Bench lighting

Over at Making Space, the benches are individually lit by a wall-mounted anglepoise-type lamp with a low-energy photo bulb in them. This gives a fairly bright but relatively diffuse light, making a number of tasks much easier. I've been hunting around for something similar for a while (at a reasonable price); I think I've finally found what I need - from Ikea. The Ikea Tertial worklamp - which can be either clamped to a worktop or wall mounted (or in my case screwed to the back board) and best of all, costs only £8.19. Add a suitable photo bulb on (from EBay) and you've got a pretty good light source for the money. The 11W bulbs that Ikea suggest are nowhere near bright enough though.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/images/pro...E079702_S4.jpg

Equally, they'd probably make not bad photo lights.

Yes I worked with one of those for years, but to avoid dark shadows you still need some ambient lighting such as overhead fluorescents, I think.

Dennis.

I've now got both fitted to the bench with 35W photo bulbs; I'm almost tempted to get more, but I'm not convinced it is needed. The light is, as you might hope from a CFL, quite even, so I'm not seeing much in the way of shadows even when running just the one.

It's high time I moved my microscope onto the bench - it'll be interesting to see if there's enough light like that or if I'll still need to use the ring light.

Finally got around to it - I had to clear some of my bench to get it there, but never mind. 2 35W photo CFLs are not quite enough to use the scope with, so I'll be sticking with the ringlight attached to it.

My lighting is pretty bad, need to add that to the list of out going cash...
Anyone tried this type of light?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LED-Aquari...item5d2e2c31f3

I've seen these a few times whilst looking for aquarium lighting, I always thought they wouldn't be bright enough for a tank but maybe ok for the bench - or do LED's cause problems with reflections etc?

You can but try. I went through several lamps before I settled down. Now I have an Anglepoise lookalike and a compact fluorescent bulb, rather like Peter. The difference is that mine is a 15w, and Peter has a 35w photographic, which will be a great deal brighter.

LEDs are cheap to run, but tend to be a rather cold blue. You might get an idea from visiting a lighting shop, or lighting department before you buy.To find the equivalent, count the no. of LEDs in the lamp.
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Regards, Dennis.

I have used a twin flourescent anglepoise type lamps on my workbenches for the past 30 years. They are quite expensive but will last, they are twin 15 watt daylight tubes that do not get hot and light up the workbench well. This is the type I have; http://www.daylight-lamps.co.uk/art-...ft-lamp-d30350
This is my workbench showing the lamp, which has been fitted to the bench for 26 years now and I have only replaced the tubes once in that time.
I have three of these lamps which I bought from a company called Thousand and One Lamps Ltd, who are based in London.

James

Attachment 3089

I bought my anglepoise from machine mart around £17.99 with a bench fitting, I eventually drilled a 12mm hole in the back corner of the bench. You have to fit your own screw type bulbs. They are online.