Saturday, April 24, 2021

Getting more light on the work

I'm 58 years old. I wear glasses full time and I am building an N-scale layout. When I go into the layout room, one of the first things that I do is put on an Optivisor

The layout is located in a finished garage. The lighting package is six recessed CFL lighting fixtures. That was more than a decade ago. The light ballasts on two of the CFLs are past their service life. The garage is getting dimmer and consequently work is harder and mostly done during daylight hours.

You get the picture - blurry.

I came up with some quick and cheap work arounds: 

One is the light on the ceiling fan. The other,  as you can see underneath the layout (in the photo below) are clip on lights. Those work well -- up to a point. They can be easily positioned, but aren't sturdy.

Speaking of the photo below -- it shows an interim solution for layout and work lighting. LED shop light fixtures hung from the ceiling. This is what had been the darkest part of the room. Eventually, the shop lights will be replaced with single-tube LED lights -- color adjusted to represent an overcast day in Chicago in the late 1960s to early 1970s. 

Paul Weiss -- Central of Vermont in Novato, CA -- kindly provided for the low, low price of "you come and get them and you can have them for free." A trip to Novato a month ago resulted in a cargo of four fixtures.

Here's the first fixture in place. What a difference. 

Thanks, Paul. 

2 comments:

  1. On my layout (in a 2-car garage) I had a drop ceiling with fluorescents in side of that. Over the 20 years that was up, the light panels had faded, not to mention the constant dust that fell on them from the unfinished garage ceiling. An problem that delayed the lighting change decision was the garage ceiling sloped up from about 8' in front up to 16' in the rear. In 2019 I had the ceiling insulated and drywalled and then installed nine 2x4 flat panel LED light fixtures and hung at 9' above each of three isles. Lit the room up like a stadium, or at least it appeared like that because I had been operating with the old faded ceiling panels for so long. I love it and can see everything clearly!

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  2. another inexpensive solution is a lighted magnifier, these have screw down clamps and are easy to move or build temporary supports for as you lay track etc. I keep on on my work bench permanently: https://www.banggood.com/DANIU-Lighting-LED-5X-740mm-Magnifying-Glass-Desk-Lamp-with-Clamp-Hands-USB-powered-LED-Lamp-Magnifier-with-3-Modes-Dimmable-p-1611646.html?rmmds=myorder&cur_warehouse=USA&ID=6157193

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