Which bench light would you recommend? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Groundwire
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 18, 2021, 02:47:15 am
content: Does anyone have any recommendations for a good, heavy duty LED bench light? It does not have to have a Magnifier lens on it although it would be a plus. Oh yea, the type of light that clamps on to the bench and can be moved around for soldering etc. The brighter the better and HD, i only like to buy once, quality. Under $150 would be nice as well.

author: bateau020
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 19, 2021, 07:57:24 am
content: What worked well for me is a led ribbon glued under the shelf that is over my bench (in an angle, so that it points to the open area of the bench). Even light everywhere, no hard shadows. And one or two relatively small movable lights on a flexible arm, for when I want more on light one spot. Never been a fan of one of those "huge lens with a ring light" things, It always gets in my way and tends to distort the image. But I maybe never used the good ones.

author: PKTKS
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 19, 2021, 08:26:11 am
content: There is no silver bulletI have over a half dozen onesRing lens indirect direct usb spots and ballasts......And head ones and rings...Each one comes in placePaul

author: hli
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 19, 2021, 09:26:23 am
content: I can second the LED stripes. I used a 40x900mm aluminium profile (flat), which holds 2 LED stripes. The profile serves as heat sink, and I mounted it in front of one of the shelfes that are on my bench.

author: Groundwire
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 19, 2021, 12:30:32 pm
content: Led strips, good idea. Im not a big fan of a light fixture in your face either. Im just trying to get the best option on quality lighting for the new work bench.

author: t1d
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 19, 2021, 01:10:01 pm
content: I bought a 4' LED stamped metal shop light at Walmart for $18. It houses two LED strips. It did not come with a cover/diffuser lens. So, I covered it with two layers of parchment cooking paper. It is still nearly too bright and too harsh. But, it is on a frame that is lower than the ceiling height. Meaning, if it were on the ceiling, it might be better/fine. Or, maybe I could turn off one of the rows of LEDs. HTH.

author: Neomys Sapiens
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2021, 05:50:46 am
content: Those:https://www.waldmann.com/home/industrie/produkte.8a8181f3475d8de201475dedc6790036.de.html

author: heutnoch
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 08, 2021, 06:32:36 pm
content: Yes, good bright LED-Light over the hole bench width is great.At my workplace I have two 36W (1200mm) fluorescent tubes in a really rugged housing at the spot, which do just the same. But when I imitated a laboratory bench at home I used two 600mm wide 20W LED-lamps instead. Now I would use just one with 1200mm, because I always switch on both of them anyway.Under the shelf I installed a LED-strip (3,6W/m) of the same light colour to cancel out the shadow. Not that I solder under the shelf, but the shadow bothered me somehow. But that was mainly due to the drawer storage units. I couldn't see the content of the upper drawers well.I like to have the light source out of my way. Because it is... well out of the way. If it is bright and well distributed enough I don't need some moveable light, that I must bring to the spot where I need it. And without moveable parts and out of harms way it doesn't need to be especially heavy duty.Being distributed over a width of 1.20 Meter the light doesn't cause hard shadows while soldering. I will attach some pictures. Note, that the one demonstrating the shadows was taken on a winter evening in the basement without additional room light. Some different light source would of course smoothen the shadows further.

author: mastershake
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 08, 2021, 10:49:57 pm
content: i use a ring light i used to use for video stuff super bright nice color and works great i added a magnifying glass in the middle of it so i can use it to look at things up closer with the lights around it. above my desk i use t8 style tubes but these had led's in them and go right into a t8 socket they is a 4 tube fixture directly above where i work and i use 4300k color temp bulbs (i hate anything over 5k max to blue for my eyes)

author: ivaylo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2021, 05:24:59 am
content: The problem I have with LED strips (all LED desk lights I’ve owned actually) is that they lose their brightness with time. In 6 months or so I wished I had glued twice as many, which was already impractical unfortunately.

author: David Hess
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2021, 11:01:50 pm
content: I risked buying this ChinesiumLANCOSCwhich is like half sized for the corner of my workbench where I have limited space and it has worked out really well. LANCOSC has some full sized models also.The lamp is adjustable for brightness and color temperature and runs off of USB, but it comes with an AC to USB adapter. Besides the normal, I use it now to take close up pictures using my macro lens camera through the magnifying lens, but even with a ring light, it still needs better diffusion as you can see below, but I still get better results than with lower light.

author: mjj
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 13, 2021, 05:42:10 pm
content: I like the IKEA kitchen cabinet lights:https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/cat/kitchen-lighting-16282/VAXMYRA spot lights and the IRSTA work well

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 13, 2021, 06:33:39 pm
content: Quoteput a bit of hardboard on the edge of the shelf to keep the light out your eyes.

author: david77
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2022, 09:25:35 am
content: I used to have 2x 1,2m fluorescent lights hanging above my bench but have upgraded to one commercial strip light with 1,5m length and 50W power. The kind of light that is used in shops and warehouses. Now everytime I power up the workbench the sun rises. I love it.https://www.ridi.de/en/luminaires-produits/linia-flat/vlgfp-b/vlgfp-7.html?tx_rmridipim_produkte%5Breset%5D=1&cHash=4075c290658f84ed3db09f683f0f2f0eIt is not exactly cheap but very good quality.

author: JimKnopf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 21, 2023, 08:34:47 pm
content: I have to warm up this thread. I use a Ringlight with magnifier on my bench for some years. The problem with this one is, it adds so much interference when measuring with oscilloscope. Any recommendations for a non-interferencing bench-light?Maybe this is more related to Test Equipment/Siglent SDS2000X HD and @Martin72 or @tv84 have an idea?I have attached 2 pictures. One when measuring a 1nF ceramic capacitor with LED-Ringlight on and the other one when it's off.I want to get rid of this interference.

author: aeberbach
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2023, 04:13:27 am
content: A great cheap option is the Ikea TERTIAL lamp (the one like a classic Anglepoise/Planet that clamps onto the desk.) Then from eBay a round 17cm LED panel. Attach the panel to the lamp in place of the regular bulb and you're done - I used a bead of liquid nails. Three years later and I haven't had to throw it away yet. Easily repositioned and because the panel is not a point source of light you get less shadows and a good even illumination of the work area.

author: JimKnopf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2023, 06:55:50 am
content: After readinghttps://www.edn.com/comparing-conducted-emissions-from-led-lamps/comparison test i was looking for the recommended LED light bulbs like thishttps://www.kroger.com/p/everyday-living-10-5-watt-60-watt-a19-daylight-led-light-bulbs/0004122666063.But it's not available in my location. I will open the ringlight and see if i can do some tweaks on it.

author: JimKnopf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 22, 2023, 09:07:54 am
content: After opening, i found one of the nightmare power supply units. Did some basic magic like tape around it, add metal tape around and tape around again for shielding, add chokes on both ends and wrapping the wires 3 times around it. It helps a bit as you can see.But i have to replace the whole light.I will add an external PSU because the light with it's magnifier is nice. The PSU output is 72 V. I will replace it with a MeanWell ELG-150-C1400B-3Y which comes in a metal case.

author: JimKnopf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 31, 2023, 07:47:13 pm
content: I swapped the PSU. No more intereference with the Mean-Well PSU. It's now an external PSU. It is too big and too heavy to be placed inside the ringlight. It cost more than the i paid for the whole Ring-Light. But it has the advantage to dimm the light. Simplies way was to add a poti. Manual tells 0-100kOhm. I added a 5,6kOhm resistor to the poti to have min. voltage at aound 71V.