I am an avid cross stitcher and have been aided by a magnifying light for the last 20 years. I am on at least my third, since I wear them out with constant repositioning. This is definitely the lightest weight and easiest to manipulate. This is also the first I have had with a toggle on/off switch rather than a push button. The push button has always been the first element to die on each of the lamps. The price was good and I hope this one lasts a long time.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program I was excited to get this light. I work a lot at the table, especially when my garage gets too hot. I've had other swing arm lamps before, both at work and home. This is a pretty good quality lamp that moves freely, has good optics, and illuminates well, except for one thing. The underside of the clamp, which grabs the top of the the desk/table surface, is made of hard plastic ridges. Most clamps for various products I've seen have rubber or foam or something to prevent damage to your furniture.
I thought I was safe by folding a piece of paper up several times and placing it in between the clamp and the table surface. I still ended up with damage to my table (see my photo under this product). I would highly suggest buying some type of rubber mat material to cut and put in between the table or desk surface and the clamp. If you ended up with damage to your furniture like I did, here is a helpful fix.
To fix dents from this clamp, take a very damp paper towel and fold it up a couple of times. Place it over the dents and then take a hot iron and 'iron' over the paper towel. The iron heats the water in the paper towel up and steams the wood fibers, causing them to swell. This brings out light dents and greatly reduces the visibility of deeper ones. It may take a couple of times to get the full benefit. I've had great success with this trick, but use at your own risk.
Other than that, I was happy with the functionality of this light. I don't know why the manufacturer did not put a softer material on the clamping surface.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program The cardboard box this lamp came in was flimsy and strangely-shaped, making it prone to getting beaten up in transit, even inside a bigger (standard shape) box. Made in China and the subtle Engrish on the box shows it. The warranty information is printed on one of the box flaps rather than the paper instructions insert, making it harder to hang on to. Printing on the packaging reminds you to take all the foam out from between the bulb and housing (3 pieces), but I think the instruction would be easy for the average person to miss.
The lamp is not UL listed, but it does say on the box that it's ETL listed (another standard testing agency that's still making a name for itself). The bulb is a standard T9 circular fluorescent tube, 22W, with daylight spectrum, and it looks like replacements can be had here on Amazon for a reasonable price. I flipped back and forth between this and a 50W halogen (nonmagnifying) task light a few times, and while the color rendering was different, neither was clearly better or worse. This probably had less glare, though, and runs cooler. The cord is pretty short, I think a little under 5 feet, so you'll need an extension cord unless your mounting point is next to a wall with an outlet very nearby. The lamp's on/off switch is on the top of the head, and is a very big and user friendly rocker.
The table clamp has a nicely textured grippy material on the top surface, but the bottom/screw end of the clamp is a metal cup that will be prone to slippage and/or damaging the bottom of your table, so adding a piece of flat padding material between the table and the cup would be a good idea. I used some of the cardboard that was wrapped around part of the armature for initial shipping. There's a horizontal screw on the clamp that can fasten into a slot in the base peg of the armature, but the slot is only on one side of the peg, so the armature has to be facing the open side of the clamp. This limited me because I wanted to mount it on the near side of a table to the right of my crafting chair, but it was spinning everywhere, so I had to put it on the far side of the table and lose a couple feet of reach in spanning across the table.
I realized on trying to use this with my stitching that I'll need to be sitting at a low table or working with something fully down in my lap to realistically use the magnifying glass function and still have room to move my hands under it. The magnifying glass seems to work fine, though. Generally the lamp stayed where I put it, though it sometimes took a little encouragement, and the triangular hand screws at the armature joints seem to work OK. A feature I really liked is a nice metal handle on the front top edge of the light so it's easy to reposition the light/magnifier without touching the very warm bulb/head.
I got this for free from Amazon Vine in exchange for writing an honest review, but if I were looking to buy this I'm not sure I'd pay what they're asking for it. I'd probably feel better about 2/3 to 3/4 of the current asking price.
Honest reviews on Normande Lighting 22W Daylight Spectrum Clamp Lamp w/ Magnifier
Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program This lamp with magnifier was exactly what I needed for building static scale aircraft models and R/C aircrafts because my old magnifier lamp broke after five years.
Likes:
>Clamps onto my hobby room's wooden workbench with ease but I would be careful when securing this light to a office style desk because the clamp has some sharp surfaces that may damage more polished wooden desktops.
>The pivoting arms are made of durable metal with metal springs, pins, and screws.
>The light has a circular T9 fluorescent bulb that's energy saving (22W), provides a bright, white light that's closer to daylight (°K color temperature) compared to incandescent lights that are yellowish.
>Very easy on the eyes with minimal glare.
>Much easier to use with the smooth pivoting/positionable arms than wearing magnifying loupes or using a handheld magnifier.
>Never touch the T9 bulb. I wear latex gloves during replacement because excessive skin oils left on fluorescent bulb surfaces will reduce its service life.
Slight dislikes:
>Over time, most lamps with pivoting arms will wear out at two weak spots: the plastic table clamp and the plastic screw securing the magnifier lamp's pivoting head. It appears the plastic parts on this lamp will last only a few years at best with frequent usage.
>The Limited Warranty is only one year so if any of the weak plastic components break, no more replacement parts.
Overall:
This magnifying lamp helps me enjoy my hobbies much more and is also useful for reading small print on product boxes, legal documents, and warranties. The lamp is functioning well after five weeks but long term durability is unknown.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program This is a great desk lamp for working on small objects. The light is bright and very white, so you can clearly see whatever is you're working on. In my case, that's painting miniature figurines, and so a white light is important for seeing the colors accurately.
The magnifying lens is also nice. It's large and not too high of a magnification. I can see my minis very clearly.
I do have a few complaints, though. The construction quality does not really justify it's $60+ price. The clamp, in particular, seems weak and unstable. I have it secured to my desk, but I know if I pull on the lamp, I can easily rip it out and damage my desk and the clamp.
The other problem is the packaging. This was shipped in a 2' x 4' box, which is easily five times larger (by volume) than that lamp itself. In addition, the warehouse put the lamp in the corner of the box and just covered it with packing paper, which means that it was only protected on two sides. Don't be surprised if the lamp box arrives damaged. The lamp itself should be fine, but I would not be surprised if the bulb is damaged.
