lathe lighting ?

[Richard Hodsdon]

At our local convention one of the turners showed us a setup he was using. He had purchased a strip of LED lights (abt 200mm /8") and stuck this to the back of his tool rest. This provided plenty of light right inside the bowl just where the tool was cutting. Usually this area is in shadow from the lip, the turner the shavings etc. It worked surprisingly well. And as the tool rest curved back just below the edge it was pretty well protected from the shavings and turning.
Regards
Richard

[powderpost]

[QUOTE=derekcohen;2168069]I have had the Nova light for several months. The illumination around my lathe is poor, and this light does a great job. It is very directional, so will focus light on a specific area.QUOTE]

That sort of light for that project is less than useless. Good general light is needed to light up the length of project. It would be painful to continuously have to focus the light on any potential detail in that sort of job. Might be ok for a small project.

Jim

[jmk89]

I put a light into an extension of the bell mouth extractor - here is the post where I mentioned it.

As I mentioned in the post and as you can see from the photo, some of the LEDs weren't working - a break in the internal wiring, probably when I was sewing the led strip to the donut. I have now fixed it by soldering some jumper wires to the copper pads in the strip, so I have the full lighting working now!

Cheap and nasty but effective.

[Mobyturns]

Think I should try that just for general night time shed use . That sounds like it could be the cause of what I don't like about my LED only lighting .

LED lighting is not without downsides, as its "blue light" dominance has already been strongly linked to retinal damage and sleep disorders. The recommendations coming from researchers is to use "warm white" LED lighting.

"exposure to an intense and powerful [LED] light is 'photo-toxic' and can lead to irreversible loss of retinal cells and diminished sharpness of vision," the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) warned in a statement.

[jmk89]

LED lighting is not without downsides, as its "blue light" dominance has already been strongly linked to retinal damage and sleep disorders. The recommendations coming from researchers is to use "warm white" LED lighting.

"exposure to an intense and powerful [LED] light is 'photo-toxic' and can lead to irreversible loss of retinal cells and diminished sharpness of vision," the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) warned in a statement.

I use warm white for the overhead lighting (t8 tubes) and cool/ blue white for the task lights, so I think this balances the exposure risks and the light issue.

[riverbuilder]

I’ve been using a reasonable quality rechargeable LED head torch, ithas an adjustable beam and intensity, works really well.

[NeilS]

I’ve been using a reasonable quality rechargeable LED head torch, ithas an adjustable beam and intensity, works really well.

I've used the old Planet work lights in the past (the springs eventually weaken and sag) and currently using an adjustable light like this one attached to the headstock so it moves with that. Works OK for me. And using what are supposed to be genuine full spectrum natural lighting globes... I'm not sure if they make sufficient difference given the additional expense.

Like RB, I also use LED head torch when deep hollowing. I attach to the chin of my head visor (not my forehead) to get better position for illumination inside the piece.

Have experimented with mini LED light attached to tool shaft with mixed success.

Yet to try LED strip attached to inside face of toolrest.

Or individual LEDs sitting in holes drilled through toolrest.

[warrick]

This is the setup on my small lathe, does well for pens and eggs

The lights came from Ikea but it looks like they only sell the usb version now. The ones I got had a cast iron base which I removed to mount on the custom brackets.

Rick



66848892_459945587904603_1650505599131058176_n.jpg

[heffa]

I use Ikea Tertial angle poise lamps at a few stations around my workshop, including the lathe. Well built, versatile, cheap and easy to replace. They take standard Edison screw globes, so you can put any sort of lighting you want in them

[WoodShaver]

Got the magnetic gooseneck LED lights from CSW, must say they are perfect I think for what I needed. Something flexible with direct light I can bright down close to the work if I need too, just used it for my first go at turning a pen. Put the 2nd unit on my bandsaw, I can see the settings on my kreg fence now . I must say the leads they use with the plug part way is handy, as it turned out I had extension leads with the same plugs already on them. Perfect!

[woodPixel]

This lathe has the light built in, but it is simply a bendy-lamp.

Ikea sells very good attachable bendy lamps... just bought one for my sons computer desk.

The bulb, however, is super dooper powerful. The most powerful I could find!

These: Philips 1400 lumen...Woolworths Supermarket - Buy Groceries Online

I found the brighter, the better, especially for fine sanding and pen work (polishing). The bendyness allowed me to see fine scratches easily.

lathe.jpg

This setup is a fairly old picture.

[derekcohen]

Got the magnetic gooseneck LED lights from CSW, must say they are perfect I think for what I needed. Something flexible with direct light I can bright down close to the work if I need too, just used it for my first go at turning a pen. Put the 2nd unit on my bandsaw, I can see the settings on my kreg fence now . I must say the leads they use with the plug part way is handy, as it turned out I had extension leads with the same plugs already on them. Perfect!

That is the same light I posted. It is made by Nova.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[jmk89]

Not strictly lathe lighting, but I thought I would put this post here.
I’ve become aware that parts of my workshop seem to be dark spots, and I’ve been looking at ways to improve the lighting cheaply.
I have used LED strip lights which seem to be obtainable on eBay for about $1.00 per metre. To power them, I am using old mobile phone chargers (although the LEDs are rated 12V, anything over 6V seems to make them work sufficiently, at least if the length of the run is less than 2 metres).
My latest installation is over the grinding area, which frankly is a real dark spot and that makes accurate sharpening a challenge! For this installation (which will also run over the nearby scrollsaw, the idea is to use white 32mm class 12 PVC pipe as the holder for the strip.
The photos show one end of the installation:

1. A stub dowel turned to the ID of the pipe is turned and then epoxies and screwed to a wooden plate, which is affixed to the wall.
   IMG_0150.jpg
2. The pipe is cut so that ½ of the circumference is removed where the LEDs will sit, but the ends are left uncut to fit firmly over the stub dowel.
   IMG_0151.jpg
3. One section on.
   IMG_0153 (2).jpg
4. Now the grinding station is no longer the Black Hole of Calcutta!
   IMG_0154 (2).jpg

When I get the rest of this up and running, I'll post some more pictures.

[Cliff Rogers]

I got some of that LED strip lighting to light up a cupboard that I want to turn into a spray booth.

[jmk89]

As promised here are some further photos showing some more details:

1. Here's the old phone charger (I think for a Nokia from over 15 years ago) - it's 12V and as you can see, provides plenty of ergs to provide a good light.
   IMG_0155.JPEG
2. As you can see the cord from the charger has been wrapped loosely around the PVC pipe - this is to reduce the strain on the solder joins to the cables into the LED strip. The cables supplied with the LEDs have been extended and a line socket matching the plug on the charger ($2.45 from Jaycar)has been soldered to the other end of the extensions. If you look closely, you can see the line socket on top of the PVC pipe - makes it easier to reuse the pieces than soldered joints!
   IMG_0156.JPEG
3. The light is in fact three strips in a U-shape with 90 deg bends at the bottom of the U. The LED strips do not like going around corners very much, so I cut them on the little copper solder pads provided, removed the silicone cover and solder "jumper" cables between the strips that enable a the current to flow between the strips and go easily around the corner - also means that you are not lighting and heating the inside of the bends!
   IMG_0157.JPEG
4. If you look closely about 50mm into the brick from the lintel on the left, you can see a screw. To help you, the second photo has the screw circled in red). This holds the bottom of the U in place and reduces the strain on the stub tenons (which are at both of the top ends of the U).
   IMG_0158.jpgIMG_0158_LI.jpg
5. The scroll saw and grinders in all their illuminated glory! Unfortunately, the auto exposure of my iPhone means I can not give you an accurate impression of quite how dim and dingy this area was when just the general overhead fluoro lights were on. In my earlier days I coulds tolerate it, but now I really need to be able to see and I can!
   IMG_0159.JPEG

Total cost? I already had the PVC pipe and the Nokia charger,so the cost came to well less than $20 - 2 x 90 degree PVC elbows, LED strip, 1 x line socket matching the charger plug. Plenty of LEDs, PVC pipe and surplus phone chargers left for lighting up some other dark spots!