Thread: A photo-shoot showing the making of an illuminated router base

Beautiful job Harry.

I just purchased a small led torch the other day for this purpose but I will have to use it for something else now as this idea of yours far surpasses my idea.

I also found there is precious little space for any lighting above the base and like your thinking. Cheers, Ian

Hi harry, Keep them coming quite a few people here will be amazed what you achieve with the router and as always well presented.

regards

Harold

Good stuff Harry! Do you find the lighting is shadowless, or is there still a hint of four shadows? Shadows are the most annoying part, because you can bet they'll fall where you want to go.

Cheers, Brett

The polarity of the battery/leds is reversed in your circuit diagram. Positive of the battery should go to anode of the leds.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Good stuff Harry! Do you find the lighting is shadowless, or is there still a hint of four shadows? Shadows are the most annoying part, because you can bet they'll fall where you want to go.

Cheers, Brett

There are no shadows what-so-ever and I suspect that with only one LED there wouldn't be.

Originally Posted by sjm

The polarity of the battery/leds is reversed in your circuit diagram. Positive of the battery should go to anode of the leds.

I could of course claim that I did that on purpose to make sure members were wide awake but who would believe that!
You are of course correct and I just attempted to add a note to my post but can't find how to do an edit on this forum. I'm sure that it's possible.

An hour or two later: Now, this post shows "EDIT" to the left of "QUOTE" Why don't all posts??????????????? Harry
Whilst on about forum problems, I've attempted to have my first name as a permanent signature on all my posts, I thought that I'd done all the right things but it's still not there!

I often use a secondary fence for clamping on the drill press, so that the job runs through a channel. I like this method because on small holes there is no need to have the job completely pinned down, and so quick to drill multiple holes. The secondary fence has a t-track in the top so I can use downwards clamping if I need to.

So......your wicked lighting solution has another application. The secondary fence could be the light source (in my case it's often higher than the job). The trade off for getting rid of the desk lamp that I now use (with a shocker of a hard edge shadow - often difficult, rarely useful) would be having a couple of leads coming out of my side of the 2ndry fence.......hmmmmmmmmmmm..........

Very nice Harry

Thanks guys. One thing that I'm having difficulty with on this forum is the fact that very few members show a first name, making the forum very impersonal.
Regarding the drill press sub-fence, I lack imagination and so a photograph of your present system could possible lead to a perfect solution!

Originally Posted by harrysin

... I lack imagination .....

Yeah, I can see that ...NOT!

OK, here's a pic of a previous incarnation. You can see the clamping 2ndry fence that creates the channel, but missing the t-track at that point. In fact the only thing in common with the current (yet to be completed) set-up is the protool drill! Even the drill press itself has changed, but it'll give you the idea.



This shows a job that is in fact higher than the clamp, but as I say, it should give you the idea.

Regards, Brett (and my thanks for your pursuit of the idea)

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Yeah, I can see that ...NOT!

OK, here's a pic of a previous incarnation. You can see the clamping 2ndry fence that creates the channel, but missing the t-track at that point. In fact the only thing in common with the current (yet to be completed) set-up is the protool drill! Even the drill press itself has changed, but it'll give you the idea.



This shows a job that is in fact higher than the clamp, but as I say, it should give you the idea.

Regards, Brett (and my thanks for your pursuit of the idea)

Brett, now I feel that I really know you, it looks to me that all you want to do is drill a series of holes in perfect alignment. If that is the fact, then all that is needed is an "L" shaped fence that can be clamped to the drill press table in a number of ways. These shots show how simple the system is, sure, my 30 year old drill press has a built in light but even without it I can, with my fading 78 year old eyes see where to drill because of the high ambient light, in my 20' x 15' shed I have four 5' twin fluorescent fittings using NEC tri-phospher tubes. If you do need more light then a LED torch would be easy to fit to your drill without any engineering, using lacky bands or duct tape, I'm really not taking the mickey, I'm serious.

Originally Posted by sjm

The polarity of the battery/leds is reversed in your circuit diagram. Positive of the battery should go to anode of the leds.

Here it is again, it would have been nice if I could have posted it on the original thread by way of an edit.

Anybody interested in the LED torch method.

Bunnings are selling pack of 5 mini torches complete with batteries for $12.00

I have purchased same and found 3 sets of batteries were almost flat.

The torches themselves are brilliant and worth the money.

They feel like a rubberised? plastic and quite robust.

Hope this helps.

They may be selling cheap because of the battery problem but its a bargain for woodworkers to utilise on their tools.

Love
Ned Black

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

I often use a secondary fence for clamping on the drill press, so that the job runs through a channel. I like this method because on small holes there is no need to have the job completely pinned down, and so quick to drill multiple holes. The secondary fence has a t-track in the top so I can use downwards clamping if I need to.

So......your wicked lighting solution has another application. The secondary fence could be the light source (in my case it's often higher than the job). The trade off for getting rid of the desk lamp that I now use (with a shocker of a hard edge shadow - often difficult, rarely useful) would be having a couple of leads coming out of my side of the 2ndry fence.......hmmmmmmmmmmm..........

I was just drilling a row of holes and thought about your mention of an illuminated drilling jig so why not something as simple as the vertical rear piece being a piece of 12mm Acrylic and the chances are that just one 5mm LED set into the top edge will light up the whole piece evenly. By the way, I've just come across the data on the LED's I used for the base, they were rated at 40,000 mcd @3.8 volts and 50mA max current.