Well let's just say my workbenches lighting...isn't the brightest. What are some low cost lighting solutions I could use on my workbench so I can have plenty of light to shine on my projects?
I got some awesome 4' LED fixtures from Rockler on sale not long ago. 4 of them illuminate my garage like the natural sun is shining on it.
I use the room lights (CFL) for general illumination. I have a magnalight for actual modeling work- It has a CFL, which I intend changing to an LED very soon. This combination has done me well for a long, long time.
I homebrewed a LED lighting strip that runs off a 12 volt wall wart, with a switch and even a dimmer. The strip is about 3 feet long and at full brightness it's more than enough to do the job. It's a warm white color, so the light is more or less natural.
WalMart has stand lamps for about 10 bucks, with an upright light and a second bendable arm. I use two of them with natural light bulbs. I can also re-position them for photography or extra lighting on the layout when I need it. For close up detail work I have a set of magnifying goggles with built in LEDs.
I have one of there: http://www.amazon.com/GE-10231-Halogen-Cabinet-Linkable/dp/B001ET6D98 It's screwed to the underside of my yard, which sits over my bench. I use bulbs that are color matched to the halogens in my ceiling fixtures, and its plenty bright.
I'm not sure how I could pull off overhead lighting unless I could rig something up to my desk. I went to Walmart today and looked at some of the bendable desk lamps. Those may be able to work but I'm not sure how many I'd need. Would two be enough? I think MR ran an article awhile ago explaining differnt types of bulbs and the kind of light they produce. For my light I'd like it to be an overcast light so which lights would give off that type of light?
I have 2 stations in my workshop. I have pretty good ambient lighting in the room which helps the task lighting. For the task lighting at my main station, I have 48" halogen under cabinet light that I got on sale in a lighting store (close-out) item. Uses 5 of the 20 to 35W g base lamps. Not LED's of course, but it lights the heck out of my work counter. Also at that station I have a small single lamp G lamp desk lamp I've had for years. I pull that over to projects that really need a blast of light in a small place. At my other work station in the work shop, (where I do most of the decaling), I have an "Ott Light" that I got on sale at an art store. At some point I'd like to convert them all to LED's. The ambient lighting in my work shop are LED can lights and fluorescent track lights. Could my shop be more "energy efficient"? Yeah. But the lighting I have performs. The bottom line is I got my lighting at close-outs and sales and picked up some pretty good prices that really work well.
