Lighting above the lathe

[Adam Petersen]

Any suggestions on overhead lighting above the lathe? I need more light and was at Menards looking at T8 fixtures, LED fixtures, etc. I have 10' garage ceilings. I really want something bright and clear, daylight color frame. Any suggestions or things to stay away from?

Thanks,

Adam

[Bob Bouis]

With light, it's the more the better. But it decreases in intensity exponentially the further you get from the source, so there's no substitute for task lighting (i.e., a light that's just a foot or two from the thing you're looking at). If you have 1000 foot candles at 1', you get 250 at 2' and just 28 at 6'.

[Dok Yager]

Adam I just got a couple of the LED 2 bulb fixtures 2 X 4 ft from Costco that were on sale last month. WOW what a Huge difference! Lots of really great light. and I have a 4 bulb troffer just 2 feet back from my lathe on my lights circuit. Just put 4 new LED bulbs in one of my other fixtures above my work bench eliminating the ballast and WOW. Worth every penny as far as I am concerned.

[Bob Bergstrom]

I have two 4 ft. LEDs lights above my lathe. They were under $25 a piece and I believe they are 3,300 lumens each. There are 4 strips of LEDs parallel to the ways. Daylight bright with a frosted plastic cover. I have converted my Moffit light to LED also. I removed the metal reflector and screwed a small 3" spot light. Puts a lot of light right where you want it.

[John K Jordan]

Any suggestions on overhead lighting above the lathe? I need more light and was at Menards looking at T8 fixtures, LED fixtures, etc. I have 10' garage ceilings. I really want something bright and clear, daylight color frame. Any suggestions or things to stay away from?

Adam, I am a proponent of using several small lights over the lathe rather than fewer long lights like long fluorescent fixtures. I have found that the more diffuse light from long fixtures on the ceiling (or worse, indirect lighting) makes a more diffuse light on the piece. While this nicely lights up the whole area, the diffuse light has a couple of disadvantages.

One, it tends to hide subtle scratches - a scratch with a glancing light may have the bottom in a shadow where a diffuse light tends to fill in the scratch and make it a little harder to see. (If I can't see it, I can't fix it)

Second, diffuse lights make it harder to judge the compound surfaces of a piece. "Point" light sources, such as from smaller light fixtures, make the surfaces and turning defects in the curves harder to see (such as a little "flat" area or inflection in an otherwise smooth curve).

Along with that, diffuse lighting can hide turning defects such as very shallow ripples in the bottom of a bowl or platter. Smaller light sources can help reveal ripples by highlighting some point on each ripple. When I see an otherwise beautiful piece at club "show-and-tell" sessions I always wonder if the ripples are there because they were nearly invisible on the lathe. BTW, one thing I do for ripple/defect detection is after sanding, take the piece still in the chuck OFF the lathe and look at it while turning it various ways in my hands. Once I didn't do that and almost burned a piece that didn't show some shallow ripples until after it was oiled and removed from the chuck. (Saved that one with hand scrapers.)

I do have some very bright long T5 fluorescent fixtures on the ceiling high above my lathes. However, I turn those off and instead use a number of smaller lights in adjustable fixtures. I use a combination of LED, CFL, and incandescent bulbs since I also like the color balance dimension. I move these lights around as needed.

When I built the shop I wired a number of 110v receptacles for these that I turn on with a single switch. (In the pictures below the wires and receptacles are mostly tucked out of the way and hidden by the plywood lip hanging on the fronts of the small shelves. A good place to mount magnets, too!)

I think I have 5 light fixtures like this over the primary lathe. (The overhead fluorescents are on in this photo. I wired the overhead fluorescents directly over each lathe on it's own switch so I can turn it on or off without turning off the other lights in the room.)

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and it looks like maybe 4 over a second lathe:

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BTW, a strong flashlight beam held at various angles to the work can also be a great way to reveal scratches and judge surfaces. Edit: for those who don't know, I should mention that applying a fast-drying liquid to a sanded surface will also help to show sanding and surface defects. I use naptha for this - any scratches are far more obvious, surface curvature defects are easier to see because of the highlights, and the naptha dries very quickly and leaves nothing behind.

JKJ

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Any suggestions on overhead lighting above the lathe? I need more light and was at Menards looking at T8 fixtures, LED fixtures, etc. I have 10' garage ceilings. I really want something bright and clear, daylight color frame. Any suggestions or things to stay away from?

Thanks,

Adam

I also have 10 foot ceilings, there are 10 Compact fluorescence on there, good for overall lighting, above the lathes is a double 8 foot fluorescence fixture and then I have 4 of those desk lamps with LED lamps that I can get right up close and one with a 5” magnifying lens in it for seeing the small stuff.

Bought the desk lamps at Sally Ann for just a couple of bucks each, they are really handy to easily adjust them at the right heigth and angle, and the LEDs don’t get hot like the lamps I used to have in them.

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[Bob Bouis]

I recently redid my task lighting on the cheap setup. Took a couple industrial sewing machine lamps and mounted them on a 2x4 attached to the wall with an old door hinge.

So much for repainting the wall, though.

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[Adam Petersen]

Wonderful input, thank you everyone. I see I'm not too far off base with what I currently have, I just need some more of it. I'll let you know how I end up.

One thing I have done to help with hollowing out is to wear an led headlamp. I feel okay doing that since I am usually so far out of the LOF doing that. I still wear quality eye pro and my eclipse mask too which offers some minimal protection, but the light set right where my eyes are looking is great, and I can barely feel it. Anyone else do that?

[John K Jordan]

One thing I have done to help with hollowing out is to wear an led headlamp. I feel okay doing that since I am usually so far out of the LOF doing that.

I haven't used a head lamp for turning but I might give it a try. What brand do you like the best? I do keep a bright Fenix light handy for looks inside a piece. I tried an inspection camera once but there wasn't really anything I needed to see that I couldn't feel with the tool.

One place I've always felt didn't get enough light at the lathe was right in the front! A lamp there would get in the way. One day I invented The Amazing JKJ Strap-On Belly Lamp but it hasn't caught on yet. Hey, maybe move "up" in the world with chest or shoulder lamps. Or a Tool Rest lamp. :-)

BTW, I found a head lamp was great for spelunking but the flat lighting was a bit of a tripping hazard. With the light coming from right at the eyes, irregularities on the cave floor lost their shadows and the depth cues. I did use the headlamp a lot underground, especially when climbing, but I always supplemented it with a bright light held low to accentuate the shadows. I have the same problem here on the farm at night but at least most of my rounds are on known smooth trails.

And for the lathe, I forgot to mention: my new favorite lamp is the biggest one Ken Rizza sells. I use one at each lathe, bandsaw, sharping station, milling machine, and photo booth. Very powerful magnetic base and long gooseneck. Where there is not a convenient steel surface to mount it, I just cut a piece out of 1/4" steel plate and fasten it to the wall with screws. This is the model - the gooseneck is longer than it looks in this picture.

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Woodturners Wonders. http://woodturnerswonders.com/collections/lamps/products/super-nova-lathe-lamp

JKJ

[john snowdon]

+1 for the Super Nova LED lathe light John just mentioned. I saw Barry Gross use it during a demo at the New England Woodworking show this past weekend and bought it. I think Ken actually developed the light. I went to the show hoping to buy a lathe light and this one was absolutely the best I found.I woke up Sunday with a monster head cold so I have not turned anything with it yet but I did set it up Saturday night with a bowl I am going to return now that it's dry. I was very pleased with the difference compared to the LED light currently on the lathe. The color temperature is much higher on the Super Nova (maybe 6,000k +?) vs the "warm" LED I already have. The older I get the more light I need so now I will use both until I finally decide to move the "warm" light to my band saw and buy a 2nd Super Nova for the lathe.

[Mike Goetzke]

About 6 years ago (before my turning itch) I replaced my T10's with T8's in my garage shop. I also added two halogen 4' fixtures. I was impressed with the brightness difference but the halogens act like bug zappers in the summer and smell up the garage. About 4 weeks ago I was in Sam's and they had a special event where they had 4' LED fixtures rated at 4,500 lumens for $27. I bought a few and WOW what a difference. At the lathe I built some of the LED lights using the $10 IKEA light but later bought the "Super Nova" from Rizza and couldn't be happier.

Mike

[Justin Stephen]

I use the Aurora light from Vince rather than the Super Nova, but only because I already had a Moffatt as well. The Aurora is a single 5-watt LED instead of 3 3-watt LEDs, but it is otherwise nearly identical including its rather amazing magnetic base. I use the Moffatt for broad task lighting and the Aurora for more targeted task lighting. I sometimes bolster with a cheap IKEA floorlamp as well but usually do not need to since I got the Aurora. If the Moffatt ever dies, I'll probably replace with the Super Nova. The neck on the Aurora/Super Nova is way more flexible than the Moffatt neck.

Another option to consider, and one that I have been toying around with for awhile, is to get what is called an LED dock light and mount it on the wall near the lathe.

[Bob Bouis]

I got an InnoGear 5000 headlamp from Amazon a while back. Though I doubt it really puts out 5000 lumens, it is spectacularly bright. It comes with large-form rechargeable batteries that give it way more brightness and working time than the ones that take AAA batteries. It is a bit heavy and you couldn't use it for jogging, but it's a bargain at $25 or whatever it cost.

The sewing machine lamps cost about $15 each and they can be mounted to anything you can drill a hole in. The only issue I've had is that the switches occasionally get jammed up with dust. The neck is shorter than the "Supernova" lamp (22" vs 30") but they're twice as bright if you use a 100-watt equivalent bulb.

[Roger Chandler]

For my lathe area, I have a 4 foot florescent double tube shop light with daylight tubes directly over the lathe at about 7 ft. Height mounted on the rafter collar tie. I also have a desk style articulated swing arm lamp that can be placed anywhere along the lathe axis, and just a few months ago, I got a KJR- Aurora LED lamp with magnetic base which will attach on the lathe anywhere I want it, but I mostly keep it attached to the headstock. It has a very stable flexable neck, and has 550 lumens, which gives plenty of bright light for hollowing and seeing the fine scratches one would easily miss with poor lighting.

In two days I get cataract surgery on my dominant eye, so that should help with the seeing as well!

[Dennis Peacock]

I use my general shop lighting as well as my task lighting....I use task lights like Leo and others via the articulated swing arm lamps.

[bob starkey]

Industrial sewing machine lamps with led bulbs set up on my lathe

[Richard Dooling]

4" Costco LED for diffuse light, a couple of movable spots and Ken Rizza's Super Nova lamp. It was hard to justify the expense but now I wish I had done this earlier.

Besides, I didn't buy it. Santa did.

[Adam Petersen]

JKJ, no particular brand of headlamp. I bought a cheapo 2-pack of LED ones from EBay's daily deal section. I wanted to give it a try before I put real money down on a headlamp. These work well right now, they have the pivoting head to adjust the vertical angle to where you want it. They throw typical LED light and are pretty bright. I will probably look at a better headlamp once these die. Something that has a zoom lens. Can't go wrong with Fenix brand though, very underrated light in my opinion. I carry one every day and it is my go to light at work. I'll have to see if they sell headlamps.....

[Adam Petersen]

Update - I decided to use task oriented lighting and forgo the ceiling hung T8's or LEDs. I have 3 T8 fixtures and I moved one from my miter saw area and mounted it at an angle above my lathe and put in 6500K "daylight" bulbs. These seem to be much brighter. I also went and got some 100W LED bulbs for my desk lamps that I use for task lighting. I have one on my dust collector to the right and now I have one on the left. I turned down a pine dowel and drilled a 1/2" hole in it to accept the stud on the bottom of one of the desk lamps. I now have a reason for having the swing-arm attachment on my lathe! Easily removed and set aside for outboard turning if I ever do need the swing away though. For now though it gives me a lot of flexibility on the left side for lighting. I also purchased one more of these lamps just to have in case I need more light for a particular project. Otherwise it will stay on my bench for task lighting there. That, coupled with 300W CFL fixtures in the main lighting and I seem to get enough light. This was looked at during the daytime, so I'll revisit it after the sun sets, although I only have one window out there. Here's a pic. Thanks for everyone's input on this, it was a big help and saved me some money by not just going out and throwing cash at the problem. 351930

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Wonderful input, thank you everyone. I see I'm not too far off base with what I currently have, I just need some more of it. I'll let you know how I end up.

One thing I have done to help with hollowing out is to wear an led headlamp. I feel okay doing that since I am usually so far out of the LOF doing that. I still wear quality eye pro and my eclipse mask too which offers some minimal protection, but the light set right where my eyes are looking is great, and I can barely feel it. Anyone else do that?

Not a headlamp, but you could stick LEDs to the toolrest, get the light right up close or even inside the turning :).

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[Steve Arnold]

I have the 4' LED shop light that I bought from Costco mounted over my workbench and I'm as pleased as can be with it. I used to have a 4' fluorescent fixture mounted there and every so often I'd have to change the tubes. I'm so glad I made the switch because the light is brighter and whiter than ever before.

As for my lathe light, I also have Ken Rizza's Super Nova Lamp mounted on my lathe and it works great. If I were forced to criticize one thing about it, it would be that the light it emits is somewhat directional, and doesn't cover a very wide area so I do have to redirect it quite often to 'just the right spot.' This is a very minor gripe and I would never go back to my old flood style lamp.

[Aaron Craven]

For general area lighting over my lathe, I found some LED shop lights at Costco (they look like fluorescent shop lights) that are very bright and pretty close to a daylight balance. They also have the advantage of being quite affordable and energy efficient. I have one hanging from the ceiling about 7' above the floor directly over my lathe and it provides plenty of overhead light. Of course, a few task lights are still necessary for getting light at odd angles (such as the interior of a bowl).

[Ted Calver]

If you think your eyes are going bad because you have a ceiling full of fluorescent fixtures and still have difficulty seeing, you might be experiencing light loss from fixture and lumen depreciation. Fixtures get dirty and lose some of their reflectivity over time. Tubes also get dusty and dirty, plus they produce less light as they age. If you've been running the same tubes for several years and they haven't been replaced because they failed, it's probably time to replace the whole bunch. You will be surprised at the difference.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

If you think your eyes are going bad because you have a ceiling full of fluorescent fixtures and still have difficulty seeing, you might be experiencing light loss from fixture and lumen depreciation. Fixtures get dirty and lose some of their reflectivity over time. Tubes also get dusty and dirty, plus they produce less light as they age. If you've been running the same tubes for several years and they haven't been replaced because they failed, it's probably time to replace the whole bunch. You will be surprised at the difference.

Yes as Ted says, wash those tubes with some soapy water and reinstall them, you will be surprised by the increase of light given off, and if that doesn’t do it, it’s time to replace them.

[Dave Mueller]

If your lathe is close to the wall, look at using a loading dock light mounted over the lathe. Although they are a bit more pricey, they typically have a 40" reach, are adjustable to any angle and you can replace the bulb on most of them to pick the wattage. Search for "loading dock light".

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[John K Jordan]

If your lathe is close to the wall, look at using a loading dock light mounted over the lathe. Although they are a bit more pricey, they typically have a 40" reach, are adjustable to any angle and you can replace the bulb on most of them to pick the wattage. Search for "loading dock light".

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Now THAT looks sturdy! I found some on Amazon like that. I also found some models with more articulation that might be even more useful at the lathe, possibly mounted on the ceiling, called "swing arm" dock lights.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0184DKAF4

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[Adam Petersen]

Now THAT looks sturdy! I found some on Amazon like that. I also found some models with more articulation that might be even more useful at the lathe, possibly mounted on the ceiling, called "swing arm" dock lights.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0184DKAF4

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Need to find a dental office that is remodeling!