LED Conversion of Magnifier Lamp

converted magnifier light

My Luxo magnifier light stopped working recently. It turned out to be a bad ballast. The light is a very expensive unit and has proved invaluable for lighting and magnifying various tasks in my shop. I needed to fix it, but unfortunately I could not find a replacement ballast. So I decided to convert it to LED lights.

the light

removed the bad ballast unit

removed the light housing

LED strip from Radio Shack

removed the protective silicone covering and
used foam tape to mount strip into light housing

had to make cuts to get it to follow the curve

used solid core wire to bridge the gaps

LED strip mounted in housing.  Not shown: soldered LED
wires to existing wires in magnifier.

LED strip requires 12v @ 1.5A.
Found this old Power Wheels battery charger in my pile of junk

spliced power supply into magnifier power cord

It works! Nice and bright.
Original power switch turns it on/off.

view from above

This light is back in action and I can finally see what I am working on again. 30 bucks to save a $400 magnifier, not bad. The light is just as bright as before, maybe brighter. If I decide to add a PWM controller, I can even adjust the brightness. I even have about 18" of the LED strip left over for a future project.