Vol. 65, No. 1 spring 2020 82


Figure 7.


like they would work. If they did not, I swapped pieces until the confi guration did work; hardly sophisticated engineering. T e real revelation was not about the length of the arm pieces used, but in how many arm pieces I used. I knew that two arms were probably going to be a failure. T e revelation revealed itself when I bolted 4, 5 and then 6 pieces together. With this many-armed confi guration I could point the light anywhere I could think of; high, low, right, leſt , up, down, you name it.


Another important feature is the number of holes in the arms to use for bolting. Initially I just put one hole at each end of an arm; not fl exible enough. Now, I put holes about every two inches over the entire length of each arm for maximum fl exibility. I have now cut and drilled about 80 feet of arm pieces (5 pickets). If one


confi guration does not work, just throw in another arm piece; sooner or later something will do the job.


T ere are many important features to the system: low cost, reliable access to more parts (you are making them), ease of construction, zero maintenance, portability (if you do not like it where it is, move it), adaptability (if a new stronger light is available, get one and mount it), ease in moving the light for best illumination (grab it and push or pull it), light weight. All-in-all, this homemade lamp is one of my better ideas, at least in my shop. As an aside, a parallel arm desk lamp now costs in the realm of a $100. If you are careful, you can build a dozen of these lamps for that amount of money; and they all work orders of magnitude better.


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