Lights

[Paul M. Kaplowitz]

I have two lights over my lathes and I hate them. They have two metal arms held together with small bolts that loosen and four springs that break. Shavings get up around the bulb and start to smoke. I tried the $10 LED lights from Ikea, not bright enough. Any suggestons? Thanks

 

[Matt Lewis]

Lamps

Paul,

Your lights sorta sound like these, but I bought mine at Wal-mart for about $9 each. I remove the base and drill a hole in a block of wood that I fasten to the pegboard on the wall behind my lathe (keeps them off of the lathe and out of my way). They use 60 watt incandescent bulbs and don't get hot enough to be a problem except when adding to the summer ambient temp (love the extra heat in the winter though). I blow them off after each session with my air hose. I have two lathes setup like this in my shop and they seem to do the trick.

Best regards,

Matt

 

[Dick Sowa]

Paul...I have the same thing, and like the fact that I can bring them really close to my turnings to let the slight heat from the lamp speed up drying of whatever finish I apply. But when the chips start to fly, I swing them out of the way, by several feet. Like Matt, I also blow mine out with an air hose ... but not every time I turn something. More often it is every 2-3 vessels, and that is mostly fine dust from sanding.

The cheapness of the swing arms is a pain, but I only use mine to enhance visibility, and not as my primary light source. I have a couple of 4' fluorescent fixtures several feet above the lathe, which provides plenty of working light.

 

[John Torchick]

I have a clamp-on desk lamp on my work bench. When I set up my shop this spring, I fastened a block of wood on the wall with Tapcon screws, a bolt up through the block so I can switch the lamp from bench to lathe. It can pivot out of the way and extend to where light is needed.

 

[Matt Lewis]

Lamps

Good point John - I have three 4' shop lights above and being only a 10' x 12' space have plenty of primary light. The lamps are mostly for hollowing and details.

Regards,

Matt

 

[john lucas]

I'm a fan of the Moffet lights. Not sure who sells them now. I do occasionally get a shaving in there that smokes but haven't had any fires. I keep 2 of them at the lathe with 100 watt bulbs in them. They have flexible arms and come with a quick disconnect at the bottom. You can get magnets or mounting brackets to go there. At first I moved them from machine to machine but eventually bought 2 more and now leave them setting. I will move the one magnet mounted one to the carving bench some times.

 

[John King]

CFLs

Switch to compact flourescent light (CFL). They are much cooler than incadescent bulbs at equal light output.

I use GE helical daylight (6500 deg K). It's consumes 26w of power and yields 100w of light output. Works great in Moffatt flexible arm lights. - John

 

[john lucas]

They aren't equal light output. I have been running tests on them. At least the photo bulbs. My 70 watt photo bulb claims that it is equal to 600watts. It doesn't even put out the same light as a 100 watt incandescent. The 45 watt FLD claims 375 watts. It barely matches a 35 watt refrigerator bulb.
The ones I bought for my house that aren't photo grade are brighter but the ones that claim to be 60 watts are not as bright as my 60 watt incandescent.

 

[Harry Robinette]

I've been using 4' fluorescent Daylite over the lathe. On the wall behind I have a 100watt Moffet . When I'm done turning with these on I have a 3 light halogen track light that is mounted next to the florescent light.This halogen light is only used for the last look after sanding is done,This light is so bright white that you can see EVERY mark left behind. If you use the halogen only for last look your eyes never get adjusted to it so you can really see everything.

 

[Ruth Niles]

Like John and Harry, I use the Moffett light. I used the clamp on, tried desk goose-neck, the magnet tiny goose-neck........finally after 18 years of turning trying all these light variations (along with 4' daylight florescent....6 of them in my shop) the Moffett is a pure pleasure.

It moves in every conceivable direction, push it out of the way, bring it straight down and right into a hollow form, above your head, behind your head, directly over the piece, behind the piece on head-stock side. I probably spent as much, if not more, money trying all the other "cheaper" options.

Ruth

 

[Thomas Stegall]

Lathe lights

Having had similiar problems in the past I have (2) 48 inch sealed flourescent T8 lights fixtures above my lathe. They are very bright, efficent and well placed to provide tons of light. Being sealed they are dust free and turning extremely wet wood is not an issue either. The only down side is that they are about $70 for each light, but well worth it.

 

[Odie]

As some of the others have mentioned, get into the habit of blowing out the chips from inside your lamps regularly. Mine have gotten hot enough to smoke the chips next to the bulbs......but, it's been quite awhile since it's come to that.....it's now an ingrained habit to regularly blow out the chips with compressed air.

Those Moffett lamps are nice. We have some of those at work......expensive, though. If I wasn't happy with my current lighting set-up, I'd think seriously about the Moffett lamps.

I have two flexible neck lamps at the lathe headstock (75w and 100w), plus one of the Ikea spot lamps for interior. There are two 4' fluorescent bulbs directly above the lathe......works very well for me!

ooc

 

[davidwalser]

FYI: It's "Moffatt", not "Moffett"

Here's a link to the company's website:

http://www.moffattproducts.com/Search.aspx

 

[Vaughn]

Another vote for Moffatt lamps here. Here are some pics and a description of how I set mine up:

http://www.aawforum.org/vbforum/showthread.php?t=6222

 

[CindyDrozda]

Adding more lights every decade

I use 3 positionable Moffat lights, with 28 watt daylight spectrum compact fluorescent bulbs in them, right over my work. Also an ikea LED for a close spot inside a box etc. Overhead at 6' or 7' up is a 2-lamp 4' T8 fluorescent strip fixture with daylight spectrum bulbs. At ceiling height, about 12', are 8' strip fluorescent fixtures with daylight spectrum bulbs. I know it's not cool to like fluorescent light, but the daylight spectrum ones feel good to me. No heat benefit, but that's what the space heater's for. There never seems to be enough light......