Thread: How do you light the work on the lathe?

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. 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! I really should get one of those compact fluorescent bulbs instead. One day...

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??

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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

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

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?

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:

Originally Posted by 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?

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

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

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

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

Originally Posted by TimberNut

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. 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.
It works. 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...