Work Lamp

March 20, 2023

I recently decided to make a simple work light for when working on the car in the dark or when up in the loft. The key features were a carry handle, large beam of light and a heavy base so it was stable.

Although I’ve used sheet metal CAD with Fusion360 when making the Grinder Box, this is the first time I’ve experimented with the Sheetmetal Workbench in FreeCAD. I found it easy to use and reliable and quickly created the piece below which forms the cross bracket of my lamp. I referred to Concrete Dog’s wonderful book for reference, Freecad for Makers.

The main body was designed using the part design workbench and a macro for adding the bolts. I added fillets for the welded joints. The design was based around the size of metal scraps I had in the workshop and also the size of a large LED panel I’d sourced from AliExpress some time back.

I test fitted the LED and gave the parts a coat of red primer followed by a yellow top coat. Probably one of my worse painting jobs ever but it will protect it from the elements.

I drilled a hole for an on off switch and the wiring is a very simple battery pack and the heavy duty wires.

My first test was in the loft where it performed well and helped light the wall where I was fixing a new TV amplifier after the last one died.

The wiring on the switch could do with using crimp connectors or soldering but otherwise a successful result.

By Andy from Workshopshed 2 Comments

  Posted in: Inspiration