I believe that you can’t do good work if you can’t see what you’re doing, so I built the job light shown here to illuminate my work area. It’s made up of a heavy-duty aluminum tripod (the kind used to support public address speakers) and an exterior 300-watt halogen flood lamp. I discovered that the knuckle at the back of the lamp fixture would fit into an exterior junction box, and that the junction box would slip over the top of the tripod shaft. The telescoping shaft extends to 72 in., and it rotates, allowing me to easily direct the light in any direction.
The tripod base is 3-ft. wide, and this generous span is the key to the success of this system. I’ve bumped into it many times, but not once have I knocked it over.
—Michael J. Geier, Hackensack, NJ
Edited and illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #47
Fine Homebuilding Recommended Products
Fine Homebuilding receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.
Reliable Crimp Connectors
Affordable IR Camera
Handy Heat Gun
View Comments
Use LED 50 Watt flood light (4000-5000K color temperature.) Use a tripod speaker stand (used by DJs) and it will be much brighter and cooler than halogen and will consume much less power. I made several like this and my workers love them!
Great idea, if this "tip" wasn't from issue 47 (July 1988)!!!
These must be picked at random, after have been scanned in from microfiche, as just minimal work could actually make this useful (as mentioned above with LED), safer, and draw less power on circuits that are often loaded with other equipment already.
Thanks Ahazi -but you should send the details for your version to FHB so they can catch up to this century.
Or, you can use a kerosene lamp. This was emailed as the "Tip of the Day" in 2019; it's more of a "Tip From The Last Century".
It is probably not worth your effort to build one of these when you can buy them ready made.