Magnifier Lamp

[Radio Fixer]

Put this in Test Gear as it is to me.  Cant work on electronics without one nowdays.  It replaces a heavy neon tube item that takes up bench space I cant spare.

They are absolutely brilliant for close up work.. Good light and mag is plenty. Superb balance and reach (about 1m). From CPC / Farnell and code as shown. £30 with VAT.

   

Treat yourself    

Gary

[Radio Fixer]

I should have stressed that its made by Pro- Elec whose products I have never had faults with. Bought many of their plug in power supply modules and they just work and keep on doing so.

Gary

[Refugee]

When you get it are you going to do a review?
The reason I ask is that ones I have had suffer with problems with the point where the arm attached to the base.
Close up photos of the moving parts would be useful.

[ppppenguin]

My old bench lamp/magnifier isn't in very good condition so this could be a good repalcement. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Radio Fixer]

I already have it and will do a review when I find the time!  Its in use and I really like it.  The arms are steel and the head maybe ali for the housing and plastic encasing the LED bits.  Being so light compared to my old Neon tube job there shouldn't  be too much wear on the joints.  These seem well made and are held with screw fixings so friction can probably be adjusted or the pads replaced sometime hopefully long in the future.

   
   
   

The clamp knob allows fixing the angle of the head which can be tilted (rotated) against a friction device.

Gary

[Refugee]

That looks like the head is a lot lighter.
I will get one next time I place an order.

[ppppenguin]

Gary I assume by "Neon" you mean "fluorescent". The 2 are very different: https://www.kemplondon.com/understanding...ght-signs/
Also neon tubes are cold cathode, fluorescents are hot cathode.

[Radio Fixer]

Yes! Senior moment!!  The old one is fluorescent.  Very heavy and cumbersome and the balance is poor and not adjustable.  Pull it into position and let go and often, until I learnt, it will smack me in the chops  .   It is also on a cast base with a heavy lump of steel in it and the electronic ballast that I put in.  Takes up room on the bench and I have to shuffle it around as the reach is only about 20 inches.

The Pro-Elec whole item is very light but doesn't appear at the expense of durability.  I'm really pleased with it and its making working on chassis much easier.

Gary

[Terry]

When I started working for the Stock Exchange in 1969, all the services we worked on were new, as was the workshop, which had to be fitted out with the latest in Anglepoise lamps - fluorescent ones!

Working on 19" and 23" TVs for much of the time it was easiest to work standing up. Reaching or leaning across the bench for anything invariable resulted in a head to lamp contact and, as the edges (and corners!) of the hefty  metal tube/reflector housing were damned sharp it was usually $#@!$& painful!

True, if you needed to sit down to perform some delicate, intricate task they were very useful but, for the vast majority of the time they were relegated to the very end of the bench, standing smartly to attention with the tubes rotated to the vertical position. They did a very good job of illuminating the entire bench but that wasn't really what they were intended for!

Interestingly, a Google image search brings up lots of conventional Anglepoise designs. Adding fluorescent into the search brings up some CFL lamps and LEDs. Anything remotely like ours are pivoted at one end so the heads are obviously quite light and probably LED, like the lamp on my desk at the moment but nothing remotely resembles the hefty twin tube brutes  I remember.

They may have been 'state of the art' in 1969 but that didn't make them very popular, it would seem.

EDIT Just spotted Gary's comments. We obviously share the same opinion of these lamps!

[kevin.Hoyland]

Hello.
For years I had a bench lamp with a 60 watt bulb in it. But by the time I got in to my 60s the old eyes are not so good so I sent for a Magnifier lamp from Maplins with a Fluorescent tube in it , that's 4 years ago and i have never been happy with it the fluorescent light is poor for working with, and the Magnifier is a waste of time. So on Tuesday I put an order in with CPC for a new magnifier lamp that Gary as. Well it came the next day and boy it as opened a new world for me the LED light is outstanding and the magnifier  is first class.

Thanks Gary.
Regards
Kevin.