Work lamp for CFL bulbs

[Bob Gruen]

If you've ever worked with the Home Depot / Lowes sourced work lamp and wanted to use a CFL bulb in it you may have discovered it doesn't work well at all. The reason is that the CFL base raises the bulb out of the parabolic dish's focus point, rendering the reflector just about useless.

The fix is easy but will require a dash of DIY attitude and a few extra bucks. What you need is both a medium sized work lamp (~8"), a large work lamp (~10"), and aluminum rivets. Using a hacksaw, cut the back end off of the 10" dish. Place the 8" over the back of the 10", drill and rivet it together. You will need to create a new bracket system as the simple spring clamp will not be strong enough to hold the heavier assembly. As a plus, the new structure is much stronger and more rigid.


Rivets on back of lamp:

Rivets and recessed socket from the 8" fixture:

CFL base ends up mounted flush to 10" reflector:

Initial power up. Notice how the whole reflector is lit up. The bulb used is a BlueMax 42W.

Wall spread. As a simple soft light fixture the BlueMax 42w throws about the equivalent of 120w tungsten. Not a lot of light, but at this price point you can afford to buy a few and gang them in an array.

 

[McDownload]

...or use a 25$ IKEA lamp

...or use a 25$ IKEA lamp

I use this one as a CFL fixture. Works quite well too.

 

[seunosewa]

Thanks, guys. There are more powerful CFLs available these days too.