What kinda lights should i buy at Home Depot tomorrow?

B

brokentelephone

New member
I'm gonna go buy portable lamps tomorrow at HD, wondering which are the best to detect marring, spiders, etc etc?



Thanks a lot in advance!
 
Also pick up an old-fashioned "work light", the kind that takes an incandescent bulb and has a conical, silver metal shade and a spring clamp-on handle . Get the kind that accepts a high-wattage bulb (I use 200-250W). These lights are very cheap and work even better than halogens for final inspections (at least for me).



When you think you have everything perfect, turn out all the other lights and use this to check your work, varying both the position of the light and your viewing angle. FWIW, I usually hold it a ways away from the paint. Most unforgiving light I've ever used.
 
I got my last 200W bulbs at Lowes, but the local lighting shop can special order all kinds of bulbs (including the 300-320W ones for my "New Garage's" hanging lights). The worklight (also from Lowes) is rated up to 250W IIRC.
 
this might be a dumb question but, if you use a 250W light to shine at your paint to detect swirls, isn't that bad for your vision? I mean, you are staring directly at the light reflection.



I don't want to go blind trying to get my car so shiney it will blind other people you know haha
 
Welcome to Autopia Hpracing0071 :wavey



Yeah, I sure hope my Transitions lenses would kick in :D
 
hpracing007 said:
this might be a dumb question but, if you use a 250W light to shine at your paint to detect swirls, isn't that bad for your vision? I mean, you are staring directly at the light reflection.



I don't want to go blind trying to get my car so shiney it will blind other people you know haha
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Welcome to Autopia!



I've been looking at bright light reflected off paint for decades, no problems. Actually, you don't stare right at the light's reflection, you look beside it where the marring isn't visually obscured by the brightness.



And the light isn't all *that* bright. Not even 1000W of halogen, let alone 250W from a regular tungsten bulb.
 
Thanks for the welcome!



I was thinking about getting a 1-3 million candlepower (?) spotlight, like a cordless recharageable ones when i get a PC, those are BRIGHT.
 
You could give it a try, and it would be handy to have around anyhow. But I dunno just how well it would work for swirl-spotting. The 100W bare bulbs in one of our garages sometimes show flaws better than the much brighter halogens, so you can't go purely by brightness.
 
Accumulator said:
I got my last 200W bulbs at Lowes, but the local lighting shop can special order all kinds of bulbs (including the 300-320W ones for my "New Garage's" hanging lights). The worklight (also from Lowes) is rated up to 250W IIRC.
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Accumulator,



Could you provide a manufacturer/brand name? A quick search of the Lowes website doesn't show anything that I haven't seen already in person.



If I can find one of these work lights do you think Lowes can order the bulbs if they don't already carry them? How about Sears as an alternative for both? Thanks again!
 
hpracing007 said:
this might be a dumb question but, if you use a 250W light to shine at your paint to detect swirls, isn't that bad for your vision? I mean, you are staring directly at the light reflection.



I don't want to go blind trying to get my car so shiney it will blind other people you know haha
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Try viewing the paint surface like this-



Dark Field Micro Inspection:

For a surface to be optically perfect it should be free of all surface imperfections. The surface should be viewed very closely and from all possible angles. Start by looking at the surface in a darkened room, once your eyes have fully dilated, turn on a bright Halogen light beam.



Direct the beam away from you and at a low angle and from various directions (youâ€â„¢ll be able to see even the most minor paint film surface imperfection) this is 100X more sensitive than viewing a vehicles paint film surface in normal light.



This viewing technique is an adaptation of âہ“Dark field microscopyâ€Â� used in many scientific fields. Direct or cloudy sunlight, shaded, low-angled, directly overhead or light reflected from other surfaces, or the type of artificial light the surface is viewed under can all influence what surface imperfections can or cannot be seen

JonM
 
Bill D- NO info showing on my light :( It was in a bin with a bunch of other ones, just lying there loose. The bulbs were a normally-stocked item too. Guess there might be a bit of variation in the inventories of various Lowes stores.



For bulbs, check out a fancy lighting shop as a last resort. My local "boutique lighting" place was a little :p about my need for "bulbs for my shop's lights" :rolleyes: but once they found out how expensive they are (and that I would buy 'em by the case) they changed their attitude. Their catalogs showed all *sorts* of bulbs, a virtually limitless selection- different size bases, bulb shapes and lengths, wattages, clear/frosted. It was interesting just to look through all the different bulbs.



It occurs to me that *I* would probably just stick a 200W bulb in the trouble light you have now. I'm assuming that you're using a 100W one at present. But then doing such an ill-advised thing might burn down your whole neighborhood so you'd better not ;)
 
Accumulator said:


It occurs to me that *I* would probably just stick a 200W bulb in the trouble light you have now. I'm assuming that you're using a 100W one at present. But then doing such an ill-advised thing might burn down your whole neighborhood so you'd better not ;)
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Thanks Accumulator. Yeah I'm using a typical 100 watt one. You sure are right, I better not attempt the 200 watt :scared: :eek:
 
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