Downsize No More - Now Preparing to Move In

[roy_okc]

Dusty,

Congrats on the new digs.

I've put up 3 LED light strips in my garage, 2 are these: https://www.samsclub.com/sams/linkable- ... roduct:1:6 and the other is similar and uses same linking cord. I'll put up more eventually. They give off great light and not much heat.

[sswoodworker48]

I also have 3 of the Honeywell lights from Sam's. Had them for less than a year but, so far, very happy with them. Lots of light. I will be adding more in the future.

[masonsailor2]

Congratulations on the new shop Dusty ! Very cool to be able to start from scratch and design everything the exactly the way you want it. I agree with you that the sterile white shop is not as appealing. I have had that and it was not as nice an environment to work in. One item I did in my current and probably final shop that made a big difference in lighting was adding the white foam insulation to the doors. I was not expecting the difference it made in the available light in the shop. The other design change I made in this shop is there are no upper cabinets which leaves the walls free for hanging jigs and fixtures. I never seem to have enough wall space but not having any uppers definitely helped. Another consideration is the dust collection. I put my unit on the outside of the shop. I did it somewhat temporary in the beginning because I wasn’t sure if dragging all my cool air out of the shop in summer was the best idea here in Las Vegas. As it turned out the AC is able to catch back up fairly fast and the advantages of dragging the dust outside and not recirculating it were well worth it.
Paul

[dusty]

My thanks to all who have made suggestions.

Since I plan to retain my full compliment of Shopsmith equipments I will have no extra (unused ) space. I am planning a wall (approximately 8' long) for cabinets that are high enough to roll the 520 under while being low enough to reach over. That may become impossible since I am height limited.

I will be giving up my shop wide work bench. I don't know what will take its place but I just do not have enough floor space for the luxury of that size work surface. What I had was made from solid core (fire doors from work) and they were "perfectly" level and flat.

Probably cannot go outside with the dust collector because of the proximity to my neighbors. This is another sacrifice because I have been spoiled by wide open space.

One question: Can I have too much light?

[robinson46176]

I am quite fond of light yellow and two shades of light yellow are what I bought. It's still in the cans but I'm getting pretty close... I've often used yellow in stores due to the associated connotation of trust it gives to others (you can Google that). It doesn't matter in my shop, I know better than too trust me...
My second choice would be a very light green. I like blues but it tends to soak up a bit too much light. Oranges, reds and purple shades can generate anger and frustration instead of soothing you. Light tans and browns are nice but don't make a room as light as light yellows or greens.
Many many years ago we painted the farm shop all white inside and it made it lighter but I don't really like it. I like the colors but keep the colors light and avoid shades that have gray in them. I'm going to use some light gray as a secondary (think narrow strips) trim color but don't want any gray shading to the base colors.

As for lights I do like a mix of kinds of lights. I still have one 2 tube 8' common fluorescent but most are still the curly CF's, largely in 150 Watt equivalents. I also am running two 200 watt incandescent bulbs in the general area of the tablesaw and the work bench. I'm slowly converting much of my lighting to LED and really like them but I fear that if I was all LED it might be a little too white and glare prone.
Since most of my lighting is low draw I have it all on one circuit but I recently added one 40 watt equivalent LED that only draws 6 watts to another circuit for a night light and in case my lighting circuit ever trips (never has) I won't be standing in blackness with a running power tool. So far I'm just letting it run 24-7.
Rural King has an LED large shop light to replace the old 4 bulb shop lights. It looks like step-plate and has a wire grid over the lights area to protect them. RK sells them for about $70. On the regular LED "shop lights" RK gets about $25 but Wally World is about $5 cheaper... So far WW does not have the bigger lights.


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[benush26]

One question: Can I have too much light?

Its snowing again so I’m back inside but I get to visit this forum for the second time this week!

My first thought is that you might have too much light over one area, where it might be better utilized in an other. Do you have a floor layout finalized? In your old shop was there an area that you had wished you had more light, like an assembly area? Now is your chance to add more. If you are going with LED lights, I seriously doubt that you could overload the breaker, especially if it is 20 amps. If you are going with 4’ lights, can you mount them in place temporarily to see if they fit your needs? Then move or add as needed?
My first thought was similar to someone asking if you could have too many clamps , with the answer is, of course not. However, I think you can choose the number and placement of the lights much easier than after the floor and wall cabinet spaces are filled.
Have fun in the new digs!

Be well,
Ben

[dusty]

This shop will be used similarly to the old shop meaning I will do a lot of work with the garage door open. Ceiling lights will be obscured. I've got to deal with that because about one third of the ceiling will be covered when the door is open.

[Skizzity]

This shop will be used similarly to the old shop meaning I will do a lot of work with the garage door open. Ceiling lights will be obscured. I've got to deal with that because about one third of the ceiling will be covered when the door is open.

LED lights installed on the door?

[dusty]

This shop will be used similarly to the old shop meaning I will do a lot of work with the garage door open. Ceiling lights will be obscured. I've got to deal with that because about one third of the ceiling will be covered when the door is open.

LED lights installed on the door?

I will give that serious consideration. I have previously had area lights installed on the door but that was unsuccessful I believe due to vibration when the door was operated

[robinson46176]

I'm guessing that the door is probably 16' wide? Probably also has an opener on it? That makes it a bit tougher. I want to add a light in my farm shop where it would fall about the center of the raised door but that door is only 10' wide. On it I can just run something like a 2"x6" across under the opened door, hang it from the door tracks and in my case also from a handy beam on each side. Then I can just mount the light under the 2"x6" and the door will open and close above it. 16' plus and an opener shoots that down.
How about a photo lighting boom arm like this pictured, or maybe even one in under the door from each side. No door interference and could swing back against the walls if needed. They could also be swung a bit to just "adjust" lighting. The one pictured said 7'. They could also be made DIY from something like thin-wall EMT or even wood.

Temp - light boom.jpg (7.18 KiB) Viewed 8833 times

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