gravelmonkey
Enlightened
Hi,
I won a ?1970's/1980's? ex-military lamp on eBay and I'm looking for suggestions/ideas/comments/inspiration from the great minds at CPF on ways to upgrade it.
I've not found a lot of info about this lamp, the following is all I've managed to track down (from here):
Lamp uses a BA9s (mini? bayonet fitting) bulb in a holder with plastic shroud to center it in the reflector:
Aluminium reflector and lamp mount. Bezel and lamp head feel like aluminium:
The fitted bulb is a bit lack-luster; rated at 20W, it gives a very ringy beam pattern.
The cubic base is empty and a good size for a battery. I think with a decent LED this would make an awesome power-outage to be set on a shelf and provide directional flood.
Alternatively, I'm thinking I will fit an incan bulb (for simplicity) and wire it to the mains to run it as an interesting side light.
Current thoughts:
1) Although it's got a decent aluminium reflector and reasonably thick aluminium housing which should make a good heatsink I don't think I can justify the expense/difficulty in converting this into a multi-thousand lumen light, 500 is probably plenty?
2) The BA9s bulb seems to be an obscure type and I cannot find a 20W rated bulb anywhere, if possible I would like to upgrade to a bulb with better availability? There seem to be a few LED replacement types on eBay but I doubt the build quality is any good and I doubt they would last long with the lack of heat-sinking.
Willing to hear anyone's suggestions! Thanks!
I won a ?1970's/1980's? ex-military lamp on eBay and I'm looking for suggestions/ideas/comments/inspiration from the great minds at CPF on ways to upgrade it.
I've not found a lot of info about this lamp, the following is all I've managed to track down (from here):
Lamp uses a BA9s (mini? bayonet fitting) bulb in a holder with plastic shroud to center it in the reflector:
Aluminium reflector and lamp mount. Bezel and lamp head feel like aluminium:
The fitted bulb is a bit lack-luster; rated at 20W, it gives a very ringy beam pattern.
The cubic base is empty and a good size for a battery. I think with a decent LED this would make an awesome power-outage to be set on a shelf and provide directional flood.
Alternatively, I'm thinking I will fit an incan bulb (for simplicity) and wire it to the mains to run it as an interesting side light.
Current thoughts:
1) Although it's got a decent aluminium reflector and reasonably thick aluminium housing which should make a good heatsink I don't think I can justify the expense/difficulty in converting this into a multi-thousand lumen light, 500 is probably plenty?
2) The BA9s bulb seems to be an obscure type and I cannot find a 20W rated bulb anywhere, if possible I would like to upgrade to a bulb with better availability? There seem to be a few LED replacement types on eBay but I doubt the build quality is any good and I doubt they would last long with the lack of heat-sinking.
Willing to hear anyone's suggestions! Thanks!
