How do you light the work on the lathe?

[TimberNut]

I need to get more lighting on the job on the lathe. I currently have a flouro over the lathe and my magnetic based lamp (HL-700 from Carbatec) that I move around as required, has blown a transformer.

I was going to replace it (can't get another transformer the right size - so I have to replace the whole thing).

But I like a LOT of light around the work area. I'm just wondering, what do others use to light up the lathe job?? I can't run more power circuits to the shed, and the current one is pretty maxed out, so was wondering if there's any way I can use some halogen or LED lamps that'll brighten up the area without too much current draw??

suggestions??

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I've found that, regardless of how good the shed lighting is, there will always be parts of the item you're turning that are in shadow. Especially if you're doing deep bowls, goblets and the like. :~

So, my advice? Replace your HL-700! Doesn't have to be exxy, I use an old desk lamp that I slavaged from a council hard garbage collection. :o It took me a while to find the "right" one for me, as on most of 'em the arms were too short and kept getting in the way of my tool handles. The one I'm using now has a reach of about 4'... ahhh.... bliss!

Because I can shine it where I want it, and as it has a damned good reflector, I can get away with using a low wattage bulb... a mere 25W I think at the moment. It may be a 40W, but I don't think so. Not only does this mean less power used but it also means less heat. I hate accidentally touching hot lightbulbs with my elbow! :rolleyes: I really should get one of those compact fluorescent bulbs instead. One day...

[TimberNut]

Hey Skewy,

yeah, I intend to replace it, but with the latest influx of LED torches that give more 'white' light and brighter for less battery power, i was wondering if there was a better option than that carbatec one.
By the way, that HL-700 was awesome - good magnetic base, fairly decent light output and nice flexible shaft. Also the head wasn't too big, so i could manouver it nice and close to the work. But before I rush out and spend some of the cashola on another one, I was hoping someone had stumbled on a better solution.

Ideally I'd run 3 of them (plus the flouro), if I had enough spots to stick em and enough power points free - as I said, I like LOTS of light on the workpiece.

I think soundman is a lighting technician, so hopefully he'll see this post and have some good suggestions.

My idea of 'perfect' would be same footprint as what I've had, dust proof (or close to), magnetic base (or adjustable arm on a stand) doesn't get too hot, and about 3 times the light output (white light, not flouro kinda yellowish...)

any other suggestions out there??

[watson]

G'day Timber Nut,
I'm lucky enough to have a few deep charge batteries that I have wired throughout the shed.
I use them for plug in power for portable 12V drills whose batteries have died, and the odd halogen globe dangling off the roof on semi-flexible cable for odd spots that I need extra light.
Maybe not efficient...a bit "agricultural".....but I can see!!
Noel
I also use rare earth magnets to stick them where I need them.

[macca2]

I have fluros above the lathe and I also have a desk lamp on an extendable arm clamped to the bench behind the lathe and fitted with an 11v fluro.
Works for me.

[soundman]

First of all there is no need to throw away you carbatec light.
If its just a 50 or 100 watt 12 volt halogen lamp a replacement transformer is easy enough to come across..... an osram switchmode downlight powersupply will do very nicely....If its something else..the solution will not be too much more difficult.

Secondly a single fluro without a reflector is pretty poor workshop lighting.... not its fault.
So replace your single fluro with two single fluros end to end with a decent reflector behind them. or at least get a reflector on your fluro.

The cieling or shed roof is a very poor reflector.

I made mine out of a pine studd with 45dec chamfer on both sides and 200mm of white melamine board down each side....just putting a good reflector on a fluro will put about 70% more light where its suposed to be.

Make sure you get your fluro at the right height.....arround 2400 off the ground is about right.... any higher & you loose intensity.... any lower and the light isnt distributed properly and you get too much direct in your eyes & that causes your eyes to iris down.

There is a big trend toward " task lighting" as the primary source oif light both in the workplace and the home....... I recon this is BS...... provide good smooth adequate light in the room & then only then use task lighting to cover obscure areas like inside stuff and where very high intensity is required.

Oh BTW.... fitting triphosphor or quad phosphor, daylight tubes to you fluro will help.....warm white might be softer inside the house but not helpfull in the workshop.

All this LED stuff is wonderfull for battery powerd devices but it dosn't have the light quality of good modern fluros and is nowhere as good as dicroic halogen for colour tempriture.

cheers

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Soundman, what do you reckon of the idea of replacing the incandescent bulb with a CFL in my lathe-mounted desk lamp?

I mean in terms of actually lighting the job... any better?

[soundman]

It would probaly be cooler on your ear.
If you are talking standard white reflector lamp head.
And you put the highest wattage CFL available you might be ahead because most lamp heads will only take 60 watt lamps.
or put an R series reflector lamp in.
or there are some CFL reflector lamps available.

It only costs you $10 to $16 to try.

cheers

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

That's more or less my reasoning too. Just thought I'd ask while you were passing through. ;)

[TTIT]

I've got 3, 4' fluro's over the lathe. One directly above, one forward a few feet and one aft a few feet - plus a desklamp mounted on the headstock that extends about 3' with a 60 watt reflector type globe. Bit on the blind side so the more light the better :redface:

[tashammer]

i was told more than once that using fluorescent lights where anything is revolving is not a good idea as it can look as though the, say, saw blade isn't moving due to it being in sync with the fluorescent light flickering on off on off.
Would this only apply to high speed gear?

[Shedhand]

SWMBO worked in a windowless environment for 11 years under fluorescent lights. She is now night blind as a result which has been confirmed by her opthalmologist. :mad:

[TTIT]

i was told more than once that using fluorescent lights where anything is revolving is not a good idea as it can look as though the, say, saw blade isn't moving due to it being in sync with the fluorescent light flickering on off on off.
Would this only apply to high speed gear?It would have to be rotating at 50r.p.m exactly or a multiple of that to even come close to that effect but I have heard it's not good which is why I run the desklamp as well - apparently a mixture of lighting types is cool :cool:

[hughie]

It would have to be rotating at 50r.p.m exactly or a multiple of that to even come close to that effect but I have heard it's not good which is why I run the desklamp as well - apparently a mixture of lighting types is cool :cool:


Vern,

I think from memory its 50 per second the flicker rate for flouros so that would be around 3000 rpm and the chuck would stand still...:? I think

:D Anyway one of the lighting/electronic gurus can sort it out.


In the old days in Eng. shops it was frowned upon to use flouros, these days its standard practice.

And I ve got a double 4' to go over mine and a spot at the tail stock end, and I still want need more at the back side of the headstock :D

[OGYT]

I need to get more lighting on the job on the lathe.
(.....so I have to replace the whole thing).

I'm just wondering, what do others use to light up the lathe job??
suggestions??

This was scabbed together using a scrap of Bois d'Arc.:cool: Drilled two holes and tapped them for 3/8 bolts. Made sure they didn't interfere with anything inside. Drilled three holes for the lamp... but I only use one of them. :C
It works. :D Would be better if the arm was longer, but I had to use what I had.

Been gone for a few days... good to be back... got a lot of reading to catchup on...

[Hickory]

I have an old goose neck floor lamp ( has a flexible neck you can bend to any shape ) Metal shade , etc. I set it behind my lathe and point it toward the work in the fashion it pleases me. Yard-Sale item for a couple of bucks.

[baxter]

I have the same type of swivel arm lamp, as OGYT, over the headstock, only it is clamped to a shelf located behind the lathe. From the tailstock end I have a small Bunnies cheap desk lamp clamped to a piece of timber that I can slide along the underside lathe stand to where I want it. I also have a magnetic based lamp available as required.

All lamps have reflector globes.

As a promotion we were given 6 white compact fluoscent lamps when we paid our electricity account. Put one in a lamp over the work bench. It gave too soft a light and lasted all of 10 minutes before it was replaced with a reflector lamp.

I have also been warned about using fluoscent lamps over a lathe. I think that it was more a warning to avoid the compact fluoros in a lamp directly over the lathe than a fluoro in the ceiling light.

[Toolin Around]

i was told more than once that using fluorescent lights where anything is revolving is not a good idea as it can look as though the, say, saw blade isn't moving due to it being in sync with the fluorescent light flickering on off on off.
Would this only apply to high speed gear?


I've tried to sync the turning with a floro but haven't been able to do it to such an extent that the piece appears to freeze. It does create shadows and a rotational effect at certain rpms but that's about it. I've never been all that fond of floros and aviod them where ever possible.

[Toolin Around]

My favorite lighting is the cheapest - the sun. I have my lathe right at the garage door. If I ever build a shed it'll capitalize on the one thing Australia has an over abundance of, sunlight. At night I have incandescent lights directed to where I'm working. The small spot lights do a better job of directing light where I want it and don't heat up the socket much so I can get away with using a higher than rated wattage bulb.

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[TimberNut]

Geez , is there ANY topic that hasn't already been covered in these forums???? :-)

Soundman, do you have any pics of this reflector setup you are talking about? also, these tri and quad flouros, can I get them at my local Bunnies, or are they something special??

[soundman]

The old fluro strobing effext has been bandies about for ages.
Yess I can see the teeth on the blade in my saw bench stop and roll forward and back as the speed runs down..... but I know there is a blade there and I don't put my fingers there...... besides the effect is momentary.

I have never seen it happen on a wood lathe even at the higher speeds.

The strobe frequency of fluros in aust is twice the line frequency... 100 Hz
In the US or other places in the world 120Hz

so to get a stationary immage it wiuld have to be a clean multiple of 100Hz..thats a multiple of 6000rpm.....or the spinning item would have to be regularly marked or divided so as to produce a multiplication factor.
like a regular hexagonal (6 sided) item spinning at 1000rpm.

As far as I can see not an issue on a wood lathe.

Different story with multi bladed items like fans or fast spinning items like router cutters or saw blades.

There are rare cases of people with flicker sensitivity.... very rare.

I doubt if night blindness could be atributed to extended use of fluros.... there has to be something else involved.

The important thing in workshops (or any good lighting) is to get a good even field difused of light with a balance of direct and reflected light which does not produce strong shadows.

two fluros end to end gives an 8 foot long light source, which gives a nice spread of light. with a good 90deg reflector at 3m height the primary radial spread is about 8 feet at floor level and about 6 feet at bench level. Secondry spill will be about twice that.
Idealy you want your rows of fluros overlapping about 50%.... so rows about 8 feet appart is good.

Triphosphor tubes are pretty well standard stuff these days...they should have triphosphor written on the box and the tube.
Pay attentipn to the colour description on the tube too.... you want "daylight" tubes... not "warm white".
When i first started using triphosphour they were like $12 per tube at the wholesailer..... they are down to about $3 to $4 for a 4 foot tube now.

I must finish cleaning up the workshop & take some pics.

cheers