Another Lighting Blast from the Past: The Spiralite Model 600

Back in the 70s when I was first starting out in photography, these strobes were a familiar sight in the advertising section of magazines like Modern Photography.  Spiratone was a big advertiser in all of the major photography publications.  I still remember looking lustily at their "complete studio strobe kits."  The Spiralite Model 600 is an edison based (screws into a standard light socket) strobe unit, equipped with a sync cord jack and an optical slave sensor.  The GN is 60 and it has a recycle time of about 2 seconds.  We have much better equipment these days, but that is not to say these old units can't be useful, especially when fired by a wireless trigger (the optical slave is only moderately reliable.)


They make great rim or background lights.  They can also be a part of the primary lighting system.  I often use these units when setting up the mobile studio where I frequently work at close range and don't need a LOT of power.  They were particularly useful when I photographed a 12 member band and I needed to strategically light the stage area; I could have used a few more of these units that night.  

I found 3 of them on Ebay awhile back at a very reasonable price.  At first I just screwed them into clamp light fixtures.  That worked "ok" but not great.  The weight of the strobes often caused the fixture to sag, and they were not always easy to adjust exactly the way I wanted.

Then came my first tripod mountable adapter.  It also works with many light stand adapters with a 1/4-20 mail thread on top.  It was quick and dirty.  Plumbing strap was use to secure a light socket to a small block of wood.  The real inspiration of this first model was the use of a 1/4-20 T-nut to make the block tripod mountable.  Make sure you get a T-nut designed for wood and not metal.  Those intended for use with wood will have rather vicious looking tabs to dig in.  T-nuts for use with metal projects will not have such tabs.

Note that the T-nut is recessed in the block of wood.  See image on right.  That was done because the T-nut wasn't quite long enough to go all the way through the block of wood.  It also looks better.  Recessing the T-nut was accomplished by first using a 7/8 inch speed bore bit  and drilling to a depth of about 3/16 of an inch, then drilling the rest of the way with a 5/16 inch that would allow a snug fit for the barrel of the T-nut.  The rest was easy: a couple of screws and a piece of plumber's strap attached the light socket to the block.

That also worked "ok,"  and better than the clamp lights by a long shot.  But it was a quick and dirty design, made with what I had on hand, only intended to be used until I could come up with something better.  And now I have something better.  Its more secure and it just plain looks nicer.

A Little More on How it's Made

I started with a block of wood from a piece of pine 1x4.  I chose pine because its cheap and easy to work with.  Note that a 1x4 is actually 3/4 inch thick and 3 1/2" inches wide.  From that, I cut a piece 2 1/2 inches long. The T-nut tripod socket was as before.  But in the new design, a length of lamp nipple allows a light socket to be screwed onto the end.  A nut on each end of the lamp nipple holds it securely in the block.

After I drilled the hole for the lamp nipple, I drilled a second hole almost all the way through on the opposite side as an umbrella receptacle.  The accompanying images should tell you everything you need to know.

BTW, once you know the T-nut trick, the possibilities endless for home made accessories, adapters, and whatnot.  



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