[2008-10-07] Soap dish from discarded headlight
I recently had to replace one of the headlights on my 1998 Jeep Cherokee. I've enjoyed working with smaller burned-out light bulbs in the past, and so I saw the old lamp as an opportunity. Besides the parabolic reflector at the rear (which I'm working on exploiting in a directional microphone), the front lens of the assembly made a cool soapdish for my guest bathroom. There is a seal around the perimeter of the front lens that connects it to the body of the lamp; very often failure of this seal is what causes headlights to burn out in the first place. Such was the case with my lamp. All I had to do was run an X-acto knife around the edge and the front lens came off in my hand. A bit of rubbing alcohol and it was ready to go. The front side of the lens even includes three cast-in glass feet so that the lamp (and now, the soap dish) can rest facedown without wobbling.
last modified 2008-10-07