Painting my on-going lab in black: Is that crazy? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: timofonic
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2015, 12:57:04 am
content: Hello.I'm going to prepare my lab/workbench at home. This will take a lot of effort and I need to get incomes for it, also getting creative because money is limited.The room needs some improvements, one of them is painting and thinking about how to organize all my stuff. I have a smaller room in front of this to use as storage that needs an extreme ordering and cleaning too.My idea is to paint this room because that, but maybe I'm wrong:- To reduce annoying brightness in my eyes.- To deal with DIY PCBs in etching, like a dark room for the now obsolete chemical process in photography.- The paint is easy to clean.- I like high contrast colours, they look more comfortable to my eyes. I use them whenever I can.What do you think?Kind regards.

author: SLJ
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2015, 01:04:40 am
content: You might have to actually wind up adding more lights. You would be surprised how much light is actually reflected off light colored walls. Black might cut some of the glare although I think the glare is most likely coming directly from the lights themselves. The less light to work with the more your eyes will have to strain to see details.

author: rs20
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2015, 02:44:42 am
content: Concur with others; light colours reflect light and produce soft, gentle ambient distributed light. If you have too much black, you'll have to turn up your lights to get the same amount of visibility on a given surface.If you problem is too much harsh light; modify your light sources: use high-CRI warm colours, use dimmable lights, etc, etc. And blinds or curtains if natural light is causing your problems.Adding black surfaces everywhere only takes away the soft, ambient light; making specular, glary reflections even worse relatively speaking.

author: rcourtney
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2015, 03:06:10 am
content: Some points:Check with your local government if/how remodeling can affect your taxes. Finished ceilings with ceiling tiles may be taxed differentlyfrom just painting.We used UV paints from Wildfire that is transparent in normal LED lighting but glow in UV lighting. Your circuit board exposing machinecould add accents when used. Think schematic symbols.We installed Cree lighting to replace florescent fixtures. They are dimmable.A major company I contract for is spending a fair penny to bring their work areas out of the dark ages (1970's).I think it is worth it!

author: Cubdriver
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 09, 2015, 03:18:26 am
content: I concur with the others who have replied - I think you're better off with lighter colored walls. Diffuse lighting will make seeing things easier - it reduces the contrast between the bright areas and the shadows, reduces eyestrain and in general makes working more pleasant. Light colored walls will reflect light around and help to open up the shadows, whereas dark walls will absorb light and darken the shadows, requiring more light sources to get anything resembling even illumination.-Pat

author: rs20
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2015, 04:13:19 am
content: Quote from: rcourtney on November 09, 2015, 03:06:10 amIt's a widespread misconception that fluorescent lights aren't dimmable. Most fluorescent lightsballastsdon't support dimming, but that doesn't mean you can't buy ECGs that do.If you want a large amount of reasonably efficient light with a good quality CRI for a reasonable cost and dimmability; it's hard to go past quality (i.e., $10 not $2) High-CRI fluorescent tubes and good quality ( many kHz switching frequency) dimmable ECGs. Jumping over to expensive LEDs where the main cost item (the LEDs) needs to be replaced every x years (or every time you change your mind re: light quality/temperature) is kinda throwing the baby out with the bathwater IMHO.

author: Zero999
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2015, 10:21:39 am
content: I agree with the above: painting the walls black would result in more power wasted in lighting.If you want to work with photoresist then you need a light which will not expose it and is fairly straightforward. It's the shorter wavelengths, not just UV but visible blue and violet which photoresist responds to, so some high power red LED lamps would be a perfect safe light.

author: bookaboo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2015, 10:24:48 am
content: Dark walls and bright lights also lead to severe shadowing issues, it's amazing how much this can irritate in a work environment.

author: krivx
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2015, 01:34:31 pm
content: Quote from: bookaboo on November 09, 2015, 10:24:48 amYeah, dark walls can just be unpleasant to spend time in, even if well-lit. I've been in labs with blackout curtains or dark painted walls and they felt like dungeons.

author: Bob F.
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2015, 02:36:09 pm
content: My 2p's worth:- To reduce annoying brightness in my eyes.Will probably make it worse as all lights will be direct with no diffuse shadow from bouncing off the walls.- To deal with DIY PCBs in etching, like a dark room for the now obsolete chemical process in photography.(a) PCB masking is primarily UV sensitive - not affected by normal room lighting for the period of typical exposure. (b) chemical based photography is not obsolete - just severely reduced in the amount used compared to days of yore - mostly as an art-form only these days.- The paint is easy to clean.As anyone who has owned a black car or "black ash" furniture will tell you, it is the worst colour to keep clean as it shows every speck of dirt and dust.- I like high contrast colours, they look more comfortable to my eyes. I use them whenever I can.Fair enough. Personal preference is the main issue here. If you want it, go for it, but other than personal preference, there is nothing to recommend black paint that I can think of.Good luck with your new space - wish I had the room to dedicate!

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 09, 2015, 02:55:02 pm
content: Quote from: timofonic on November 09, 2015, 12:57:04 amOh how wrong you are about this. On glossy black even tiniest dirt and dust is clearly visible.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2015, 09:43:30 pm
content: Back when I was at university a guy who was on the same course as me got an on-campus university apartment. These were VERY rare as the only on-campus apartment block only had thirty apartments in a single multi-story clock, and Patrick managed to get one. The first thing he did was to paint all the walls and ceilings black, hang black curtains and get as much black furniture as he could find. The place was like a photographer's darkroom so we all wanted to know why he did this................."I sometimes get depressed" he said

author: Stonent
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 09, 2015, 09:47:59 pm
content: My niece moved into a house that had a black bedroom, it was horrible. You couldn't throw enough light at the room to do anything.

author: bookaboo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 10, 2015, 09:27:00 am
content: Also black is a bitch to paint over if you change your mind.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 10, 2015, 10:12:06 am
content: I do the opposite. Keep one big can of plain flat white enamel paint, and these days everything in the workshop (that isn't metal) gets painted with that when painting is needed. Simple. Metal gets blue or green enamel, depending on which I happen to have. I'm totally over the whole concept of 'color schemes.'

author: rs20
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 10, 2015, 11:57:41 am
content: Quote from: bookaboo on November 10, 2015, 09:27:00 amWhite primer?

author: bookaboo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 10, 2015, 12:42:11 pm
content: Afaik the darker the colour the more coats you need to cover, just going by the difficulty we had going over a very dark purple a previous occupier left us with.

author: fivefish
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 10, 2015, 12:42:40 pm
content: Each wall of my office/lab has a different color...Sunflower Yellow, Royal Blue, Light Purple, Dark Purple and the ceiling WhiteAnd the yellow and blue walls are "sponge painted" for additional texture.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 10, 2015, 12:51:29 pm
content: Don't paint in black, it's depressing and will make lighting harder.I am going to get a 20W LED "security" light and screw it to the wall above my head pointed at the ceiling that is white so that it bounces off and difuses around the room.If you have a problem with glare you may suffer from visual stress. I do and wear green glasses all the time. It can be so slight that you don't notice it until you have been wearing the glasses for a while and then take them off an your eyes hurt.If you do have visual stress you will need a colour specific to you, for me it's green. If I put green glasses on in normal light I do not notice any change in colour, if i use other colours I see the tint. My brain over reacts to Red, infact i have what I thought was a slightly discoloured red t-shirt, but everyone tells me it's a very long way towards pink.....

author: rs20
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2015, 12:55:07 am
content: Quote from: bookaboo on November 10, 2015, 12:42:11 pmJust use a quality block-out primer, rather than doing something silly like using low quality primer (or even worse, normal white paint). 3 total coats max; either one quality primer and two of paint; or two of tinted quality primer and one of paint.