Time for a change of plans.

Things have been a little quiet on the Light With No Sense of Proportion front lately... I've been too busy with my day job, rewiring a friend's house and being crook to work on it.

Anyways I finally hung the streetlight fitting inside the lampshade to try it out: Unfortunately it's not all good news.

The ghostly sodium spirit.

The result looks pretty cool, it's almost getting towards my desired streetlight with christmas lights aesthetic.

The mass of the lampshade and streetlight together is a little greater than expected... As a result the pipe bends a lot more than I would like. 

You may be able to see the bend in the pipe here.

So the use of Plan B is necessary: The pipe will now be cantilevered from the first floor  "balcony" with a top stay to prevent the pipe from drooping. Stay Tuned...

Light With No Sense of Proportion: Sunrise

Nothing much to report other than a quick test of the 150W High Pressure Sodium street light. It's got a decidedly sunrise glow to it. 

Check out my size 12 feet for scale against the lantern...

The lantern hides quite nicely in the lampshade, so with some very minor mods this creation is going to be finished at long last.

Light With No Sense of Proportion: Test Assembly

After a day of exploring tunnels and being disappointed by a monster truck I did some more work on the silly desk lamp.

I did a test fit of the new hanger described in Part Four and hung the lamp shade from it.

About this time I turned my attention to what the pole was going to be supported on. In my collection of big kids meccano there is a stack of galvanised steel pipe and a box of various Kee fittings, left over from my bed and then used for Sleepeater and now to be used for a light stand.

First thoughts centered around the idea of making some form of tripod with the pole slung below the apex with a chain. This proved to be no where near strong enough with the part I had to hand.

The next frame idea was slightly inspired by a trebuchet...

And it supports the pole quite nicely :-) The only addition required was a chain backstay at the back to stop the vertical pipes bending. There are some pretty impressive forces involved in this project.

I then set about hanging the lampshade from the pole and fitting the luminaire for another "how does it look?" test. Anyone who has seen the Get Smart Cone of Silence may well find one of these photos more than a little amusing. It is not staged - I am actually fitting the mercury vapour high bay there.

This way up...

Light With No Sense of Proportion: More Parts

Today I was only able to procure parts for the ridiculous light. There is more work to be done this weekend.

I found the shackle and gate hanger for fixing the chain to the end of the pipe..

I purchased a 150Watt High pressure sodium street light fitting on Trademe for the grand total of $31 and a matching Philips SON-T bulb from Cory at Advance Electrical So yes this project is now going to have a rather "HEMP" aesthetic, but I think that will add to the fun.

There is another dimension to add to the silliness of this project: Around here a lot of the street lights are fitted with strings of festoon lamp holders for festive purposes...  The pic below more or less gives you an idea of what they look like during the day:

Now I have such a string left over from the Walk Through Fire video for Cobra Khan 

Does the arm need to be fitted with these lights?

Is "only" 150Watts going to be powerful enough?

Testing: The Light With No Sense of Proportion

I did a test with a 400W Mercury Vapour HighBay and started finalising the suspension hardware.

A test with the bare bulb hanging in the workshop proved without a doubt that the light output has a very prominent green tinge. I was also a little disappointed with the light output.

While I left the luminare running to allow mumbling at it I set about shortening the chains and temporarily hanging it off the end of a 6m length of scaffolding pipe I had handy.

That ugly flange is going to be replaced by a repurposed KEE gate hanger with a big shackle.

With the three phase variac on the end of the pipe as a counter weight, I precariously balanced the pipe on the rim of Big Scary Fan™

This thing is actually starting to come together :-) Next on the list is to make a stand to support the pipe and find a better light source.

Shedding some light

So after a few tribulations with imperially metric eyebolts I fixed 4x lighting chains to the lampshade using four shackles and a bit of swearing.

The next logical thing to do was to hang it up for a test with a spare metal halide highbay light inside.

The result is more than a little bright :-)

Stay Tuned...

Light with no sense of proportion

This is a slightly silly project brought about by a slight interest in bigger brighter faster and louder things.

Some friends of mine and I recently purchased a piece of industrial equipment for a slightly secret project. Attached to what looks like a hunk of rusty metal to most was an octagonal "funnel" made of plywood and fibreglass.

The funnel has been the subject of much discussion lately which mostly boils down to "it's too good throw away" and yet it has been taking up space in an undisclosed workshop for some time now.

Enter one half baked idea:

I enjoy designing furniture with a rather raw industrial aesthetic out of scaffolding pipe and other ridiculously over engineered materials. See bad photos of a bunk bed and computer desk I built for my time as a student in Auckland.

Now I quite like Industrial light fittings.. So the only logical thing is to use this funnel for a light shade! Why a light shade? Well here's the inspiration.

The stereotypical Retro hanging lamp that you see in many minimalist apartments.

So the arm is going to be 40mm scaffolding pipe and the base is going to be more... Pipe...

The only part that is undecided is what kind of light source do I use and HOW MUCH POWER?

Some suggestions:
Low Pressure Sodium: Very yellow and very efficient with a decidedly streetlight aesthetic.
High Pressure Sodium: Better CRI and less yellow but a VERY "hemp" aesthetic.
Metal Halide: Better CRI again still "hemp" and expensive.
Mercury Vapour: Decidedly green tinge and cheap.

So what should it be? And how much power should it consume?