Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Thrift Store Task Lighting

I like to have task lighting at all the big tools in my shop. It makes the work a lot more comfortable, especially after a long day of working out there.

Unfortunately, lighting is not cheap. A flexible workstation light from Rockler is about $50. Even simple flexible desk lamps from Walmart or Target are about $10 each - and they aren't very robust.

Fortunately, there are a lot of thrift stores in the Portland area, and you can buy a good quality flexible shaft desk lamp for about $3, if they have them.


For most of the tools, I removed the lamp from its base and mounted it to the tool itself or the cabinet over it.


Since I'm left-handed, I prefer the lights on the right side, so I don't bump into them.


For the radial arm dado saw, I just left it as is - no special mounting required.


The best find so far is the long neck industrial lamp I mounted above my table saw. It cost $7 at Goodwill, but would have probably been around to $100 new. It's heavy duty, so it should keep it's position over time. It significantly brightens the area of my table saw where I use the sliding cut-box.


All lights are either direct-wired or plugged into outlets that are on the main light circuit. They are CFL, so there is minimal power going to them. All five lights are about the same as one incandescent bulb.

This whole project took about $20 and a few hours of my time. I'm still on the hunt for a couple more lights for my drill-press and disk sander.


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