Good morning, I have just discovered you site whilst searching the internet. I have began collecting lamps and have a Spiralarm type M which I cant open. Any help to complete the task of opening this would be very much appreciated.

many thanks
baz

To stop the spiral arm M from being unscrewd there should be a
Steel pin on the bottom rings, if this pin is absent and it still
Will not unscrew then you will have to get it in vice with protected
Jaws and use an Auto oil filter removal tool to try and unscrew
The base, but be careful, try a bit of WD40 before you try to unscrew.
On Youtube there is a video about the spiralarm under the name

minelamp spiralarm

Manchester thanks very much for your reply, there is a steel pin on middle ring of the lamp. The top of the lamp moves slightly but it feels like there is a lock preventing it moving further. Could this possibly be an internal magnetic lock?

Yep, sounds as if the lock is still active. You need to get a strong magnet and apply it to the single steel pillar on the lamp, which should draw up the lock. There's plenty of those sold on ebay, or you could find a friendly collector with one!

Thanks very much for your help lads, very much appreciated I will give it a go with the magnet

Are you sure, you apply a magnet to the steel pillar and it opens
The lamp, how does this work.
The next thing you will be telling us is that Baxendales the
Plumbers merchants of Miller St Manchester made miners lamps.

Surprisingly because its a magnetic lock, and the pin is at the bottom of the only steel pillar on the cage! Have a look at one some time.

David you were spot on i put the magnet on the steel pillar and it worked 1st time. Thanks very much for the genuine advice.