# led lights surounding my mill spindle ( grizzly 0619 )



## joebiplane (Sep 10, 2011)

I have installed two strips of 48 LED lights around the spindle of my mini mil to provide working light on my work piece they operate from a 12v transformer and do a decent job but not a spectacular job.  I do not haveany room left to simply add more of thest little lights.
My questions are;
are LED's available in different brightness? if so, how are they rated? 
Could I simply raise the voltage going to the lights, to say 18 volts?? Or will that simply trash the light string ?
I have looked at the Millhalo light ring but I believe it will be too large to fit around the spindle on my 0619 Grizzly ( Sieg SX3 ) and if it did I am not sure it would be any brighter than what I have now
anbody familiar with these cheap little lights?
Thanks, joe


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## Hawkeye (Sep 10, 2011)

Individual LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) are, as the name says, diodes. When they are conducting, they drop a specific voltage - say, 2 volts for a basic red LED. They are very sensitive to too much current. When LEDs are used, they need to have a resistor in series to control the current.

Light bars like yours will have several LEDs in series, plus a resistor sized for the remaining voltage at the required current. At 12 volts, you could string together 5 LEDs to drop a total of 10 volts, then size the resistor to burn off the remaining 2 volts at, say, 20 mA. R=E/I, so 2 V / 0.020 A = 100 Ohms.

When you increase the voltage to the string, the current increases. I=E/R, so 18 V / 100 Ohms = 180 mA, 9 times the design current. When one LED in the string blows, the whole string stops.


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## Davo J (Sep 10, 2011)

Hi Joe,
LED's are measured in millicandela (mcd) typically in the 50 mcd range; "ultra-bright" LEDs can reach 15,000 mcd. Ebay is the place to go for cheap LED's to replace what you have.
Rather than type it all out, I went looking and found this for you to understand them more.
http://www.gizmology.net/LEDs.htm

My mate brought home 2 new truck reversing lights that are LED, and are that bright it's hard to look at them. They have a magnifier in front of the LED to make it brighter and are around $90 up each light in Australia, so not cheap. I plan to use them on the mill.
Here are some similar ones to what he got me.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10-WATT-SINGLE-LED-FLOOD-REVERSE-LIGHT-nissan-patrol-/260847258249

Dave


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