Mill Spindle Light

[Walt]

What is a Cree LED?

Cree is the industry leader worldwide in high-output LED lamps.

I use their LEDs in my bike lights. They have high power output and good control of color. Most commercially built bike lights (and most flashlights) are made to achieve the highest possible number of lumens. It's a number that buyers can compare and get the most of for the least amount of money, so that tends to drive the market toward blueish lights. However, it turns out the the human eye (at least my human eye) is more comfortable with, and process motion better with light with most of the power concentrated toward the red end of the visible spectrum. Additionally, the things that happen to make up the surface of a bike trail; dirt, rocks, and roots all tend to look the same under blueish light.

Not sure if any of this applies to machine work, but I don't like blueish LEDs, and Cree (among others) sells lamps in different color temperatures. I buy ones at the neutral to reddish end of the spectrum, under 5000K. It costs more (money and lower lamp output), but the results are worth it to me, YMMV.

http://www.cree.com/lighting

Walt

 

[arvidj]

Cree is the industry leader worldwide in high-output LED lamps.

...

However, it turns out the the human eye (at least my human eye) is more comfortable with, and process motion better with light with most of the power concentrated toward the red end of the visible spectrum.

http://www.cree.com/lighting

Walt

Thanks for the reference to Cree.

For completeness, here is a graph of the average human eye color sensitivity. Given that most light sources are sold by color temperature rather than wavelength this chart might be useful to get from one to the other. I am assuming it is much more complicated than this but using a KISS methodology suggests to me that, assuming the same lumen output, lighting in the 3500 to 5000 temperature range probably gives off the most usable light.

Arvid

 

[Turbinedoctor]

Well this has turned out to be a rather enlighten thread. (Pun intended)

 

[ntc51]

That might be one of the coolest things I've ever seen!

 

[Turbinedoctor]

Well it's almost been a year now and I don't see anybody else's designs. Come on guys show what you came up with.

Durwood

 

[Pmedic828]

Well, Here you go Turbinedoctor:

My latest creation: 4 12V led pods mounted on a circle mount which has magnets hot glued to it to stick on my milling spindle. See pics:
I am about to update the pods to the new SMD-5050 48 LED light wafers that I have a picture below - they give off more light in a smaller space - you can find them on ebay. I choose the SMD-5050 because there is more light output than the 3000 series for the same current. See pics:

This is the ring mounting for my milling spindle:thinking:
Ring mounted on the spindle)
Spindle mounted on the mill from the lathe bed
LED Lights on :cool2:

This is with the LED's on shining down

Shows how I mounted the Spindle Light to the Mill with Hot Glued Magnets so it can be removed:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
New SMD-5050 X 48 Light LED purchased on e-bay

 

[Turbinedoctor]

WooW so much thinner and simpler than mine. I like the idea of the LED Pods.

Thanks for sharing.


Anybody else??

Durwood

 

[Pmedic828]

If anyone is interested in finding those "Pods", just let me know - they come in Cool white like I have, yellow, blue, red, green, and other colors - I also can get others that are wider or more narrow and still come in these following colors - I use them to install lighting on Motorcycles - they are waterproof and connect directly to a 12 Volt DC plug in power inverter (like you have on your phones or other devices - just make sure they say 12 VDC and tell you the polarity. I am looking forward to changing out these pods to the new SMD-5050 as they are 3X as bright as the pods for the same voltage and amperage - now, my next project a tachometer for my lathe and mill.

 

[xalky]

I bought one of these

from:http://www.superbrightleds.com/more...adlight-accent-lights-with-t3-14-adapter/878/

It comes with the protective dome already on it. The size is perfect for a Bridgeport or clone spindle.
I epoxied 4 small high power magnets to it. I spliced in a coiled telephone cord, so that it can move and stay out of the way when the spindle is extended. Grabbed a toggle switch that I canniballized from something. Scrounged a small plug-in transformer that I saved for just such a project. And voila...An awesome spindle light that's unobtrusive and gives off some excellent lighting, exactly where it's needed.




I mounted the toggle switch right below my DRO mount swing arm.



Thanks for the ideas guys. This is great!

PS: I don't have the patience for soldering in all those LEDs. Maybe it's my caffeine consumption...the hands jitter too much.) I had enough soldering, just soldering in the wire and switch connections.:whistle:hew:


Marcel

 

[awander]

Jameco has LED's and pieces parts - when connecting LED's, why don't you create 2 power rails, 1 positive and 1 negative, then increase the wattage of the resistor and just connect it in series between the power supply and either the positive or negative rail, and connect all the leds between the 2 rails. seems easier to wire to me.

Doing it that way is not a great idea, though a lot of inexpensive electronic devices do it that way.

The problem is that you need to use a resistor that will drop the proper amount of voltage when the current for all of the LEDs is being drawn through it. Then if any of the LEDs burn out, the current through the resistor will be less, so the voltage dropped will be less, meaning the remaining LEDs will see a higher voltage. To some extent , this higher voltage will cause a greater current through each LED, and can cause more of them to fail, making the situation worse.