Thread: LED light for lathe.

Thanks for the idea, greatly appreciated.
Kryn

I too have made use of strip led lighting, and in a very similar way that you have done. In our off road camper/trailer, I have used about 750mm to 1 metre lengths of led strip mounted on both Lami-panel strip (a kind of thick Laminex, used in bathrooms and other wet areas) and also Aluminium angle - 20X20X3. The strip that I used had an adhesive strip built in, but I also on the advice of an experienced user of this stuff, I ran a fillet of silicon sealant right around the mounted led strip. I used some narrow masking tape to protect the light emitting centre of the strip and ran the silicone, let it skin up and then with a wet soapy finger, smoothed the fillet after first removing the masking tape. It has worked a treat, and I think that you would need to destroy it to dislodge the strip leds from their support.
The only disappointing bit was after getting my first 1m length, which was bright and with a colour I would estimate at 4000ºK, the next lot of led strip I was able to purchase turned out to be distinctly yellow, not as bright and generally lacking compared to the first lot. I have found it difficult to buy leds with a colour temperature rating in ºK, the usual descriptor is either cool white or warm white which often equates to either blue/white or yellow, probably 6000 or 2800ºK, not the 4000ºK that I prefer. I will want to see the strip before I buy any more, but other than that issue, they have worked well for me.

Kryn,
I've had some on my lathe for several years now. I bought them from Olympic batteries in Wingfield if that is of any interest.

Michael

I like the idea of LED strips.. probably not so much an issue on a lathe, but something like a TC grinder or milling machine a single light source does a pretty poor job lighting up the entire work area as usually there is a big spindle or something else casting a shadow somewhere...

I've found the warm LEDs are really no better than an incandescent globe but the cool whites are very near to good natural daylight and show everything up to best effect. The other positives are small size, power consumption and the fact you can get them in pretty well any shape you like, and if you can't, just get the flexible variety. I've been using them in caravans and campers for years, but until now, never thought of using them in the workshop.

During a recent discussion about Fluoro/Led lights on Whirlpool Forum, I was amazed at the number of people who still regard Fluoro lights as being superior to Led in all ways. Go figure.

Dean

ps My first post on my new super duper 17" Metabox Notebook. Its a nice machine and I have to say cost more than any workshop machine I have bought.

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

During a recent discussion about Fluoro/Led lights on Whirlpool Forum, I was amazed at the number of people who still regard Fluoro lights as being superior to Led in all ways. Go figure.

Yea but that is whirlpool for you...

Not sure if leds have the same problem, but flouros are known for having a strobe effect not visible in normal use but when used near rotating machinery can make the machine appear stopped when running at a speed that matches the frequency of the lamp. similar effect to a disco strobe light.

Originally Posted by rockettgpw

Not sure if leds have the same problem, but flouros are known for having a strobe effect not visible in normal use but when used near rotating machinery can make the machine appear stopped when running at a speed that matches the frequency of the lamp. similar effect to a disco strobe light.

No they don't, as long as they are driven from a steady DC supply. However there are applications where they are driven with a pulsed voltage, and this can produce the same strobe effect as a florescent lamp.

Originally Posted by rockettgpw

Not sure if leds have the same problem, but flouros are known for having a strobe effect not visible in normal use but when used near rotating machinery can make the machine appear stopped when running at a speed that matches the frequency of the lamp. similar effect to a disco strobe light.

Not likely to be a problem as LEDs are normally run on a DC power supply, so there should be no strobing effect. If they were run on AC, the Leds themselves would rectify the current, meaning that the lighting would be on pulsating DC which would give a strobing effect, but I doubt that any LED power supplies would do that these days.
Edit. Not only too slooow, but not fully accurate either. Thanks BaronJ for the correction. R.

All my machines make lots of noise when running, so a bit hard to know they are not running..

Originally Posted by Ropetangler

Not likely to be a problem as LEDs are normally run on a DC power supply, so there should be no strobing effect. If they were run on AC, the Leds themselves would rectify the current, meaning that the lighting would be on pulsating DC which would give a strobing effect, but I doubt that any LED power supplies would do that these days.
Edit. Not only too slooow, but not fully accurate either. Thanks BaronJ for the correction. R.

Actually when you mention running led's on AC, you reminded me of an illuminated door bell push that we had a few years ago. That ran from a 12 volt transformer in the loft and fed the bell push. It had four green Led wired two in series with the other two anti parallel with a 470 ohm resistor in series with them. Over about three years the led's just got dimmer and dimmer until you couldn't see them at all. I replaced the push when I found that I couldn't get a new one and because the original was encased in a block of epoxy, couldn't repair it either. Whilst the led's make good low voltage rectifiers, I'm inclined to think that the inductive kick back from the chimes was the cause of the led's demise.

Those 20W LED's I bought from MYLED, the driver says input 12-24V AC-DC, so I ran one off the 24V feed out of the milling machine transformer... it flickered at 50HZ... So I thought I would just put a bridge diode in it plus a capacitor to smooth out the ripples, but of course doing that increases the voltage to 31V DC, so that stuffed that idea as well...

Originally Posted by Ropetangler

Not likely to be a problem as LEDs are normally run on a DC power supply, so there should be no strobing effect. If they were run on AC, the Leds themselves would rectify the current, meaning that the lighting would be on pulsating DC which would give a strobing effect, but I doubt that any LED power supplies would do that these days.

Don't most drives use PWM?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nnhfw-LgSw

The LED strips I've seen dont use drivers though, just resistors.

Stuart