Shop Lighting

[Glennbear]

I finally got my shop lights up, not exactly as I had planned due to overhead door conflict but they work great!! I have them set up in 3 banks, two individual 8 foot fixtures in the center over the future home of the two tablesaw's and the planer and an end to end bank on the north and south walls where the rest of the machines, benches etc will be located. I am blessed with a large personal reference library and as I usually do, I researched the heck out of the project before I started. I managed to rummage around BORG and found relatively inexpensive 8 foot fixtures with electronic ballasts and also got a good deal on a case lot of the bulbs I
needed.
first started planning this shop about a year ago before I had even found a house down here so I have had plenty of time to wrestle with CRI, Color Temp, etc etc My research disclosed some nteresting facts, for the best color accuracy we need a bulb CRI of 75 to 100, for shop tasks a color temp of 3,500 to 5,000K is recommended by lighting engineers. What I found most interesting is how much more light we need as we age
unlike fine wine
we do not do well in reduced light At age 40 we need 50% more light to perceive the same brightness we saw at age 20, at age 70 we need TWICE the light we need at age 40 !!! At age 58 I see I need all the light I can get Now that I have thoroughly bored everyone, one final note, besides needing more light we also notice glare more so glossy wall paint is not a real good idea and the Boeshield on the machines not only protects the 'arn but also cuts down on the glare which we do not need.

[Jim Murphy]

Originally Posted by Glennbear

... we also notice glare more so glossy wall paint is not a real good idea and the Boeshield on the machines not only protects the 'arn but also cuts down on the glare which we do not need.

Boeshield as a base, and Johnson's paste wax, applied liberally and allowed to dry WITHOUT buffing off, except as buffed by fine hardwoods, cuts the glare down quite well.

And let this be a gentle reminder that after today, and with the forecast for the weekend, your 'arn would be pleased to be sheltered by a prodigious application of wax.

[Bas]

Nice looking shop - can see stuff now with all the new lights That reminds me, I need to add a couple of fixtures. Still too dark in my cave....

[froglips]

Excellent!

Glare/gloss is something new to me. I age more like cabbage than wine...

Did your research give you insight into task lighting? Portable lamps etc?

I'm hooked on LED's, but the light seems awfully harsh.

Jim

[Glennbear]

Originally Posted by froglips

Excellent!

Glare/gloss is something new to me. I age more like cabbage than wine...

Did your research give you insight into task lighting? Portable lamps etc?

I'm hooked on LED's, but the light seems awfully harsh.

Jim

According to the experts incandescent lights work well for task lighting because they cast more shadows thus making layout lines and blades more visible. For better light quality swap out incandescents for halogen capsule bulbs, they screw in like a standard bulb. There is also very inexpensive low wattage halogen strip lights available so you can adjust halogen spots to exactly where needed for tasks.