Not quite tools, but very useful for using tools - DIY LED lights

[mattthemuppet]

that strip lighting is pretty neat - a great way to get some good area lighting easily and cheaply.

I got into LED lights from mountain biking. I got tired of my homemade halogen light eating my batteries and leaving me in the dark in the middle of the woods, so I built a couple of LED lights. Then I started making task lighting for my garage as the CFLs just didn't cope in the winter. I've now (almost) completely kitted out my garage/ workshops with home made lights. I used mostly Nichia 119 LEDs which were cheap and had great colour rendering (helpful for wire colours for example), plus the odd other LED that I had laying around. They all run off one light socket - in the main garage there are 7 lights for a total of ~35W or so, in the spare room there are 2 lights for less than 10W. I mostly use whatever alu tubing or heatsinks I have lying around.



One night when the wife is out and there's no car in there I'll take a pic with them all on, it's rather nice Lots of dispersed high quality light.