Upcycling Lamps & Lights - Part 2
Grundig Concert Boy 204 upcycling lamp
11/2017
This is a 1964 Grundig Concert Boy 204 - an early transistor radio with 13 germanium transistors. More details on this Concert Boy are available at the great website Radiomuseum.org.
In 1930 Max Grundig founded the Company RVF Radio-Vertrieb Fürth, Grundig & Wurzer. In the best year 1979, up to 20,000 people work in the company and the turnover is 3 Billion DM. In the 90s Grundig is taken over from Philips.
The original price at that time was 420 DM, which today corresponds to 900 EUR / 1050 USD after adjustment for inflation. An impressive price.
I did several mods: interior illumination with LEDs and glow lamps, a porcelain socket for the edison tube bulb and a dimmer.
Now I hear the sound of silence.
ICA Volta 125 upcycling plate camera lamp
11/2017
This vintage plate camera ICA Volta 125 has been built between 1914 and 1926 in Dresden / Germany. ICA stands for Internationale Camera Actiengesellschaft.
The frame format is 9 x 12 cm and mechanical shutter speed ranges from 1/100 to 1/25.
I upcycled this beauty with an Edison tube bulb and a red LED inside the leather bellows.
This camera lamp was a special birthday gift for my brother Roland.
Rohde & Schwarz upcycling floor lamp
11/2017
This is a really huge upcycling project.
On top is a 44cm / 17 inch sized giant Calex LED.
Springs of a car are mounted on both sides with a metal sphere on top.
The vintage device is a frequency meter by Rohde & Schwarz built 1950 in Munich: A Resonanz-Frequenzmesser WAM BN 4312, high precision instrument to measure frequencies in the range of 30 to 500 MHz.
I have replaced the rotating switch inside with a dimmer module for the Filament LED bulb.
The base is a heavy 150 kV ceramic insulator.
Overall height is 125cm / 4.1 ft.
Chandelier with bicycle rims
10/2017
I built this ceiling lamp for my partner's new practice rooms. The aim was to provide glare-free, bright lighting and also an eye-catcher.
The alloy rims are 16“ and 26“ and hold 8 LED spots.
I've recycled two cheap ceiling lamps to to obtain the adjustable GU10 lamp sockets.
For the character of a ceiling chandelier, I have fed the red textile power cords in curved arches.
The LED spots have a special dim-to-warm feature to produce a very warm light when they are dimmed.
Progress W2 fan upcycling lamp
08/2017
In the 1950s this Progress W2 fan has been built in Stuttgart. It has a very quiet synchronous motor which still runs like on day one.
On each side of the motor housing I have mounted two old bakelite lamp sockets with nice 220mm Edison tube bulbs. The cable dimmer is able to dim the bulbs and control the speed of the fan. I
didn‘t plan this but it works great.
Universal Avometer upcycling lamp
08/2017
This is a Universal Avometer mod. 8 MK III, a vintage electrical measuring instrument built in London in the 1950s. The first Avometer was made by the Automatic Coil Winder and Electrical Equipment Co. in 1923, and measured direct current 'A', direct voltage 'V' and resistance 'O'. The multimeter is often called simply an AVO, because the company logo carries the first letters of 'amps', 'volts' and 'ohms'.
The original price was £23, today about £500 / €580 / $650.
At first I had to clean up the device and removed all internal electrical and mechanical components.
My upcycling process included installation of a dimmer, two red indicator lamps, illumination of the instrument scale with glow lamps and an Edison bulb with a handmade cage of steel discs on top of the device.
Hair dryer insulator upcycling lamp
08/2017
I've made this lamp with these 6 components:
1) WIGO Taifun hair dryer of the 1950s
2) Edison bulb
3) High power ceramic insulator for 110.000 volts
4) Haltron electron tube
5) Red textile power cord
6) Laboratory stand
It was not that simple to mount the hair dryer on the ceramic insulator. I had to drill two holes into the cast iron top of the insulator. Then I used a special adhesive to fix two threaded rods for mounting the hair dryer and the Haltron electron tube.
Siemens & Halske Amperemeter upcycling lamp
07/2017
This is a really beautiful vintage Amperemeter built in the 1920s by Siemens & Halske. In 1847, Lieutenant Werner Siemens, engineer in the artillery workshop in Berlin and head of the Prussian telegraph commission, founded the Telegraphenbau-Anstalt of Siemens & Halske in Berlin, together with the precision mechanic, Johann Georg Halske.
This instrument was used to measure electrical currents of 10, 50 and up to 200 Ampere! Maybe for power transmissions and electrical tramways and railways. In the device were finger-thick copper conductors to keep up with this high currents.
I upcycled it with two bakelite E27 sockets and nice edison bulbs. I installed a red LED bulb inside to illuminate the scale of the instrument and a small green glow lamp to illuminated the electron tube on the top. On the right side I installed a dimmer and used one of the massive clamps as a rotary knop.
Wohlmuth electrotherapy device upcycling lamp
07/2017
Two 300mm, 12inch Edison tube bulbs in old brass sockets are the right upcycling illumination for this 1950s electrotherapy device. It has been built by Wohlmuth-Zentrale close to Lindau at lake Constance.
Electrotherapy with fine currents was popular in the 50s and 60s. Today we would call it TENS, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. Sounds great - but the special light of my object is even better.
Eumig C3M camera upcycling lamp
07/2017
This is an Eumig C3 M 8mm film camera. Built 1959 in Vienna / Austria. Price was at that time 675 DM for this mechanical masterpiece.
I upcycled the camera with a glow lamp inside and an Edison filament bulb.
This neon bulb has two electrodes in a double helix in small distance. The bulb is filled with neon gas and mercury vapour. Neon is responsible for the orange light and mercury for the purple
blue light in the plasma.
These 3W bulbs have been built by Osram, Munich from 1930 to 1980 and had a price of 2-3 DM. Current price at ebay 30-50 Euro!
Meopta Admira 8IIa camera upcycling lamp
07/2017
The Meopta Admira 8IIa is a mechanical 8mm film camera built 1954 in the former Czech Republic. Meopta was founded 1933 in Prerov.
The film camera can take up to 10m of 8mm film. Inside is a manual spring drive to operate shutter and transport of the film.
The camera was able to do single shots as well as 12, 18, 24, 36 and 48 pictures per second. 24 pictures/sec is the normal speed.
In the front are two lenses mounted on a sviveling objective revolver. The weight is 1337g.
I replaced one of the lenses for a E27 socket. The 125mm big globe Edison bulb is really impressive for this upcycling lamp.
Furthermore I installed two glow lamps into the viewfinder shaft - you can see the red light in the picture.
Original Hanau artificial sun upcycling lamp
06/2017
I saw this artificial sunlamp at an antique dealer and I just had to have it.
It's a PL12 Original Hanau Quarzlampe produced by Heraeus, a 1851 founded german technology company in the late 1940s / early 1950s.
Its purchase price in the late 1940s was about 220 Reichsmark which is comparable to 660 Euro / 700 USD today.
I removed the UV high pressure lamp which has been used to cure skin diseases or sterilize wounds. It still would have been working after 70 years!
I’ve added a globe Edison incandescent bulb, an old E27 bakelite socket, LED interior lightning, a dimmer switch and textile power cords.
The paint was very old and crumbly but I wanted the vintage look
to remain, so I preserved it with a layer of clear varnish.
The watch on the front is a mechanical timer that can be set up to 10 minutes and then strikes a bell.
Original Hanau is the inventor of the UV high-pressure lamp and thus the founder of the tanning with artificial light sources.
In 1904, the original Hanau laboratories (in Hanau near Frankfurt) developed the first quartz lamp with evaporated quicksilver / mercury whose UV light output had almost original sun quality.
By the 1950s the artificial sunlamps or tanning lamps had become a popular consumer electronics item among hair dryers, irons and tube radios.
Upcycled chief telephone lamp
06/2017
This chief telephone has been produced in September 1957, I'm not really sure but it seems to be a Siemens & Halske W48 model.
I added 5 small glow lamps inside the telephone to illuminate the coloured lights. One bigger E14 glowlamp is on the microphone side of the handset an an E27 edison bulb on the speaker side.
A gooseneck connects handset and telephone and allows the 'floating effect' of the handset.
The phone dial is now connected with a AC switch and dimmer .
You can no longer make calls - but with todays smartphones this is also not important, too.
Voigtländer Brillant upcyclng camera lamp
05/2017
This Voigtländer Brillant box camera has been produced back in 1932 in Braunschweig/Germany. My upcycling was 85 years later.
Voigtländer has been founded 1756 in Vienna and was a pioneer in optics and photographic industry. In the 1840 Voigtländer produced revolutionary photographic objectives with mathematically calculated precision lenses. Further inventions have been the first zoom lens in 1960 and the first integrated flash in 1965. The Voigtländer factory closed in 1971 due to falling sales.
Some details to reanimate this vintage camera:
I have removed the inner workings which was not that simple because the housing is partly made of a metal casting. Then I insalled a lamp socket, two glow lamps and some cabling.
The E14 Edison bulb fits very good to this ancient piece of technology.
May 2017 - Voltohmmeter upcycling lamp
This is a Voltohmmeter built in 1955 for the US Army, 22nd Signal Brigade of the Signal Corps.
The device was used in the Korean war. Manufacturer was Simpson Electric Co. Chicago, IL. When setting up the communication
infrastructure at the base, medical section or infantry in the field, a variety of devices and cabling must be set up and tested by the soldiers of the Signal Corps.
I upcycled this cool device with glow lamps, an american radio tube and a nice Edison T30-300 bulb. The bulb is protected with a compression spring. I removed lots of cabling, resistors, rectifiers and potentiometers and replaced the big rotary stepping switch with an AC rotary switch for the lamps.
A very special birthday gilft for my daughter's twentieth birthday.
Rohde & Schwarz Voltmeter upcycling lamp
04/2017
This is a vintage 1949 Rohde & Schwarz UKW-Tastvoltmeter manufactured in Munich / Germany.
A Tastvoltmeter is used to measure electric voltages at high frequencies, 30 to 300 MHz (UKW). In order for this a special sensor (probe / Tastkopf) with an electron tube is connected.
First I removed all old components out of this device: a bunch of resistors, capacitors and cable clutter. Then I integrated 3 miniatur glow lamps, AC switch and a bakelite lamp holder for a nice Edison bulb.
Microscope upcycling lamp
04/2017
I upcycled this old microscope from the 1920s, an almost 100 year old instrument with massive brass parts.
At first I replaced the front lenses and made a hole for the small glow lamp. In the brass tube I installed an AC switch.
This was really a hassle and complicated because of the lack of space inside the brass tube for cables and switch.
On top is a vintage lamp socket for the edison bulb. This beautiful socket is made of brass and procelain.
Wattmeter upcycling lamp
02/2017
This is a really old instrument. Manufacturer of the Wattmeter is Gebrüder Bässler, Fabrik elektrischer Meßinstrumente in Dresden / formerly GDR, German Democratic Republic. Similar devices are manufactured in the years 1920 to 1930.
I integrated a red LED lamp for illuminating the watt meter from the inside. On both sides I installed two bakelite lamp sockets.
On top I replaced the old potentiometer with an AC dimmer and added two AC switches. The red textile cable fits to this vintage instrument perfectly.
Bicycle rim lamp
2016
Illumination of our upper hallway.
I wrapped the LED stripe (5m length) twice around the inner side and once outside the bicycle rim. The AC transformer is hidden in a Ikea cutlery stand (ORDNING).
RGB ceiling lamp
2015
Ceiling lamp with a RGB LED strip (5m / 16.4 ft).
The strip is wrapped around two aluminium flat profiles. The AC transformer is hidden in two Sauerkraut cans. A remote allows changing the color of the LED strip.
Size of the lamp is approx. 1m x 25cm.
LED ceiling lamp
2015
Ceiling lamp with a LED strip (5m / 16.4 ft).
The strip is wrapped around two aluminium flat profiles. The AC transformer is hidden in two IKEA steel tealight holders.
Size of the lamp is approx. 1,20m x 18cm.
Ceiling lamp
2008
Large lamp above our dining table. About 2m long, aluminium profiles and steel threaded rod.
Floor lamp with antique glass
2001
I had some leftover scraps of beautiful red, green and blue colored antique glass of a former lamp project. Using a standard glass cutter I cut the stripes free-handed and by guess.
Using adhesive copper stripe and soldering tin I have attached the glass stripes on the end of steel bars - really sophisticated.
The stand consists of 6 aluminium tubes holding the halogen spotlights. Total height is 2,40m ~ 8ft.
The light effects are fantastic, aren't they?
Green glass lamp for rope system
1994
This lamp is made out of two green glass cones and a large glass drop. The currect supply (12 Volts AC) is supplied with steel bars to a LED COB spot.
Light object Lambda
1988
This light object 'Lambda' has 5x5 = 25 glass rods illuminated from bulb in the deep blue aluminium housing.
The glass rods are individually bent in 90 degrees angles and are plugged in suitable holes. The submerged part of the glass
rods collects the light.
The object is 0,5m / 1.6ft high.