New Lights for the Kitchen

 My groovy, shag-a-delic pad in town had some small pendant lamps hanging from the ceiling to light up the kitchen island. They were not particularly interesting, and they didn't really seem to work with the industrial nature of the building, mostly because they were so small. I originally planned to replace the small painted glass shades with larger printed shades, but then I found a couple big aluminum reflectors for some industrial ceiling lamps at the makerspace in very good condition. 

All I had to do was clean the dust off them in the shower and design and print some simple brackets to allow them to mount on the hanging sockets that were already in place.  I made a few quick measurements and got to work in Fusion360. This is what I came up with:

I printed a pair of them in PETG and hung up the reflectors.

Here's one of the reflectors with the bracket mounted. The reflector is 435 mm in diameter at the bottom edge, and about 300 mm high. The reflectors have little horizontal grooves, almost as if they were 3D printed.

The bracket is extra beefy and absolutely will not have a problem holding up the reflector.

The bracket attaches with 4 plastic anchor screws using the mounting points that were already provided in the reflectors.

Here it is with a warm, antique looking LED bulb that's about 200 mm long. 

Here is a conventional type LED bulb. The reflector directs most of the light downward.

This bulb is a 300mm long 5000K type that is quite bright. The reflector tends to throw a lot of the light off to the sides as well as downward. It's a little harsh because the light shines directly into your eyes no matter where you sit or stand.

The is the island lit by the two new fixtures and a couple 800 lumen, conventional LED bulbs.

Here it is with the original lamp in the center also lit.

I think the original lamps were just too small. They didn't look right with the big ventilation pipe and the large rafters.

Two of the new reflectors throw plenty of light, so it's no problem if I can't find a third reflector. I haven't decided if I am going to remove the middle pendant completely or leave it in place.