WORKSHOP LIGHTING

[John W EParticipant @johnwe]

Hi there

Just a quick question regarding what type of lighting you have in your workshop.

In my shed/workshop outside where I do the big stuff, like making stuff etc. for the house (very rarely) and the occasional boat (often) – I was wondering what everyone has for their lighting.

I tried the L.E.D lighting to replace my 150 wat bulbs and basically I couldnt see the pencil marks I had been drawing on timber, even with my glasses on. I know I do suffer partial sight in my left eye and I need very bright lighting to see anything. So I have now managed to secure some ‘old type’ 150 wat bulbs to try and help me out. Trouble is now, I have a sun tan off the blighters.

What do you recommend?

John

[Charles OatesParticipant @charlesoates31738]

Hi John years ago i had a related problem after getting led bulbs. After a chat in a proper electrical shop i got some

Led bulbs of different colour temperatures. I now use a mixture of daylight and warm white bulbs without any problems

other than my ancient eyes, and two cataract operations have helped that.

Chas

 

[Tim CooperParticipant @timcooper90034]

John

My outside workshop has two 5ft or the metric equivalent LED  tubes.

Desk inside has a LED desk lamp, this allows you to alter the brightness and colour of the light.

Tim

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

John,

I’m with Tim,

With just one working eye, only half the normal amount of light gets i so I need a very strong light.

Your LED bulbs were probably just too weak, it is not easy to get direct LED replacements for the old 150 watt types.

You need something like this:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/4lite-advantage-twin-5ft-led-ip20-batten-40w-4900lm-220-240v/919kk#product_additional_details_container

I also have a shorter one over part of the worktop.

I have just bought a clip on battery powered desk  lamp for close up work, I bought mine from Amazon.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296881136987?_ul=GB

It charges up from a USB port on my computer or probably a USB charger would work too.

Colin

 

 

[Tim CooperParticipant @timcooper90034]

The desk lamp replaced two older desk lights. Ihe light is more even over the desk area.

Lots on Amazon to browse through.

Tim

 

 

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

In my main workshop I have an array of sunken led lamps in the ceiling and additional lamps directly above the workbenches and the kitchen trolley.

When I converted a room for a model railway I used these rails that have six LED lamps mounted in them but are supplied from a simple single cable fitting, so they can be used in existing rooms where you already have a single cable in the ceiling.  They are suppored on the surface in the middle with a couple of additional brackets at either end.

 

 

For the brightest light you can’t beat LEDs, especially bright white lamps.

 

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Richard, that is a luxury apartment masquerading as a workshop!

Colin

[Dave ReedParticipant @davereed72029]

Hi John

I’m with Chas on this one – it could be a light ‘temperature’ issue. Normal filament bulbs are fairly warm, LED’s can be quite cool. It might seem counter intuative but for light bulbs warm light is towards the red end of the visable scale, cool is to the blue end, wheras a red flame is cooler than a blue flame.

I use a 0.5mm propelling pencil and tend to find it’s OK in ply, but on balsa I have to press hard enough to leave a groove to see the mark.

See if you can get some ‘warm’ led’s, it might help.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

There’s the issue of pigment colour as well, (as opposed to light colour).  You can actually buy LED lamps that are supposed to be very close to daylight temperature and therefore display true colours when you look at things on your worktop.  You can buy desk lamps with daylight lamps fitted.  They tend to be towards the white end of the colour temperature scale though, with daylight generally accepted as being in the range of 5000 to 6500k.

[ashley needhamParticipant @ashleyneedham69188]

I have two double bar 6500k strips and 4 single led converted fluorescent tubes in my shed. The 6500k ones are nice and pure white, however I do have a wander lead with a light on for more focused local lighting for fiddly jobs and looking for dropped items.

Ashley

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi All,

I’m late to this one !!  I have a twin fluorescent fitting over the bench at the end of the garage/workshop and I use task lighting much closer to the work to actually see what I’m doing 🙂

I’m always amazed how different folks workshops are as Richard’s is so neat and tidy, I’m sure he never makes a mess, organised chaos probably sums mine up 🙂

Regards Ray

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Years of keeping ship’s Engine Room workshops clean and tidy.  And a good bit of OCD thrown in!

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Wish I could be a bit tidier. My workshop looks very much like Ray’s, basically the work in progress rises steadily on a pile of discarded tools and materials until it threatens to topple over whereupon work in progress is temporarily relocated while a drastic spring clean takes place before the process begins again. Somehow it works. My desk at work used to be very much the same.

Colin

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

I’m naturally tidy but generally fail due to lack of space! I’m using the fourth bedroom which is great, especially in the winter, but it’s also doing duty as general storage etc. and it’s only small so it’s usually a bit of a mess in there. One advantage is having a big window for natural light which is supplemented by a single ceiling light and my LED strip anglepoise I used to use for my drawing board. Lighting could be better and I’ll kook at improving it once I tackle the room at some point, now that my second son has moved out again (he was using two bedrooms) and I’ve got room to move stuff around.

Fortunately the models I’m not actually working on are scattered around the rest of the house under the pretext of them being ornaments and works of art! I do have to run the gauntlet on this from time to time though or cock a deaf ‘un! Especially when my wife asks if there are any rooms that haven’t got boats in them!

The “workroom” isn’t usually this bad but I’ve just quickly moved stuff out of the back bedroom which we’re going to use during this warm weather. This room has a nice display of mainly Faireys!

Chris

 

 

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

That’s more like it Chris, but very organised 🙂 as I now share the house with my 19 year old grandson George who has just finished his welding apprenticeship 🙂 the third bedroom in the west wing was my office , but now my junk and boat storage, my design studio is the conservatory and is great for natural light 🙂

Regards Ray

[John W EParticipant @johnwe]

hi there

well this has given us all food for thought – our workshop areas – I am lucky as I was able to negotiate usage of the spare bedroom with me better half.  This is where all of the (shall we say) attempted model making takes place.  This is in a similar look to the chaotic mess and sort of envious and look in awe at the tidiness of some workshops.  The one I wanted the lighting for is my shed outside – where I have machines – circular saw, lathe & etc which I require really strong lighting to use.  One slip on the circular saw and one would be minus finger & goodness knows what.  A 15 inch diameter blade with tungsten carbide teeth cannot tell the difference between fingers and wood.

I think I am going to go down the path of LED stiplight to give an overall lighting affect.   Where I have the machines, I am going to have some form of dedicated spotlight over them.

To change the subject a bit & thank you for your kind comments about my back – but here is a twist of the tale and a cautionary word to those of us of a certain age who do the overnight trots to the toilet for the waterworks.   I was prescribed by my Dr to use Tramadol pain killers for the pain in my back – unbeknown to me though – this shuts down the old waterworks, which, it did do to me.   So I had a pretty hectic couple of days but all being well it has settled back to normal – so, if you are ever prescribed Tramadol or similar painkillers make sure it doesn’t have an interaction with your waterworks.

John

 

 

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

You never know when the drug you are taking to relieve one thing has the effect of messing up something else.  And the more drugs you take the more things get messed around with.  I somehow suspect that most of us are affected one way or another.

Interesting to see that many use spare bedrooms as workshops.  I might have an all singing and dancing space but it is in a totally separate building and when I’m called for mealtimes, bad weather is not considered mitigating circumstances for being late!  Mind you I have thought of putting a bed in the workshop……and so has the missis!

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

You never know when the drug you are taking to relieve one thing has the effect of messing up something else. And the more drugs you take the more things get messed around with. I somehow suspect that most of us are affected one way or another.

All too true Richard and something that works for one person doesn’t necessarily have the same effect on another.

Whilst you still have your wits about you it really pays off to manage your own personal conditions medications etc. as much as possible on the basis that what works best for you. One thing I have learned over the last few years is not to rely on the NHS to do the best for you. Sometimes they do and are great, other times they fall a long way short. The NHS is like the proverbial curate’s egg – good in parts! I have experienced both.

Colin

 

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