3/25 - 2/27

This week I worked more on the lights for the shop, however this time, with a major difference. The gooseneck tubing that I had been using was not capable of efficiently holding the weight of the light, so I had to think of a new way to support the light, while keeping it stable on the table. I found the solution through the soldering fume extractors for the soldering station, which came with stands that they weren't in use. These seemed like a better stand for the light than the gooseneck, so after testing whether or not they were actually capable of holding the light, which they were, I decided to use them instead.

Soldering Fume Extractor Stand (good)

Gooseneck Tubing (bad)

After transitioning to using the new stands instead of the gooseneck, I needed to make some changes to the existing hardware I had, namely the brackets to attach the light. I used the drill press to change the brackets' hole from m10 to m12. After fixing the bracket I had already, I changed its design in CAD to match, then cut another bracket for a second light. I then had to add a power supply to the light, and a cord to that so I could plug it in. I used an old cord we had in the shop and stripped that so I could plug it into the power supply. Finally I assembled the two lights and installed them into the holes in the table of the soldering station.

After finishing those two lights, there was one stand left, so I made one last light for that, even though there was no specific place in the room for it. For this one I wanted to add an inline switch to be able to adjust the light level, so I got one from the electrical shop, however this didn't work out as it was made for a lower voltage light and used different wires, so we'll have to order a different one.

Inline Switch