I picked up this Big Beam lantern on the 'Bay recently dirt cheap. I had one when I was a kid, but don't know what happened to it.
It's a 6V lantern with a pivoting head, powered by a standard 6V square battery. It occured to me that one of these could be turned into a great retro headlight for a cruiser or rat rod. The lamp itself is a nice size, IIRC, I measured 4-3/8" diameter, 3.5" deep. It has a chromed body and a domed glass lens. Apparently, the design dates to the fifties, so the lineage is there, but the company is still in business making essentially the same lamp. So, parts are still available.
I got mine for $0.99, plus a few dollars for shipping. I'm not sure which bike I'll use it on (I might even use it as a camping flashlight for a while, if you can imagine that!). My intent is to seperate the lamp head and mount it to the fork or head tube. The battery box can either be mounted remotely, or possibly even inside a tank (probably without the handle or maybe the entire lid). Maybe a tank horn button can be used as an on/off switch if it can be made non-momentary. Or, I suppose, since the bulb it takes is 6V, if the wattage is low enough, it would be possible to run from a generator.
There are enough of them out there that they are cheap, but the build quality seems generally solid. And a lot of them are old enough to have a bit of patina already of their own. Just thought I'd throw the idea out there... :mrgreen:
It's a 6V lantern with a pivoting head, powered by a standard 6V square battery. It occured to me that one of these could be turned into a great retro headlight for a cruiser or rat rod. The lamp itself is a nice size, IIRC, I measured 4-3/8" diameter, 3.5" deep. It has a chromed body and a domed glass lens. Apparently, the design dates to the fifties, so the lineage is there, but the company is still in business making essentially the same lamp. So, parts are still available.
I got mine for $0.99, plus a few dollars for shipping. I'm not sure which bike I'll use it on (I might even use it as a camping flashlight for a while, if you can imagine that!). My intent is to seperate the lamp head and mount it to the fork or head tube. The battery box can either be mounted remotely, or possibly even inside a tank (probably without the handle or maybe the entire lid). Maybe a tank horn button can be used as an on/off switch if it can be made non-momentary. Or, I suppose, since the bulb it takes is 6V, if the wattage is low enough, it would be possible to run from a generator.
There are enough of them out there that they are cheap, but the build quality seems generally solid. And a lot of them are old enough to have a bit of patina already of their own. Just thought I'd throw the idea out there... :mrgreen:
