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  #1  
Old 01-10-2019, 12:59 AM
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Task lighting?

What are some of you using for your locallized area lighting set-up's?

I have a few swing arm lamps with 5500K LED bulbs and one 18" fluorescent but I'm looking to find some other options for better illumination. Would like to see what some of you have setup at your work area/benches.


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Old 01-11-2019, 07:45 AM
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Lighting types are very important in your shop.....particularly if you attend knife shows around the country. The reason? Different type of light show different things.... incandescent, florescent, halogen, sodium vapor, etc.

For example, if you have a shop with mostly the old style, yellowish colored florescent lighting, build you knives there, and then display them in a venue that hosts halogen or sodium vapor lights..... it'll be UGLY! I learned it the hard way.
I have various type of light bulbs in the shop, so I can examine my work BEFORE going into those types of lighting.

As for my shop(s)..... last year I tore out all the old 8" florescent fixtures/bulbs, and purchased/installed 6500K LED strip lights..... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

When it comes to benches and machines, I have "swing arm" lights all over the place. Each is equipped with a 6000-6500K LED "Daylight" bulb. I never pay retail for any of the swing arm lights..... usually in the summer months you can stumble into a yard sale, and find them for just a couple of bucks each.


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Old 01-11-2019, 02:35 PM
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So true Ed!

The different lighting invariably comes up at a show. Rub a blade to get under a different light to see a coarse grit.

Before I would keep the garage door partway open to allow sunlight but the privacy and security aspect I began working with the door down. The Asian Tiger mosquito also became a more annoying past in '17 so another reason the door is down. I need to supplement the illumination in there.

The Kydex area is the one I'm setting up now. This is in a part of the shop that is not under my usual lighting so I have a hard time seeing there. Costco has those shop LED fixtures though want to say they are 4000K. I've not liked that warm white look generally.

Ikea had those swing arm desk lamps for $12 but I need more height than what those offer. Will take in Home Depot to see what options may work.


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Old 01-12-2019, 05:38 AM
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I have limited space so I opted out on all but one swing arm for my leather stitcher (Tippman). I have a magnet based gooseneck - kind with a lever release that I use most everywhere else. It mounts solid on the kmg arm for grinding, saw deck when cutting, vise when working on something there. Use the newer led bulb so plenty of light, only draw back is having a cord sometimes gets aggravating. It has proven very handy.
I also have shop lights all over for general lighting that I plan to replace with the LEDs sometime this year as Ed has done, just got to find the time to stop and do it.


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Old 01-12-2019, 01:25 PM
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I like the LED type bulbs. The power company sends messages how "inefficient" or relative to my bill how my neighbors are. 95% of the lighting in the house is now LED from 9W or so. A few 4' fluorescent tubes still exist here and those are on the list to be updated.


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Old 01-25-2019, 08:38 PM
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Saw this retrofit kit on the Home Depot site, price looks good at $17 per pair:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/ETi-15-W...6165/306701765

The other day picked up a 4000K LED shop light from Costco, it is quite bright at the listed 4000 lumens. I don't particularly like the color temp since the prior fixture was 5K-5500K fluorescent. Online is a two pack though in store they have singles:
https://www.costco.com/Feit-4%27-Lin...100462723.html

I'm pretty amazed how watt efficient LED is, can basically halve all the watts in the current lights and more. I have not been able to discern additional electricity usage on consistent shop days in a monthly statement though. The shop lights usually run 4-6 hours.


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Old 01-26-2019, 06:31 AM
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Mike - thanks for posting this. Very good info.


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  #8  
Old 01-31-2019, 08:50 PM
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Home Depot also has these that are direct replacement for some ballast types of fixtures:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-...2910/303040479

Maybe this weekend I'll set some time aside to play.


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Old 02-05-2019, 09:33 PM
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The old T12 fixtures (made in USA) were not compatible with the new T8 instant start 6500K LED bulbs. Lowes has some economy shop lights so I picked up one fixture to test:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Lithonia-Li...-in/1000410159

These T8 LED 6500K bulbs but in a 4 pack at $19.98:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-48-in-Me...ack/1000258419

16 pack $68.92:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-LED-32-W...ack/1000460125

Total cost per fixture is about $26 with bulbs.

Made no sense to me to buy a new ballast at $14-$28 per for this. Granted these will not be the higher line ballasts that will last 20-30 years, they are disposable. Will convert the old fixtures to direct driven bulbs. The output of the new LED bulbs is sufficiently bright that I don't feel it is necessary for my work area to supplement with area task lights.

If you are interested these desk lamps at $13 from Ikea:
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60424987/

These are the bulbs I have in other fixtures:

60watt
https://www.feit.com/products/bulbs/...00-850-10kled/

75 watt
https://www.feit.com/products/bulbs/...immable-led-2/

Costco has these in 10 packs and they come on in store sales/they aren't listed in the mailers.


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Last edited by M&J; 02-05-2019 at 11:02 PM. Reason: additional info and edit
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Old 02-11-2019, 01:48 AM
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Well so much for converting these 20+ year old fixtures over. They were magnetic ballasts and the tombstones were budget jobbers that came molded into the plastic end plates. They also had aluminum wiring. Not much for me to do on these fixtures unfortunately. I plan on donating the working ones to my neighbor.


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Old 02-15-2019, 02:55 PM
Larry Peterson Larry Peterson is offline
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Friends, I have started using the 500K lumin "LED Corn Light". It requires an adapter for the socket which is available on "Amazon" It uses 150 watts of electricity but is superior for total shop lighting. plan to add two more LED Corn lights to other areas of the shop. I can do a much better job of finishing with the added light. I also use 5x prescription glasses. As you can tell I am an old man and my eyesight is not the same as when I was a "Young Buckaroo."

I hope this might be of same value. Thanx, LP
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Old 05-25-2019, 01:24 AM
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This is a nice time of year for electricity being pretty mild. The utility bill now that I've got the whole shop on LED has dropped roughly $4-6/month depending how long I'm out there. The 48" fixtures prior were running 2x40 watts so now that they are LED each fixture is about 22 watts now. The task lights are 8.8 watts so halved from the flourescent bulbs that were in there.

I'm pretty please to hit tier 1 electricity. With summer I'll be in the upper tier 2 levels.


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