the next move will probably be to LED. I've now got quite used to lamps lasting forever - or so it seems. I think the only lamp I've changed in the past seven or eight years was a very early CFL which was taking minutes to get up to peak output. It was moved from the lounge to my indoor workshop where I've learned to put up with the long fade up. I dare say I'll have to throw it out some day but being Scottish and it still working.....

Jim.

 

With the BBC and their cutback they'll probably ask for it back .

 

Here's a variation on the theme. Simple too. Salvaged from my dad's workshop and much coveted by others for some reason. This replaced a more conventional anglepoise which was badly damaged when the CFL blew up. They seem prone to this when their long lives finally come to an end . I am back to filament bulbs now, and they are not hard to find yet .....