Lighting issues

[Chicagoareanew]

I've been having trouble getting the right lighting to see my swirl marks. I bought a hallogen spotlight from a brand called Rally which was so defective that it couldn't hold any charge, much less be used. I took that back in a heartbeat and I'll never buy anything from that brand again.

Then, I got the Brinkman halogen light with two settings that I've heard positive things about and that was brighter than a regular flashlight, but still didn't do anything. I know that my hood is full of swirlmarks because I can see it when things are just right, but nothing can recreate that on demand.

Is there anything else I should try? Something that won't cost hundreds of dollars, since I'm already out 30 because of this brinkman light? There are some hallogen work lights at home depot, but I'm not sure how strong they are compared to the brinkman one. And I'm not even sure if strength is an issue, because the spot in the middle of the light is so bright you can't even see anything there, it's blinding. Yet I see all sorts of pictures where people can use lights to do that. Can anyone shed some light on this?

 

[Accumulator]

Chicagoareanew- Lighting is tricky. I find I need halogens, incandescents, the SunGun, and even fluorescents, along with natural sunlight (if available) to really see *everything*. There's no easy answer because different things show up better/worse under different lighting conditions.



I too found the Brinkman less than swell. It's a handy light but not so great for swirl-spotting IME.



And your suspicions are correct- it's not just about brightness and brighter isn't always better.



Yeah, get the halogen work lights. They're a basic must-have even though they're not gonna do the job 100%.



I *REALLY* like incandescent lights for swirl-spotting. Besides the ceiling-mounted ones in my shop, I got a pair of hand-held/clamp-on high-wattage ones at my local Lowe's. These will take ~300w bulbs, but you can do OK with lower wattages too. These lights cost maybe $25 or so. Cheap, poorly-built things but they do the job for me.



BUT...you have to work at positioning them and learning about illumination/viewing angles and distances. It can take a *LONG* time to get everything just right and I don't mean just ten minutes. And then you might have to change *everything* to inspect the next panel. With practice it'll get a bit easier, but it still takes me a long time to do my inspections. I *can* see *everything*, but I have to work at it. On silver, I probably spend as much time inspecting as I do correcting, and that's not an exaggeration.



Note that *any* such work will go best in an otherwise dark environment. Quite often, the only light you want on is the light you're inspecting with.