Question About Lighting

PluggedNickel said:

I have a magnifier circle light, and and overhead Flood light. Both are on expanding extending arms that can rotate. Plus overhead LED shop light. Also natural light from the basement window.

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Looks like a sweet setup!

oldwood said:

When I go into my shop , I put a 2.5 power binocular magnifier on my head. My old eyes need plenty of light and magnification to work properly. My neighbor installs those giant food coolers in grocery stores , and has replaced most of my overhead fluorescent lights , with the light bars he removes from obsolete food coolers. I have to close my eyes to turn them on , as the light intensity , and quantity is shocking to me , when first igniting them. Think they are LED bars. Just wish I had them 30 yrs ago. I still have one articulating arm incandescent lamp over my work bench , and one more above my engraving , and carving area. I solidly position an assembled gun using 3 , 25 lb. bags of shotgun BB's holding the gun in any way I need to carve , or engrave. Beneath the gun , the bench top is avg. thickness house carpeted , which again , with the bags of shot , makes everything very stable.

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I found on ebay led lights for my opti-visor no I can't live without it

Something everyone needs on their bench is a small powerful flashlight. You would be surprised how handy they are, especially if you do gunsmithing on modern arms. Harbor Freight has three for cheap.

CascadeRob said:

Looks like a sweet setup!

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Thanks. It works for my 71 year old eyes at least.

I hear a lot of comments about strong fill lighting. I would suggest using directional lighting. It will reveal all of your mistakes.

James Kibler said:

I hear a lot of comments about strong fill lighting. I would suggest using directional lighting. It will reveal all of your mistakes.

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I believe that’s the direction I want to go. Having an architect light to move around looks easy to use in your videos. Jim do you still recommend an incandescent bulb? Or have you found any LED bulbs that work just as well?

I have found that too much light is just as bad if not worse than not enough.
Too much and I find it very fatiguing on my eyes.
My current set up is with 2 inexpensive 4’ LED shop lights from Home Depot set perpendicular to my bench.
Not overwhelming and minimal shadowing.
I always have a SureFire pocket light available as well.

For wood finishing, LED lights are absolutely terrible. I have a couple portable utility lamps and a mounted swivel-arm lamp all equipped with incandescent bulbs to supplement the overhead florescent shop light. LED light just doesn't qive the right quality of light. I've got a box full of old incandescent bulbs. Enough to last me until I'm too old and decrepit to do wood finishing.

wiscoaster said:

For wood finishing, LED lights are absolutely terrible. I have a couple portable utility lamps and a mounted swivel-arm lamp all equipped with incandescent bulbs to supplement the overhead florescent shop light. LED light just doesn't qive the right quality of light. I've got a box full of old incandescent bulbs. Enough to last me until I'm too old and decrepit to do wood finishing.

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Haha sounds good. So what you’re saying is try and get some incandescent bulbs.

Couple fluorescent 4 tube lights on the ceiling is good , especially if you do polishing , belt sanding , and grinding. Add a work bench , and an articulating light on the bench. Might be enough. I prefer a head magnifier , , as the ones on a stand are a PITA , never being where needed , and have to be moved . Building a rifle is a dynamic operation. One minute looking at one area , then to another. Stand magnifiers are not handy for this.

CascadeRob said:

Haha sounds good. So what you’re saying is try and get some incandescent bulbs.

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They are actually still sold as "rough service" bulbs, which a "loophole" in the ban permits (as I've been told, but not verified). But, they are pricey.

CascadeRob said:

I believe that’s the direction I want to go. Having an architect light to move around looks easy to use in your videos. Jim do you still recommend an incandescent bulb? Or have you found any LED bulbs that work just as well?

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In one of Jim's build videos he explains the benefits of incandescent light bulbs for direct lighting and the use of architectural/adjustable stands.

CascadeRob said:

If you had to replace that incandescent with an LED what bulb would you go for?

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nope! I had to hunt times long gone to find this one! throws a completely different light then LED's.
we have been off grid here for 30 years and everything else except my slide projector is LED.

wiscoaster said:

They are actually still sold as "rough service" bulbs, which a "loophole" in the ban permits (as I've been told, but not verified). But, they are pricey.

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I had the chance to buy a big pack of them a year ago. I kinda regret not buying them.

deerstalkert said:

nope! I had to hunt times long gone to find this one! throws a completely different light then LED's.
we have been off grid here for 30 years and everything else except my slide projector is LED.

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Do you think a 2700k bulb would be “close” to an incandescent? I’ve read it is, I know there is no one-all solution but if I can’t find incandescent bulbs, or pay out the ear for one, I’d like a good alternative. It seems most dislike LEDs for this close up work.

i don't know about the 2700k bulbs but led casts a different spectrum of light it seems and when i am doing finish work i take the stock etc. out into the sunlight with a soft pencil and circle all the holiday's in my work. could also just be my eye balls.

deerstalkert said:

i don't know about the 2700k bulbs but led casts a different spectrum of light it seems and when i am doing finish work i take the stock etc. out into the sunlight with a soft pencil and circle all the holiday's in my work. could also just be my eye balls.

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Roger that. Thank you for your insight!

I use Led shop lights on the cieling. I use LED adhesive strip as undercabinet light. I used 90* bend flashing to make a reflector.

Keep in mind that most LED lights produce powerful radio interference. I you care about that, you can change the supplied transformer for a better one. Transformers sold for medical use, a CPAP transformer for instance, will not ruin your radio reception.

For all actual work, filing, carving checkering, and such, I use strong point source light. I do that with clamp on reflector lights that use regular bulbs. I do prefer incandescent bulbs for those. When those all burn out led spot lights are good. I do not like the super bright white LED lights.

Regular led bulbs that you might use in a lamp have a plastic globe. You can remove that globe to make it better for a point source.

I have the a magnifier with a ring light around the lens. I have had two, they were both useless for gun work. They are fine for picking a splinter and that kind of thing.

A magnifier worn on ones head and low angle side lighting is the way to go for fine work.

lot of good thoughts that I have not thought about

Too many years of doing small fine work.