Bench and Shop Lighting

[SoulFetish]

I'm looking for some ideas and suggestions for better lighting on my bench. Right now I have a couple of LED tube type lighting hanging over my work area and it kind of sucks. It's highly reflective off of work pieces, particularly metal amp chassis, and reflects back into my eyes. In addition to the issue of glare, they also can create dark shadows in work areas that require you to perform detailed work. They produce an adaquate amount of light, but the source of the LEDs directly overhead is not great. If they were mounted on a gooseneck so that I could adjust the angle and direction that would be more useful, but I don't want something obstructive mounted on the table top or on either side of me.
I used to have a decent magnifying visor on which I mounted a decent LED headlamp. The headlamp would tilt up and down, so that was probably the best light I used for working, but the problem with that was the weigh of the actual headlamp made it front loaded and had awkward weight distribution.
I'm over 40 now, so using readers has become a way of life and I've found a great pair of safety readers I use all the time at work. The brand is Pyramex, and they are the best readers I've ever used, hands down.
https://www.pyramex.com/cdn/shop/files/ ... 4928408945

I'm wondering if a returning to a wearable light source is the way to go though. What do you all use for a setup?

[Kagliostro]

I'll give a try to a dimmable led panel
(I've One over my computer bench and It Is really comfortable)

images (1).jpeg

On my shop bench I've 2 120cm 36w neon tubes, the shop Isn't so large and I've a total of 6 120cm neon tubes plus a 120cm LED tube

but my eyes need a lot of light to act properly

Franco

[xtian]

I need to be able to move my light sources. I chose desk-mount mic arms and DC-powered LED panels, and love them. I have one on either side of my desk.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DY1F2CS

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KZLM3QC

[Kagliostro]

Nice item but I prefer to have nothing around in my work area, only above It

Franco

[solderhead]

+1 on having movable light sources. Optimally, I like a combination of diffuse base lighting plus an adjustable point light source on the left and right sides of the workpiece, so that I can limit the angle of incidence for the incoming light and manage the angle of reflection so that it's away from my viewing angle, preferentially at 90-degrees. by lighting from the sides of the bench, the bounced light also goes toward the sides of the bench, rather than to my eyes.

I think of this type of lighting problem as relating to whether your lighted object will exhibit specular reflection vs. diffuse reflection. IME when I've got a subject with high specular reflection I get better results with diffuse lighting sources like long fluorescent tubes, rather than an array of point light sources like an LED array. I think that the problem with LEDs is that when you have a lot of point light sources all aligned closely with one another, it's difficult to position yourself such that there isn't going to be at least one of them causing a direct reflection off of a specular object. LED arrays have lots of lights and there's the chance that at least one point source will line up at the wrong angle. That's less of a problem with diffused lighting. For this reason I don't use LEDs in my shop. I continue to use long fluorescent tubes for their diffused illumination. Optimally, I'll have supplemental lighting on the left and right sides of the unit under test so that any bounced reflections are cast off to the sides, rather than reflected towards me.

[nuke]

For bulk lighting in my office/lab room, I use an LED shop light I got at Costco, by FEIT. They work really great.

On the bench itself, I use the same thing I did my kitchen under-cabinet lighting: Remote Phosphor LED from Tech Lighting.

Unilume LED slimline, 3000k for my lab bench, 2700k in my kitchen.

https://www.techlighting.com/Products/F ... D-Slimline

Some technical details explaining how it works in the PDF sheet.

https://v1.techlighting.com/i/Tech/docu ... abinet.pdf

The are different than most LED systems. They only have short wavelength blue LED, and a phosphor panel covering them. When lit, the phosphor panel glows with a smooth and diffuse light, no shadows.

They're kinda expensive (and seem to be even more expensive now). But they're fantastic for task lighting. Perfectly smooth and diffuse light, very, very high color fidelity. Super easy to read color bands on resistors and caps and what not.