Mill work light brightness question

Your eyes are the same age as mine! They need lots of light. I put 2 LED spot lights on each of my mill and lathe. These ARE THE 3 1/2" DIAMETER ONES AND USED THE ROTATOR TYPE MOUNTS FOR THEM. Get all the light you can get. Search online for a decent price on multiples.
Aaron
 
A19 LED lamps, 60 watt equivalent, about 750 lumens, are available for under $2. I accidentally popped the spherical diffuser off when I dropped my trouble light. I measured the light output from the altered light at more than 5000 lux (lumens/m^2) @ 14", more than 5x what I measured from a 60 watt incandescent bulb and 4x what was measured from an unaltered light. The bulb that I was using was a Zilotek 60 watt equivalent.

LED's have a natural illumination angle of 120º so that instead of light that is dispersed in a 360º angle , the light is concentrated in a tight cone. In the LED world, this is expressed as efficacy which is a measure of useful light. The result is that I had an intense and uniform illumination of my work surface with no interfering scattered light. It also had a shorter profile which lessened the chance of interference with my work or fixturing.

The one issue that had to be dealt with was that the raw LED's were now exposed, creating the possibility of an electrical short or damage to the LED. This can be eliminated by machining a snap-on clear lens to replace the OEM diffuser.
 
woochucker said:
I bought a 30 light unit looks like this.
I don't think it is that bright. Less than I would have expected.
Instead I recently added an articulating lamp with a 100w led equiv. I don't think the LED is giving 100w equiv since my light meter (photo light meter) barely moves betwee a 60w and 100w . But I think the daylight helped more.
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If you were using a photographic light meter, I believe that they peak in the green part of the spectrum. white LED's have relatively low output in the green region, especially the daylight types. I made my measurements with an app on my smart phone which I think favors the blue region. I found that the 100 watt equivalent LED put out more the twice the light that a 150 watt equivalent compact fluorescent did which prompted me to replace all the CFL's in my shop with LED's.
 
I have always subscribed to the belief that there can never be too much light.
I use two 1400 lumen LED lamps on arms mounted on either side of the column and a 156 LED Halo lamp around the spindle.
The halo light evens out any shadows from the side lamps.
 
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I've been carrying one bulb back and forth between the mill and the lathe think it's a 75 watt lol
 
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