Shop Lighting

[moon puppy]

I'm on a never ending quest to find more and better lighting at my workbench (hell getting old) . At one point I had three desktop lamps and two lighted magnifying things over my workspace. It was getting nuts.

I got a florescent fixture and got it installed over my bench and that helped tremendously. Walking through Lowes the other day I went thru the light section and notice some shop lights that were really blinding. Turned out these were LED light strips.

What got me was the Retrofit LED Lights for the florescent fixtures. Basically you remove the ballast from the fixture and wire in the light strips directly into your power source. I've done this with one fixture already and it really made a difference. I'm looking at replacing all of them over time, they ain't cheap. $30 a light but they are rated at 50,000 hours and are lower power.

So the question is, what do you guys do to get light on the subject?

 

[reconron]

So the question is, what do you guys do to get light on the subject?

 

[SA Dave]

Seriously thinking of getting some LED lights also But the 6700 Kelvin ball type that just screws into the regular fittings.

 

[moon puppy]

Lighting the shop Not fart Ron...: :stinker

I went and got two more of those LED Retrofit bulbs. Can't tell you what a difference they make.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Oh too funny!

ROTFLMAO!

 

[Barney]

We recently had the front porch fixed (it a dust bunny had landed on it, it was going to fall...) and the lights replaced. The 4200K lights that were installed were WAY TOO BRIGHT! People were stopping by and asking if we were a 7-11! I am now thinking (having read this thread) of getting something to fix the lighting problem... When you can't read a menu, they call it ambiance, when you can't read a program at a concert (Cleveland orchestra) they call it "Why the F are you trying to read during the concert?"

But when you can't read instructions and glue something on backwards... it is called OLD EYES! And, Damn, my eyes are old....

 

[Adam Baker]

Here's my current setup that serves me really good since its a smaller work area.

2 24" fluorescent and an 8" diameter fluorescent.

Could definitely see converting these to LED at some point.

 

[moon puppy]

Yeah but you got young eyes. It's hell getting old...

 

[jknaus]

Have a desk lamp with natural light bulb and an Ott Light and then the overhead light. Wish I could have a window also for sunlight.
JAmes

 

[moon puppy]

Maybe I should retitle this thread.

I haven't felt comfortable in the shop lately, can't imagine why. Today, after family leaves, I'm purging the garbage!


Before...

 

[Barney]

Purge? Why?

 

[Adam Baker]

That picture came out on the dark side Bob. Probably just b/c of the camera. When sitting down it's very bright. But I can understand what you mean.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Ahhh! Now I just HAVE to get those before/after pics of my hobby room put together for posting!

 

[Sherman 18]

I'm using a couple of old style 75 watt bulbs on magnifier lights on the bench. the room is lit with a florescent. My eyes pick up the pulse of the florescent causing headaches after a couple of hours. I know I need to try something different, so I'm game to hear what other people are using.

shot of my bench area

 

[ausf]

I've been 'fighting with lighting' for as long as I've had a bench until I picked up some LEDs from Ikea. They're housed in a plastic shell the size and shape of an incandescent and screws in.

Because I use the Zeiss head loupe, the working distance is a few inches out, so I need something bright that doesn't get warm. After too many hours feeling like a french fry under a heat lamp, I tried CFLs, but they give off a slight hum and flicker that'll give me a blinding headache after a few minutes.

LEDs are the best of all options: cool, bright and quiet.

I can even remove the reflector off the work lamp now. With that in place, every time I move my head, the loupe whacks the metal dome and it rings like a boxing bell two inches from my ear. Takes a lot longer to sculpt if I have to go to my corner every few minutes.

 

[moon puppy]

Jeff I strongly suggest replacing those florescent with the LED Retro fit. You remove the ballast and wire the LED strength into your power feed. That's what cause me to start looking at the junction boxes in my garage, I've ended up rewiring one of the LED fixtures that's suppose to be hard wired and made it a plug in, then mounted it on the ceiling where I wanted it. The outlets in the ceiling are wired to the switch at the door. Now I even have the power strip at the work bench on the switch so when leave I shut off everything.

Keep in mind these are not the accent LED fixtures that you get for a bar area or under the counter stuff. These are replacement bulbs that really put the light out.

 

[moon puppy]

Maybe I should retitle this thread.

I haven't felt comfortable in the shop lately, can't imagine why. Today, after family leaves, I'm purging the garbage!


Before...

After...well almost

Rearranged the lighting, found some time this afternoon to work on the Eindecker and found myself not using the magnifier like I was. I got a new one, the Ott lite was nice and bright but very limited in range of motion. This one came from HobbyLobby and with the %40 coupon it was under $50.00. And I think the glass is better than the Ottlite is. Still a WIP, got the other corners to do.

And I've already cleared off one old project off the other bench. Gorilla Glue to the rescue of Grandma's foot stool. Probably get another 100 years out of it.