Task lighting in unheated shop

Pine tar torch. Miners lamp. Car headlights.

For task lighting I use inexpensive draft lamps and make a wall-mounted base from scrap wood. The lamps are adjustable, cheap, and swing out of the way. One gets used for my router table and drill press. Another for my miter saw and another for my lathe. My band saw has it's own lamp bolted to the frame. Task lighting is very important. For general lighting, I have ceiling fluorescent lighting and soldered bowed hardware cloth to the reflectors to prevent breakage yet easy to replace a tube. Halogen lamps get very hot.

Ummm, did something happen since I left for work this morning? And how are they going to move the Houses of Parliment? :^)

George

If you use a decent power on you lamp you will have some heating where you need it, as long as you are able to mount them in a way that does not create a fire (see distance limits indicated on the lamp) you get nice and bright light and a way to unfreeze your hands.

I'm a bit puzzled as to why halogen incandescent floods would be OK but non-halogen incandescent lighting would not.

Try using flourescent tubes that are caled high output they are available at the home depot. The 8 foot tubes dont have the same configuation as a normal 8 footer so you would have to buy a whole fixture as they are deeper to accomadate the larger ballast. These tubes are the sam style as what are used in outdoor signs .They are a little pricy but i have them in my workspace and you almost need sunglasses to work in there. They last a fairly long time and they fire up immediatly

cheers Ed

RE: Subject

Think insulation first, then lighting.

Ever try to do any serious wood working in cold temperatures?

Trust me, it ain't easy.

Lew

I have an unheated shop also. 'course, in AZ it's not quite such a big deal... but still too cold for comfort. in the winter I illuminate with halogen. the extra heat is welcome.

If you get High Output Fluoresent fixtures (HO) 800 MA they are rated

-20 F. Just don't get energy saving lamps as they are only rated 60 F. 8' is least expensive, shorter sizes are available but cost much more.

MikeM

Hehe I wondered if someone would pick up on that... I live in Ottawa, the shop is at my cottage on the Quebec side, about an hour and a half away from my home.

Cheers, Phil Cottage in Quebec

Hehe I wondered if someone would pick up on that... I live in Ottawa, the shop is at my cottage on the Quebec side, about an hour and a half away from my home.

Cheers, Phil Cottage in Quebec

On Fri, 06 Aug 2004 01:55:56 GMT, "Lew Hodgett" calmly ranted:

C'mon, Lew. What would a person from the People's Republik of Kaliforna know about _cold_?

LJ--who went through Pismo Beach on a damp, foggy, 26°F morn only to learn that CA -can- get cold after all.

- - - Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever. ---

Before coming to SoCal, spent far too many years in Northern Ohio, up to my armpits in 6 ft of "partly cloudy" from Nov to May.

Lew

I use two halogen light fixtures s above my workbench. A picture of one such is here:

Mine are suspended from the ceiling and aligned end-to-end and wired to come on together. Each light fixture has a pull chain to turn them on/off, and to switch from low wattage to high wattage. I have mine wired from a wall switch as well. They are set to come on when I switch them with the wall switch. They are warm for certain and the metal and glass parts get very hot. They are not meant for personal heaters exactly, but they would probably help somewhat. Worth considering. BTW, the light is fantastic and very bright. That is just what I need over my workbench.

Hoyt W.

Woodworkers have an option others don't. A solar heating panel isn't difficult to build and can provide a significant amount of heat. From news://alt.solar.thermal: Full sun is about 250 Btu/h-ft^2.

You can see an outside view of my shop heater at

My suggestion to heat the shop wasn't a completely smart-ass response. Total cost of materials for that panel was about US$200 and the annual fuel cost has been (exactly) US$0.

I'm planning to add two more (same size) panels before the end of November. If it get /too/ hot, I'll dump the excess heat into my neighbors' space. (-:

"Tom Kohlman" wrote in news:8AAQc.13741$ snipped-for-privacy@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net:

Tom, That's an interesting size for a shop. I thought mine was small, but 18 square feet. Is it 2'X9'? I would have no problem with the the 9', but the