Shop lights: the long & quirky of it.
David Barnett
>I've developed some personal (and entirely idiosyncratic) preferences for shop and task lighting that profoundly affect the way I work, what kind of work I do, and what I work on (color, texture, scale), and I'll say up front that they don't include the common arrayed 48" multiple tube fluorescent fixtures. Yes, these revolutionized warehouse, manufacturing and office pool lighting, but for woodworking (and many other crafts) in the modest-sized shop, I believe one can do a lot better and nearly as economically.
Without going into human vision evolution, just bear in mind that our adaptations and requirements for resolving at distance in varying light conditions and detail discernment in low brightness with lowered angles of radiation suggest likewise differing strategies for precision and detail demands, such as toolmaking and most primitive tool use.
While washing a workspace with overhead light generally aids orientation, resource location, and so on, and while it may seem a viable surrogate for sunlight, it's not really best for precise tasks, especially in its ubiquitous 'cool-white' spectral range.
What you want (or what I want, anyway) is adequate brightness, elimination of glare, highlighting of details through properly oriented sources (relief, rake, etc.), aided resolution through balanced color temperature and spectral package (spread), easy access and positioning of light sources, and diminished fatigue. Low cost and low energy requirements won't hurt, either.
Why should anyone care about accurate color? Well, an exact shade of red for a particular project may not matter so much, especially if you're happy with the natural colors of wood. The real issue is how well you can actually see, discern the differences that make a difference, and at what light levels, which means less eye fatigue, less fatigue from greater sureness of task performance, and greater safety resulting from both. And although we're all about hand tools here, it never hurts to mention that noisy machine shops with lots of fluorescent lamps should include some incandescent lighting to avoid strobe effects that can make a lathe or grinder deceptively appear stopped.
Most of us want more brightness and to many of us that used to mean cranking up the watts. But while brightness may need upgrading, it's not everything. One can learn to work well in surprisingly low light levels, one or two candlepower, in fact. Consider the Dominy woodworkers and the early liturgical carvers if you don't believe me. Am I recommending it? No, of course not. But it's doable. Besides, in my opinion, anyone who carves or moulds (or is an architect, stained glass artist, etc.) should make every effort to view in situ where the work will live, and to consider or similate the changing light of day and even the changing seasons whenever possible.
I'm a big fan of 'daylight' fluorescent lamps, especially those at 5,800K, which is a nice fit for natural noon sunlight, and is the median those very accurate Ott formulations that get it about as close as one can come. Ott was the scientist who made those amazing technicolor time-lapse botanical films for Disney, discovering what spectra could best force efflorescence and inventing lamps to do it. Decades ago I worked in some spinoff technologies, one of which phytotronically (combined with certain growth hormones) forced blooming in orchidaceae during the earlier days of apical meristem cloning. Who knew these would end up de rigueur for bead weavers, textile artists, gemologists, enamelists, and so on?
While the fluorescent and LED versions of 5,800K color temperature are still somewhat pricey, the 5,000K and 6,200K versions, so-called 'bright daylight' (slightly yellow) and 'super daylight' (a bluer hue close to bright northern winter daylight -- some artists prefer these to 5,800K, btw) respectively, can be had for a fraction of an Ott bulb. One company sells the compact fluorescent bulbs by the case in a variety of sizes and wattages. I've bought a bunch and have been very satisfied overall. No, I don't use them where I absolutely must have 5,800K, but everywhere else, for general/ambient, local and most task lighting (even reading), they're fine (IMO, that is). A physician friend who lives in New England plans to give out cases to patients with SADS (Seasonal Affective Disorder Syndrome - not Sudden Adult Death Syndrome).
I see from Wm.Duf'dOTC's that the big box stores carry daylight tubes, which I did not know. Ott-lite also offers fluorescent tubes, too, but I'll still avoid them, opting for as much directional versatility as I can get.
And about reading (and going back to brightness), one thing you'll notice with a balanced daylight bulb is incorrectly perceived absence of brightness. At first it seems nearly dim. We're so used to brightness with associated glare that it's initially difficult to differentiate glarefree brightness from 'learned' brightness. You can really get hooked when you read or do detail work without the glare and without the yellow cast, especially when you must endure yellowed pages.
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At this point, let me just throw out a few ideas without trying to connect the dots, before I forget them altogether (it happens):
Color balance trumps brightness (when brightness is minimally sufficient).
Getting the light where you need it is obviously important. It's worth buying or building positionable fixtures. They needn't be expensive. You can mount lamps on boards or beams. I mount lots of inexpensive anglepoise lamps (gooseneck or articulated, less than 10USD) in my bench's dogholes. Clip-ons are great, too.
Angular spread is important, and you can get halogens and white LEDs that state the degrees spread.
You can remove the shades and use very small halogen spots. These won't blind you from the sides or rear as they're coated with opaque reflective material.
Dimmable lights are useful, but as a rule, dimming will lower color temperature (exceptions are iris-type lamps).
Horizontal surface inspection exploits raking light (very low angle, usually shaded, non-fluorescent, and generally aimed toward you), great for relief carving, scraping, sanding, French polishing, waxing, etc. Change the angle as needed. If you have a cold halogen fiber-illuminator (you can make one easily or buy surplus on eBay), you can usually find a light guide with a slit-lamp head on eBay for a fraction of the original price. These usually come from the electronics/machine-vision industry and provide an extremely stark effect (overkill, but thought I'd mention it).
For vertical inpection, alternate top and bottom raking light. Look at things from the sides.
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Enough of that.
So what's wrong with sunlight? Nothing! Not if you can get it when, where and how you want it. I exploit it every chance I get. But I'd say at least 65 percent of the time I can't fill all three requirements, so about 90 percent of my work uses some or all artificial lighting.
Optical aids are a whole 'nother ball game. As a rule, when using magnification, you'll need added brightness. Magnivisors with simple lenses (rated in diopter) work well in most available light. Bench magnifiers (there are some really nice ones) provide their own lighting. The best have dual daylight fluorescent tubes, individually controlled for exploiting shadows. I often wear surgical telescopes and use stereo zoom-boom microscopes (low power, very wide, deep field of view) because I have them, which is why I already had gooseneck fiber-optic halogen spots (these are 'cold' lights, as the heat is blown away by fans and absorbed by IR filters at the light source). It was always nice having these toys for woodworking, sharpening and toolmaking (they're essential for engraving, gem work, and so on), and now that I've developed some serious visual challenges this last year, I appreciate them even more.
Is all this expensive stuff necessary? Hell no. Is it fun? Hell yes. You haven't lived until you sharpen your fine toothed saws in a rotating engraver's ball under a Olympus stereo boom microscope with dual gooseneck halogen spots. I know. Ridiculous.
More to the point, is it worth buying or building task lighting for precision crafts? I think so. I've watched precision work performed at Smith & Wesson, optics manufacturers, NASA and defense contractors, and you can bet they do, too. There's obviously sufficient return on quality. But again, you do it on the cheap, and eBay's good for the surplus stuff.
Also, Adam Cherubini mentioned in a previous post that he intends to write about suitable shop lighting (and one hopes, how earlier craftsman managed without trained electrons). I'm eager to read whatever he has to say.
