I've Seen The Light - Literally

[jteneyck]

I've been suffering from not being able to see well enough at my work bench and especially in my temporary spray booth, so I bought three 4' LED Shop Lights from Rockler. Wow. Blazing white light. They are on sale right now for $50 which seemed like a very good deal to me.

Very impressed.

John

[JR1]

Thanks for the heads up. I just ordered two, they are on back order though. I've a couple of magnetic base that I got from them years ago but I'm tired of moving them. I like Rockler but their shipping ($12) is about the same as the gas to drive to their Denver store—with they had one closer

[AlanBienlein]

I got the same ones at Sam's for $36 a piece. My wife bought 12 of them for me but I only needed 10 so the other two are spares.

[Steve N]

John it's usually the simple changes that make the biggest impact. Glad you've seen the light

Sorry had to do that

[gMike]

I converted a bunch of fluorescent lights (Got rid of the ballasts and added LED tubes from Amazon) and also bought some LED shop lights at Costco. The converted lights are brighter than the Costco lights. However a person goes, the LEDs way out perform the fluorescent lights.

At my age I need all the light I can get in the shop!

[cvillewood]

gMike,
Could you give us some details on what you bought and how you did the conversion? I'm interested in converting mine. Thanks

[Sawdustd]

Thanks for the heads up John. I'm in the same boat as you. Mo light is better!

[gMike]

I ordered these (several sets, actually) from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Hyperikon-equivale...ck+hyperikon+t8

I took the ballasts out of my existing fluorescent lights and left only the wiring coming in from the power cord. The tubes are wired at one tombstone only, the other set of pins merely hold the other end in a dead tombstone. The wiring couldn't be simpler, connect the white wires from each tombstone to the white power wire (after the switch if you choose to use the switch that came with the light), and the same thing with the black wires. Leave the ground connected to the body of the fixture as it was.

One thing to look for is a little clip (or wires) that connect the 2 tombstones together (white to white and black to black) and cut or disconnect so each powered tombstone is powered individually from the power cord. If you don't do this the breaker will trip and you'll be scratching your head wondering why. I had one light that had brass clips buried in the base of the tombstone that connected the 2 tombstones together and it was hard to see. Once I found it and yanked it out all was well.

I hope this makes sense. The tubes come with instructions and pictures so it should be really easy for anyone to handle the wiring changes.

[WarEagle Todd]

I've bought these t8 Phillip bulbs from Home Depot. I've had them for a few months and no issues. T8 led buld replacement

You don't have do any retiring of the ballast as long as it's electronic.

[FrankAtl]

I have a friend who is designing LED lights for large warehouses. He had a prototype 1x4 fixture he had built to do some testing and gave it to me a week or two ago. I mounted it above my lathe and it's great. The light is so much "whiter" and more like natural light than any other type I have ever seen.

Even if your young and still have good eyesight, changing to LED lighting is still a good move.

Frank