Lighting....

I

imported_Gumball

New member
Hey guys,



I thought this would make for good discussion here. I am looking to upgrade and improve greatly, ALL of the lighting in my shop.



Can you please share your thoughts on what would be the most cost effective solution for my 3K sq. ft. shop. My shop is currently lighted with a pretty sad mix of 8' double flourecent fixtures and is no where near bright enough for me.



Thanks for any help here.



...............................................................Chris :D
 
This will be interesting... This will also help me out with my shop (if it gets built)!



With all you guys who have The perfect lighting in there shops, can you guys post some pics.
 
This is a potentially very long thread, as there are so many variables. It is frequently referred to as "task lighting". And, in detail shops we have a variety of tasks!



General, overall lighting is best accomplished with bare fluorescent tubes. Great for spotting a variety of paint defects, particularly orange peel, hail, and dents. Not very good for scratches , swirls and color matching. In our 3500 sf shop, we have 34 (!) 2x4 fixtures mounted in a suspended ceiling. Additionally. we have several wall mounted 2x4 fixtures. We even have fluorescent fixtures on portable carts!



Still not enough. We use tripod mounted 500 watt halogens for buffing, and move it for every panel. We also have fluorescents on swivel mounts for PDR. But, we find those fixtures slide right into an interior, and provide magnificent 'task lighting'.



The hand held Brinkman xenon flashlight is great for finding swirls, and I use it on final inspection of interiors. Very effective.



Lastly, for meticulous paint touch up work, I wear a headband LED. Very focused.



I've worked with Metal Halide and other types in the past, but didn't much care for the color rendition.



Anyway, that's what works for us. Do some in depth research and you'll learn all about lumens, color temperature, color indexes, etc.



Oh yeah, one more light source: take it outside. The vehicle will look completely different, maybe better, maybe worse, but completely different.



Good Luck.



Jim
 
I've spent months looking for the perfect lights for my shop and I ended up

with T-8 sun lamps. They look like normal fluorescent lights but 10 times brighter. Each fixture holds 8 bulbs that are 96 Inches long and 4500 Lumen each (4500 X 8 per fixture) and I put up four units per 600 SF and it's like an operation room !



They're what plant growers use inside and they weren't too expensive at Home Depot.
 
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