Adding lighting to a router

[Jamie Buxton]

I find it difficult to see in under my router to where the bit is cutting. There's no light in there. For years I've been wearing a headlamp to try to get enough light in there to see what I'm doing. It doesn't work very well. I finally found a way to mount lighting to the underside of the router body. Here's a pic of the improved router, showing plenty of light.

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The key component in this upgrade is a device called a ring light or a halo light. Here's the one I used. It is about 2 9/16" outside diameter. The 15 little yellow blobs are LEDs. Ring lights are used to dress up cars. They outline and accent headlights. This one cost about $5 from www.superbrightleds.com.

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To mount it to my router, I made a plywood adapter. It fastens to the router through screw holes that were already in the router. The ring light is inlaid into the plywood, and held in place with a cover of packing tape. The plywood and tape offer some protection against flying chips, and the wrenches used to tighten the collet.

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Here's a pic of the ring light lit.

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The light wants 12 VDC. I velcro'd a 12 volt rechargeable battery to the top of the router. It can be removed for charging. The battery is rated at 1800 ma-hr, which provides a day's worth of light. I really need only a couple of hours, so this battery is overkill, but it was the smallest I could find. The battery plus charger cost $18 off Ebay and Amazon and the like.

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Much better!

[Van Huskey]

Best lighting option I have seen for a OF1010/1400. It has me thinking since I have the hose and power cord in a hose sleeve I could run a wire from a 12v supply with the hose as well, a quick connector and I wouldn't have to deal with batteries.

Thanks

[Darcy Warner]

I like it.

[Vijay Kumar]

Hi Jamie great concept and execution. Would you mind posting a link to the actual LEDs or please send me a pm with the link. Also would appreciate a link to he battery source.
Thanks.

Vijay

[Van Huskey]

I'm guessing it is this one: https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-headlight-accent-lights/led-halo-angel-eye-headlight-accent-lights/49/

Based on LEDs and size it should be the 60mm version

[Larry Frank]

Excellent idea and I am going to look into it.

[Peter Kuhlman]

Yea - but - is the green light Festool Green? :D

Now you got me thinking about this great idea. Might even have a 12 volt power supply in my stash.
Thanks!

[Jamie Buxton]

I think this approach can be used to put light under any mid-size router. Probably the 60 mm ring will fit; mid-size routers are pretty much the same physical size. However, you'll need to figure out your own mounting scheme -- maybe something like my wooden mounting plate, but sculpted to fit your router.

And, yes, you can choose another power scheme. On the whole, I thought that the battery was the simple way to go. But that's your choice.

And Peter, yes, you could use colored LEDs. They even make these rings with three colors of LEDs, and there are controllers that make color patterns that chase each other around the ring. Psychedelia, amidst the sawdust.

[Edwin Santos]

Brilliant! Very illuminating post. Thank you for the all-around bright idea.

I was going to try and solve the same problem in a much more primitive way but you've LED me to a much more elegant solution.

Seriously, this is a very clever idea. I wasn't aware of these LED rings. Looking beyond tool lighting, I had been thinking about making some light fixtures, pendant style, using low voltage LED strips for the guts. There are endless opportunities to show off wood and joinery in a light fixture. Thank you,

[Frank Pratt]

Easy there...


Brilliant! Very illuminating post. Thank you for the all-around bright idea.

[Bruce Page]

Nicely done, very clean installation! Light is good. I added a light ring from Superbrightleds to the dust boot of my cnc router that allows me to look in from the top and see what's going on.

[Chris Padilla]

If you are handy with a soldering iron, you can mount strip LEDs in any shape or amount of LEDs you like.

Excellent idea!!

[Robert LaPlaca]

I love it..

[Ben Rivel]

This is the best light Ive seen so far added to a Festool OF 1010 (LINK (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmtln_Hstic)), but it is certainly not for the faint of heart.

[David Ragan]

If you are handy with a soldering iron, you can mount strip LEDs in any shape or amount of LEDs you like.

Excellent idea!!

Great!

Been wondering for some time how to accomplish this. The big router seems easy enough.

Now, will need to fashion a small ring/lights for the Colt. I guess the web site above (went there already) has tech help on everything I'll need.

Thank you for this post.

[Jamie Buxton]

If you are handy with a soldering iron, you can mount strip LEDs in any shape or amount of LEDs you like.

Excellent idea!!

I've used LED tape to illuminate under kitchen cabinet uppers. It does work well there. But it is inherently straight. It wouldn't form into a nice circle shape, which is kinda what the shape is under a router body. But you could use short segments to form a rectangularish shape, or maybe a hexagon. That *should* work.

Tapes have minimum cut lengths, so you can't just cut them into arbitrarily short lengths. The one I have at hand has cut markings at roughly six inch intervals. I think the intervals encompass three LEDs, so if you want short segments you should buy high LED-per-foot tape.

[Keith Outten]

Microfence is selling a couple of router LED ring lights with very nice battery options on their web site.
BTW Microfence is sponsoring the current FreeStuff Drawing, make sure you enter to win.............

[Bill Dufour]

Also very useful on a drillpress. Umbrella lamp is another search term.
Bill D

[John McKissick]

Very clever and nice idea. Fortunately my Bosch has a decent LED light already

[johnny means]

I've never felt like my routers needed a light, but I will be adopting this idea for use in my Domino joiner.

[Bruce Page]

Microfence is selling a couple of router LED ring lights with very nice battery options on their web site.
BTW Microfence is sponsoring the current FreeStuff Drawing, make sure you enter to win.............
The new light rings are cool. Microfence used to sell small battery powered LED’s. I added two of them to my shop made plunge base several years ago. They work well but their new light ring would be much better.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

Very good implementation.

I was one of the celtics that believed a such LEDs was simply gimmicky. When I got my Bosch router GOF 1600 (Bosch MRC23EVSK in the US) that includes illumination I discovered I was wrong. I loved that lights both to bring light for my work area as well as a warning it is plugged so now I do not have the risk to try change bits when it is plugged.

Recommended.

[Izzy Charo]

The LED light rings look like a great addition! I've been searching for one that looks like it might fit on my Bosch Colt (the older one, without the LEDs) and can't find one. If anyone has rigged up a light for the Colt please let us know!
Thanks!

[Jamie Buxton]

The LED light rings look like a great addition! I've been searching for one that looks like it might fit on my Bosch Colt (the older one, without the LEDs) and can't find one. If anyone has rigged up a light for the Colt please let us know!
Thanks!

I don't happen to have a Colt available. What diameter would fit?

Here is a page with rings as small as 60 mm OD. https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/led-halo-rings/ That's about 2 3/8". Would that fit?

[Derek Cohen]

I have ordered two of the 60mm rings for the Makitas I have. They are a perfect size to fit directly under the housing. However, this area has open fins to the motor. I assume that this must be to aid in cooling ... ? I cannot imagine that air goes “in”, as this would fill the motor with dust. Does air (?) goes “out” .. ? What would transpire if the fin area was covered by the light ring? Any other place to fit the ring?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jamie Buxton]

Dunno your routers, but some are built to blow air from the motor on to the area where the bit is making dust. If the router is being used handheld in the common position, this means the air is blowing down on to the work area, and blowing dust out of your way when you're trying to watch what you're cutting. (If the router is being used upsidedown in a router table, this means that the router is blowing air and dust up into your face. Not so good...)