I was tied up next to this big old motor yacht this season for a few nights. I loved the curtains in the 'windows' and especially, this table lamp, in the aft port.
The cloth lamp shade cast a soft warm light inside the cabin at night and was also a welcoming light to those of us around the harbor.
A table lamp in a boat. You don't see those much, for obvious reasons. Boat lighting is fixed, often glaring and not much to look at from outside.
The passage between our V-berth and saloon has always been dark. There is a fiddled shelf above the hanging locker that's never found a good use. The high shelf collects stuff of no use. And there is a small fixed port outboard. This got me thinking...
Unlike the motor yacht, the dark space on our boat is small. They don't make table lamps small enough. Could I make a 'mock up'?
I had a couple of household base 5 Watt, 12VDC LED bulbs left over from converting all our cabin lights. I knew small lamp shades were available as 'Chandelier shades'. They clip on the smaller bulbs in typical household chandeliers which are about the size of the 5W LED bulbs I had.
The whole lamp had to be less than 10" high to scale into the small space. I needed something for a short, stable base. Several days, weeks,... I spied a suitable object: A rolled Maine beach stone.
My family collects found art out sailing, the stone was in the garden (and they are throughout our old boat).
The only hard part was pushing(sweating) a masonry bit through the stone (granite I think) on a drill press. I made the hole a snug fit on the typical threaded pipe for lamps. Not high enough so I added another smaller stone making it officially a Cairn. The tiny lamp fits right in with our 'decor'.
After setting my parts in epoxy I ran wire through the bottom of the rolled stone. For a base, I laid a thick donut of silicone around the stone and set it - plumb - on a piece of plexiglass sprayed with cooking oil(took a day and a half to firm up).
It's amazingly stable and the silicone grips tenaciously. As a back up, the wiring runs through a small hole and is tied below, to keep it put.
The soft warm light on the shelf nicely lights the passageway now. Mary Ann, who covets her beach stones, loves it!
I was anxious to see it from the other side. Not bad. Another harbor light.
What do you think? How will the household stuff hold up? I'll test it for the rest of the season, maybe make another. Maybe one stowed with a cord for the saloon table or galley when at anchor?,...
The cloth lamp shade cast a soft warm light inside the cabin at night and was also a welcoming light to those of us around the harbor.
A table lamp in a boat. You don't see those much, for obvious reasons. Boat lighting is fixed, often glaring and not much to look at from outside.
The passage between our V-berth and saloon has always been dark. There is a fiddled shelf above the hanging locker that's never found a good use. The high shelf collects stuff of no use. And there is a small fixed port outboard. This got me thinking...
Unlike the motor yacht, the dark space on our boat is small. They don't make table lamps small enough. Could I make a 'mock up'?
I had a couple of household base 5 Watt, 12VDC LED bulbs left over from converting all our cabin lights. I knew small lamp shades were available as 'Chandelier shades'. They clip on the smaller bulbs in typical household chandeliers which are about the size of the 5W LED bulbs I had.
The whole lamp had to be less than 10" high to scale into the small space. I needed something for a short, stable base. Several days, weeks,... I spied a suitable object: A rolled Maine beach stone.
My family collects found art out sailing, the stone was in the garden (and they are throughout our old boat).
The only hard part was pushing(sweating) a masonry bit through the stone (granite I think) on a drill press. I made the hole a snug fit on the typical threaded pipe for lamps. Not high enough so I added another smaller stone making it officially a Cairn. The tiny lamp fits right in with our 'decor'.
After setting my parts in epoxy I ran wire through the bottom of the rolled stone. For a base, I laid a thick donut of silicone around the stone and set it - plumb - on a piece of plexiglass sprayed with cooking oil(took a day and a half to firm up).
It's amazingly stable and the silicone grips tenaciously. As a back up, the wiring runs through a small hole and is tied below, to keep it put.
The soft warm light on the shelf nicely lights the passageway now. Mary Ann, who covets her beach stones, loves it!
I was anxious to see it from the other side. Not bad. Another harbor light.
What do you think? How will the household stuff hold up? I'll test it for the rest of the season, maybe make another. Maybe one stowed with a cord for the saloon table or galley when at anchor?,...
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