Build A Trouble Light From Junk

Image Gallery

by David C. Stockman

The last time I burned out one low beam of my automobile's four-headlight system, I promised myself I'd find some use for the still-functional high beam of the half-expired bulb. Consequently, for the price of a few minutes' assembly time and a couple of dollars' worth of parts, I built a powerful—as well as portable—trouble-and-search lamp that plugs right into the cigarette lighter socket in my car.

The entire project required only an empty plastic one-gallon bleach bottle, my salvageable sealed beam (as you probably know, the outer lights in a "quad" arrangement have both high and low filaments), 15 feet of household lamp cord, about three feet of baling wire, a small amount of electrical solder, and a cigarette lighter adapter plug (the part is Radio Shack No. 274-331, which I purchased locally for 99¢).

First, I fashioned a funnel from the top part of the Clorox jug by cutting all the way around the container just above its label. Then I temporarily placed the headlight snugly into the plastic cup with the top of the bulb's face in the upright position, closest to the jug's handle. There are three raised nodules on the glass of the sealed beam—unevenly spaced, but close to 2, 6, and 10 o'clock—and I marked their positions on the lip of the funnel.

After removing the lamp, I took an awl and punched six holes through the jug, at points about half an inch on each side of the three marks and an inch back from the container's cut edge. Next, I fastened the adapter plug to one end of the lamp cord, and stripped one-half inch of insulation from the two leads at the other end. A sealed unit has three prongs on its back one for the high beam, one for the low beam, and one ground. After plugging the adapter into my car's cigarette lighter (and making sure, of course, that the exposed wire ends weren't touching), I placed the two leads alternately against varying pairs of the three prongs till I found the combination that made the bulb light . . . and soldered the wires securely to their proper terminals.