I saw the other week a camping lantern for sale and the price seemed to me a little high for the 6 hours of fluorescent light it provided. I decided I could just modify a gas one along with batteries and one scanner fourescent circuit I had around. So I ordered one online and waited till it arrived.
I came pretty soon and I realised that my dream of fitting a sealed lead acid battery won't work because the base is simply too small. So I went to plan B - small AA batteries in series. I cut out the base of the gas tank with a can opener. Then I found another can that seemed to fit the opened base. I drilled two holes each side to fix screws so that the new bottom stays in place.
The fluorescent circuit was designed for 12V but it started happily with 6V only. The base of the lantern was allowing for two battery holders, 4 pieces each so I tied them in series for 9.6V in total. I bought 8 batteries, 1200mAh each (it was cheaper) and inserted them into the holders and then into the lantern's base along with the scanner circuit, a switch and a little power socket that gave me acces to the holders output. This will be used to charge the batteries with a 11.2V/150mAh trickle charger. In the photo you can see the wires attached since it was the first charging the batteries experienced.
The fluorescent tube was taken from a 11W warm white fluorescent bulb. The yellowish light output pleased me since it was more authentic and it fit the retro theme perfectly, although the tube itself ruins the view a litte.
The bulb takes 250mAh from batteries so I expect 4-6 hours of light with the 1200mAh batteries. If I were using 2400mAh ones, the expectations would have been double.
Well, it does not surpass the commercial modern camping light I saw, in terms of autonomy, but the light output and the experience is well worth it.
The lamp looks unaltered in the end, except for the fluorescent bulb, and the bronze antique finishing makes it a great decoration for my room. I just love old-fashioned stuff. This was an easy project but should anyone be interested in this, I can provide more information about building this lantern.