This post is being written as a tutorial, as some may find this helpful. Some may also find it very unhelpful, but at least I tried. Maybe you will come crawling back here the next time you get zapped with 20,000 volts while tweaking your pots (damn, that sounds bad!).

I went out today to a few stores, trying unsuccessfully to find a mirror that I could clip on the front of a game and position it so I could easily adjust the monitor from around back. I saw a post somewhere (KLOV.com?) with a picture of one that someone rigged. I don’t remember what post it was in…it was quite a while ago when I saw it. Thanks to whomever posted that as it got me started with this.

Everything I got for this came from Walmart. I know Walmart sucks, and they have that whole slave labor thing going, but I’m cheap and I bet you are too. Here is a parts list:

1 Mirror - $4.37
SKU: 36826-00092

This hand held mirror was in the aisle with hair accessories…elastics, brushes, stuff like that. There were 2 that were similiar, this being the larger of those 2. It’s a rounded rectangle, with a handle that has a whole in the end. Scroll down further to see a pic.

1 Clip on Desk Lamp - $7.97
SKU: Too lazy to move from my chair to look

This was in the aisle with regular lamps, and looks like this:

Assemby Instructions:

1. First you need to ruin this lamp. Remove the nut around the switch with some pliers:

2. After you do that, the socket for the bulb will have some slack and hang down a bit inside the reflector. Cut the two wires and pull the bulb holder out. You’ll see the wires sticking through on the inside, tied in a knot.

3. Untie the knot, and pull the cord out through the other end of the tube.

4. You have to get that nut off that’s holding the reflector shade on. I ended up using visegrips to grab hold of it on the inside, and then I turned it and the shade until it was lose enough to remove by hand.

Now, you should have a bare end like this:

I thought I was going to need that nut later, but didn’t end up using it.

5. This is the cool part. Take the mirror, and put the threaded end of the rod through the hole in the handle. If you push on it a bit, it will go about half way in. Then just spin the mirror to the right and it will self thread onto the end. It worked great for me, and ended up very tight. Be careful though…if you go all hogwild on it, you may strip it.

It should now look like this, minus the dirty rug:

Here it is in action:

The clamp has a little bit of foam on the inside of the jaws to protect whatever you clamp it to. It’s working fine now, but the foam seems a bit thin. It may be a good idea to buy some thicker foam to stick in there at some point.

Do not show this to your wife. She will probably steal it from you. If she does spot it, tell her you need it to put your face on in the morning.