BCRider
Member
These comments plucked from above are the biggies. As suggested by blu68f100 it's likely that a lot of the woes of the past were related to the bulky transformer based ballasts. The modern solid state models are lovely. The flicker is gone because the modern ballasts operate at a high frequency and there's no magnetic fields. They run cooler and last longer as a result. And the ones I'm using that combine the new solid state ballasts with the new small section tubes don't take any time at all to run at full brightness. The ones I'm using have two 33Watt tubes in each fixture.
I recently checked into the new LED tube options that replace the fluorescent tubes and ballasts. But while very promising this technology is still rather expensive and still not able to provide the same amount of light as my recent generation fluorescent fixtures. So the best bang for the buck is still fluorescent at this point.
Strutstopper, if you don't want to cut into walls or anything I'd suggest you find the ceiling joists and put in a couple of hooks then hang one or two 4 foot 2 tube fixtures from the hooks so that they are about 3 to 4 feet above your work surface. That's high enough that it won't put the bright lights in your peripheral vision and blind you but low enough that it'll increase the light on your working area.
For power I'd connect the fixtures to an extension cord which I cut the end off to wire in then run it up and over sort of like a swag lamp and down to a switched power bar on your work area.
Set them far enough out from the wall that they won't be shaded by any upper storage cabinets you eventually buy and install. But don't set them so they are farther back than the front edge of your table or your head will produce a constant shadow in your working area.
Later on if you add some kitchen cabinet upper units for storage I'd suggest some of the LED tape light and install two runs of it under the cabinets. Here again I've done this in my new shops and the added light to fill in the shadow is amazingly effective. It also adds a second source for light to aid in filling in shadows. I bought mine along with the 12 volt supplies to run the tape from Ebay. When bought this way 15feet of tape is only around $15. And the 5 amp supplies to run the whole 15 feet in one go are about another $10.
For spot lighting I recently discovered a small head LED table work light from Ikea. It's the Jansjo model. The head is small so it doesn't block your working vision and the light is strong and bright. I "fixed" the inline switch on mine by coiling the first part of the wire around the boom at the base and using double sided tape to secure the switch to the base. The first one worked out so well and was so cheap that I've since bought three more. One is now mounted on a bracket I made up for the carriage on my metal lathe where it's performing wonderfully. The one that started it all is on my reloading bench where the bench vise also lives. I use it as a shadowing light when filing to ensure level cuts and as a press light for my Dillon 550b. The small head size fits in nice and tight without getting in the way at all.
Potatohead, it's hard to take pictures of lighting because the cameras automatically compensate and make it all look the same regardless.
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