The Bake-Light Phone

by duncanwilkinson

6.8K667

Intro: The Bake-Light Phone

I found an old broken Bakelite phone that was going to be thrown out. The insides had already been attacked, but as it had come from the old BBC Ceefax room I thought it deserved to be saved and given a new life...

STEP 1: Under the Bonnet

There wasn't much inside the phone apart from the moving dial and the lever switches. I originally thought about fitting a USB hub and wiring a Skype phone inside the handset, but then the phone wouldn't really get to be on display and it deserved to be. 

STEP 2: A Lucky Find

Luckily after a quick scout around the house I found some other broken bits perfect for salvage. An old bedside light had a broken clip but had made it into my spares box. I suddenly realised that if I put the two together, the Bake-Light Phone would be born!

STEP 3: The Surgery

The old light had a metal gooseneck which meant it could be clamped in place to the metal base of the phone. This also meant that the power lead could then be run out of the back of the base through the hole where the telephone cable had originally been.

As I wanted the gooseneck to come out of the side of the phone (so the handset would look like it was floating above the base), I had to cut a small hole in the side of the main housing.

STEP 4: Adding the Bulb Holders

I bought two brass bulb holders and ran two wires inside the handset to connect them. These were in turn then connected to the original connections of the bedside lamp. The mouth and earpiece were cut so that the bulb holders could be fit snugly inside (apologies for the lack of pictures).

The phone was then reassembled and plugged in....

STEP 5: Voila!

And Voila! The Bake-Light Phone is complete!

7 Comments

twocvbloke 11 years ago

It's funny how ABS plastic morphs into bakelite, simply through being "old"...

And that handset, used to be a rather valuable Neon indicator handset, now it's worthless, shame really.... :\

pokermind 11 years ago

that looks like some serious DIY shelving for you light phone.

duncanwilkinson 11 years ago

You're exactly right! And in a shameless plug for my next Instructable..... Here's how I made them: https://www.instructables.com/id/Kee-Klamp-Shelving/

stephenniall 11 years ago

I think that looks great !

I'm in the process of restoring an old valve radio from the 40's and think this would really look great next to it !

Will have to scrounge Ebay for a bakelight phone !

duncanwilkinson 11 years ago

It would indeed! I would be more than happy to to accept it as a gift! :) Please post up a link once you've done it as I'd love to see it.

fretted 11 years ago

Very cool Andy Wharhol would be proud

It's very retro