LED Lighting

With LEDs now easily available and in various forms, though I would kick-off with my usage.

I have just fitted 90mm diameter LED Angel Eye lights to my Marlow milling machine and Mitco pedestal drilling maching.

Although I have good lighting in the Workshop, there are times when I need more right at the point of action.

Although the Marlow has articulated lamps either side of the main column, I have not found them very convenient to use, being difficult to get the workpiece and cutter illuminated to my satisfaction on occasions.

The twin fluorescent above the Mitco is fine, but light aimed at the the drill bit and workpiece would be desirable.

Much searching for a solution, the excellent Ikea flexible long necked ones being dismissed as they just mimicked the existing ones on the Marlow, with the same shortcomings if used on the Mitco.

A mention of Angel Eyes on this or another Forum had me straight onto the World's favourite auction/selling site, resulting in a number of different sizes being ordered from the manufacturing centre of the World, all at prices that make one wonder how they do it.

Some time ago I had bought 230vac/12vdc LED psu to power strip LEDS so decided to put them to good use.

New Album added, but here are photos of them fitted.

Just need to sort out some for the Tom Senior I keep in Horizontal mode.

Geoff - Severe wind warnings for the whole country today & tomorrow

Edited By OuBallie on 30/03/2015 12:55:36

Problem I have found with the Angel eyes is that they project a ring of light down but depending on diameter the end of the tool is often in shadow, with the light round it.

I saw one fitted around the quill on a bridgy and in the photo's you could not see the cutter or say a line you were trying to follow.

This wouldn't have suited me as for one and probably the main reason I get into setups so tight I often have the quill nearly rubbing a 4th axis or upright part of the job. This would entail removing the quill light so no point in having it. Secondly the shadow makes it unusable.

I tried an experiment and bought the largest light I could off Ebay, sure it was 160mm but might have been 150mm and this just fits round the casting on the lower part of the head which usually is out of harms way. It was a quickly cobbled up job made from bean tins and some plastic cut on the laser. However it worked. Didn't get in the way and no shadow.

Only problem was it was that skimpy built it used to come loose and after the third time it fell off and got whanged by the cutter, it died. New lights now on stock just waiting for some decent laser cut plates to form into a holder to class 10 on the Beaufort scale.

Haven't tried them in anger yet John, but will soon find out if I run into the same problem that you had.

Would be easy enough to fit larger diameter ones if needed.

The PSU should be capable of powering two lots at once, adding a larger one to outside of existing.

Geoff - Mind a blank

I've had no need to add extra lighting (yet) there's penty of ceiling flouros in my shed and we keep led battery lights about the place in case of rural cut-outs so I can find the genny - could always hang one of those somewhere.

But if soemone wants a potentially neat way of adding lighting .. how about a length or two of angleable coolant nozzle with an led stuck on the end. You can get them all the way up to secuirty floodlight strength these days. I've even got a solar panel powered floodlight on the lower barn which could easiy be modded for the panel on shed roof and the led inside......

I have been using an 80 mm angel eye on my little X1 mill for some time (http://mikesworkshop.weebly.com/ring-light.html). The shadow problem arises when using big chucks and collet holders. I mainly use ARC milling cutter holders and these are fine with the angel eyes because they are close to the spindle and fairly small in diameter. With a large 13 mm drill chuck or an ER32 collet holder there is a shadow problem. The way round this is to buy the largest angel eyes possible and to put a reflecting skirt around the outside so that the light is directed in toward the centre. I shall upgrade my lights to 100 mm diameter when I get time.

The other problem that I have with the angel eyes is that despite being only a couple of years old already some of the leds have stopped working. So much for led manufacturers claims that they last for tens of thousands of hours!!

Mike

I do a bit of cross stitch (Well, what other useful job can you do when sitting in front of the TV when you want to be with the family...?) and have just found that a twin led headlight is fantastic for lighting up my current project. It's small, light & the beam goes exactly where your head is pointing. It's good enough for me to pick out dark brown thread on black fabric. Makes you look a bit of a nit, but that has never bothered me.

The project.. A picture of my wife, 44000 stitches, approx. 440 hrs work to complete, 118 colours and 28 stitches to the inch (0.9mm). Completed 22000 stitches since November. I also wrote the software to convert from a full colour image to the thread colours.

Anyway, if it will let me see something that dark & that small, it should be useful on the mill or any other bit of kit.

Regards,

Richard.

Edited By richardandtracy on 30/03/2015 14:30:37

Mike,

I have no doubt that I used your idea as a basis to do mine.

My memory is no better than a sieve of late, otherwise I would have acknowledged your useful site.

Still haven't finished the lathe's power feed that I based on yours, just need to yada yada yada.

Geoff - I blame it on all the flippin' other things that get me sidetracked.

Hi Geoff

On my little Warco WM14 mill I have mounted two strips of 24LEDs one each side on the head of the mill. This gives a virtually shadowless illumination of the work piece irrespective of the size of chuck/collett being used. They were bought in from China, run on 12V DC and were pre-mounted on an aluminium support with threaded inserts

Martin

PS

Don't ask about the group of 4 that are not working on the right hand side, spanner slips oops says it all. Have got spares but not a round tuit,

Edited By Martin W on 30/03/2015 18:59:27

Edited By Martin W on 30/03/2015 19:02:22

Hi Geoff,

The angel eye lighting was not original to me. I picked it up on the internet somewhere.

Mike

I have an array over the bench. However I haven't bothered connecting the others I have as I find the light far too harsh. I think it needs to be far brighter for the same effect as normal light and I wonder if it is because it is only operating on a few wavelengths and not using all the receptors in the eye.

I think the light from these LED's is too cold (colour temp). A piece of prismatic diffuser placed under the LED arrays would take the glare away and spread the light more evenly. I haven't tried this with LED's but would like to add task lighting to my mill and lathe with a diffuser.

An example prismatic diffuser.

**LINK**

This stuff can be cut. Best to use a bit of masking tape along the cut. A jigsaw is ok, I imagine a scroll saw might work better.

Ed.

Edited By Ed Duffner on 31/03/2015 00:56:04

Martin W

I have a Warco WS 18 mill - does a good job.

Would you let me have details of your led strips and buying address

as I would much like to add them to my mill.

Many thanks

Richard.

Hi Richard,
If you do a search on ebay for "smd led panel" you will find a wide range of panels.

Les.

Did anyone see the news item the other day (week?) saying that Graphene LED bulbs will be in the shops shortly?

graham.

Hi Graham,
I think this is where I saw it . I find statements like this "It is said to cut energy use by 10% " meaningless as it does not say in comarison to what. I hope your thumb is feeling better this morning.

Les.

Maplin seem to do various LED strips, including some described as being IP65, ie coolant proof potentially. Might not be as cheap as ebay but you could call in and handle what they have on display before you buy.

Richard

I used to buy these in from a Chinese source that has since stopped stocking them, many years ago. However as was my want I tended to buy more than I required, something to do with a 'RoundTuit' and future uses yet to be defined. As a result I still have some left over in my bits boxes and if you drop me a PM with a delivery address then I would be more than happy to drop a couple in the post for you to play with. I personally quite like the light they give because the LEDs do tend to focus a lot of the light in the area needed and not, as with some of the later modules, just spray it about willy nilly. They are metal backed and can be mounted very easily using aluminium angle and where mounted are well clear of the splash zone, mind I don't use pumped coolant just brush applied when needed. Even so it would be very easy to incorporate a clear shield to protect them if they were getting splattered.

As I say if you want a pair of these LED strips then just PM me with a delivery address. All they require is a smooth 12V DC supply which can be bought from a variety of sources such as Maplin, CPC or even Fleebay.

Hi Graham

I too saw that they were talking about Graphene Light Sources, is there no end to the uses they are finding for this material.

Best regards

Martin

This is my version of LED lighting, parts cost less than a fiver on ebay (including the power supply).

Tim,

Details, details, details please.

Geoff - %*^+# wind!

Edit:

Tim,

Are they per chance 'Eagle Eye' ? Just done a search on the site you mentioned.

Note to brain: Search first!

Edited By OuBallie on 01/04/2015 09:53:14

Geof,

You might be interested in this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBsUUP3QWi8

I think it is the same as Tim is using.

Mike