Hmm, bulb dilemma

[Tim Lamb]

:-)

A while back now so I have forgotten the detail. The lathe was originally 3 phase and I had fitted a 3/4hp single phase motor for domestic use. The work light was transformer operated and possibly 24V o/p.

[John]

Tim+ [e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail] :

I doubt that they would give it to you as it places a legal onus on them then as a "Supplier" and if it blew up in your face then your surviving family sould sue them.

[NY]

First rule of work lights for lathes and other tools that move: always use a

*tungsten* bulb or else a light that is *permanently on* (DC-powered tungsten or LED with current-limiting rather than fast pulsing with controllable mark:space ratio).

The reason for this is that you want to avoid the situation where the rotating tool/work appears to be stationary or very slowly rotating because the stroboscopic effect of the pulsed fluorescent or LED light at certain work speeds and pulsing rates. OK, so an AC-powered tungsten will flicker on and off like a fluoescent will, but the thermal inertia of the filament will mean that the stroboscopic effect will be much less apparent, so even if there is a stationary image of the work, there will also be a clearly blurred version.

I remember my grandpa (who made model steam locomotives on his lathe) telling me this: his workshop was illuminated by 5-foot fluorescents but he had a 60W tungsten bulb as his work light.

[tabbypurr]

That's less applicable in the current days of high frequency electronic ballasts, but some LED bulbs are still 100Hz due to using CR PSUs and not well suited to lighting lathes.

NT