Work Light for lathe or other bench tools

Materials: JANSJÖ

I needed a small work light for my hobby lathe. Most of the work lights I found were extremely overpriced, used halogen lights that burn my fingers, and are way two bright for a small workspace, so I turned to IKEA. I found the JANSJÖ Desk lamp would be a perfect hack.

The lamp comes disassembled so I simply tossed the lamp base and used the lamp arm. I placed the lamp where I wanted it mounted and marked the two holes I needed to drill.

I drilled the two holes with a 13/64ths drill bit. The 3/4 inch MDF that makes of the base of my lathe was two thick for the existing screws so I used a 1/2 inch forstner to drill a wider hole so the screw and washer could be used. The other option would be to replace the screws with a longer screw from the hardware store.

This simple hack sure made my lathe a much easier to use with a nice bright, cool to the touch light. I could see myself using this hack in other tools as I build my collection.