Cheap portable machine light.

[thehomeengineer]

Hi All
Whilst being dragged around shopping with the wife in Home Bargains. I had a look down the tool isle. I found a small external 240v led light for under a fiver so thought I would have one. I know 240v is not great around machines with coolant etc but on my tool and cutter grinder and other machine tools would be fine. The light and switch are fitted with magnets so it can easily be placed in the desired position. The light is very bright and certainly helps on setups.


Complete light and magnets to position light and switch

photo trying to show the improved light.

After seeing Captains post of his light on his saw I am going to add one as a permanent fixture to mine.

Thank you for viewing
The Home Engineer

[DIYSwede]

Good price, there!
Don't worry about spraying it with coolant - it's IP65 spray-proof...

Guess it's a 20 W "Daylight" (i.e. 5000K-ish color temp).
You might want to check it for strobing, if you intend to use it for shooting videos.
Its driver can crank out pulsed output anywhere from DC up to 44 kHz.
I've had some success in hooking up the chip parallel with a 4700 muF capacitor to make it "flicker free".

Easy check: Film its surroundings with your cellphone, preferably at slo-mo, and check for flicker.
Perhaps you'd also be surprised at what your fluoro tubes puts out in color and strobing?

LEDs can (and do) vary in color temp between batches, as chip doping is a finicky business.
Check for Batch # on each item when buying several (chips or rolls of led tape), for a somewhat close color match.
Then color changes with age, and the spectrum is far from continous, not even when new...
On some silicon-embedded strips I put up as sign backlights ten years ago, the silicon has turned yellow just over each chip.
Only 25% output remaining relative to when they were new...Hi ho...

Ah- yes, -Making it portable?: 12 VDC means just that - feeding it from an SLA (at 13,5V) won't provide longevity.
Don't ask me how I know, please. Higher voltage than nominal or heat will make them croak.
Lower voltage for dimming is OK, down to their turn-on threshold at app 30-40% voltage
Just 2 cents
Johan

[DIYer]

Thanks thehomeengineer! We've added your Portable Light to our Lighting category,
as well as to your builder page: thehomeengineer's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Portable Light by thehomeengineer

tags: portable, LED