New man cave!!!!

Discussion in 'General foundry chat' started by DavidF, Jan 26, 2018.

  1. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I installed a dozen of those 8dollar LEDs this week in the back shop. The place was like a cave before. So worth the hundred bucks.
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    Good ol b9c still pumping out prints. Ya cant see the casting bench here, but it's behind the safe. Vac setup and a small burnout
    kiln running on a pid. Don't mind the messy shop, this place is SWAMPED with work this time of year. Make that money when ya can.

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  2. joe yard

    joe yard Silver

    Hi Jason
    I Must admit I did not proof read that post. I was on my way elsewhere.
    In any event i corrected the post. I hope this explains the very poor wording and some bad spelling, ceiling not sealing.
    Joe
     
  3. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    I might have raised this somewhere back in this Anaconda of a thread, but the only thing you may want for down the road is natural light. Pros and cons to windows or roof panels. Day light visibility versus, the expense, heat loss, access to prying eyes. What was your thought process?

    Best,
    Kelly
     
  4. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    Jason, that's your shop??? It's freaking amazing! You have some nice toys in there! Lots of jewelry machines. Do you make jewelry?
     
  5. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Our family does. They've been trying to drag me there for years. I fart around a little while in town. I figure if I can't fly some day, I have some place to go. It's good and bad having this place, the wives ALWAYS want an upgrade. Yes thats my wedding band in the photo, it's a square that hopefully never needs to be resized.:mad::(
    Check out this piece I'm working for Fritz's girlfriend. He did most of the sculpting, I did the final chasing. It's going to be mounted in a large ring and worn as a pendant. Cast in silver. I gave Fritz the option of gold, but at around 50grams final weight, I guess he doesn't love her that much! lol:D:p:eek: I showed the hand in one of the videos with it's single finger cousin. ;-)

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  6. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    That's awesome. I want to see it when it's done. Do you ever have an issue with silver not polishing properly? I have cast a few things where after cleaning the surface up and picking the item it doesn't take a high polish, but remains like white or matte textured. Not sure what causes that.

    Having the ability to make jewelry is big brownie points for the wifey.
     
  7. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Yeah I remember you having an issue awhile back with this one. No we don't have any issues. Polishes up bright and shiny. I had to bail outta town before I could get this burned out and cast, so they will get the fun of finishing it. :( I'll be sure to post photos of it. I will tell you we rhodium plate a lot of silver. Keeps it looking great much longer, costs nothing and is fast to do. Customers love it for certain pieces. This hand will get the dip for sure! More reading for you>>>>>>> https://www.teeda.com/blogs/articles/the-truth-about-rhodium-plating

    Just a few days ago, Miss Texas came into the store. I asked my 21yr old nephew if he got her number.. "Nahh she's engaged..." WTF IS THAT? I said if she's not married, she's fair game! You can offer her a lifetime of shiny stuff! The kid has no game. :(
     
  8. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    I prefer not to have any windows or any temptation for someone to want to peek inside.
    The shop is turned so that the doors face the house limiting passersby views of what's inside while maintaining my rifles view from ever window on the west side of the house ;):eek:
     
    Jason likes this.
  9. joe yard

    joe yard Silver

    Just an update on the lights.
    I now have 2/3 of the lights up. They have exceeded my expectations.
    They can not be compared to the $20-$30 big box hardware store lights that tend to blind you when looked at “ apples to oranges”. They do not put out a harsh blinding pin point light. They do have a diffuser that although cheap works very well. They also are only 20 watt at 20,000 Lm. Over 4 foot. This gives a bright light that is somewhat offensive to look at but not to the point of being overly annoying or uncomfortable. It also has the added benefit of not causing your pupils to costly be constricting when near the lights. I would only recommend them for a ceiling or in a place where you did not constantly look directly at the light. The occasional glance is not a problem but they are bright.
    With the light being defused and more spread out. The available lighting appears to be brighter. This helps your eyes hold a constant focus level.
    It is a harsh white not the yellow soft white. I do not particularly care for the whiter light but i do think with it being evenly spread. It should not be a headache in the making.
    As do most of us who are getting older. I have bad old guys eyes.
    That said the printing on those annoying sockets and the smudged print on old oil cans was as clear as it was going to get under any lighting.
    The spot where I was making my observations had a watt density of .5 watt a square foot.
    I ran 3 rows of lights. One down the center and the other 2 rows 4 foot in from the outside walls of a 25 foot wide building. The ceiling is 8 foot 3-4 inches high. There are no shadows to speak of other than on the very ends of the building. Between the lights. I only ran the lights down the center and the 2 longer sides walls. The end shadows are minimal and would easily be remedied by placing lights perpendicular at the ends and between the other lights.

    All and all I would say the cheep lights are a great find and would work well in any work space. They wont hurt your eyes or budget! I bought 36 of them and they all worked out of the box.
    This price including a 5 foot cord with switch for each.
    I will let you know if they are still working in a year.

    Joe
     
  10. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Joe... My mechanic talked me into swapping my airplane taxi light from halogen to LED at the cheap cost of 400bucks. :mad: Piece of shit died in less than 3months. One thing I did notice it wasn't brighter, just provided whiter light. I'm back on $18 halogen bulbs that last me 2years. SO brightness is a funny thing to interpret. Bright or white, ya see? Something that is whiter is perceived as being brighter. Lumens is where the rubber meets the road. The tubes I've been buying "say" 22watts, but the amp meter does not lie. The guys selling this stuff do! What I don't understand is why can't I get led tubes at 30 or 40 watts? It's my power bill and I want it as bright as a nasa space lab. I'd be happy if I had to wear sunglasses in my garage!
    Post a photo of your new lights running.
     
  11. joe yard

    joe yard Silver

    Jason I agree whiter is not brighter nor better in some cases. I would have much preferred the softer white. Although the softer white takes more luminous to give the same apparent lighting. It is not near as pleasant as the soft white and it is a lot harder on the eyes. LEDs can be very long lasting but have the same problems as incandescent, heat. They try to get to much from to little without proper heat dissipation.
    What, you think the China-Made company would lie on rated specifications?
    In this case I would suspect that they have and would not mind if they did a bit. For the price. It is a sufficiently bright light that does not blind you when looked at. They did deliver on that. Now comes the question of longevity. At this price shipped from China and delivered to your door. I do question if they will last.
    Sorry to here about your taxi light. That is a chunk of change for a light to fail so soon. The price of certified aircraft parts and the mechanics time is through the roof. I hobby flew for a few years with ultra lights and a home built experimental. I never licensed the experimental. Just field hopping within 50 miles of home.
    After around 2 years and 250 hours. My job and home residence changed so I could no longer take off and land in the field out back or road in front. After that it just sort of got away from me. The ultra lights were the most fun and with a rigorous preventative maintenance schedule. As safe as any other extremely light plane with the exception of a 2 stroke engine.
    I have not taken pictures yet for several reasons. The biggest one being I cant seem to remember the camera. I will in the next couple of days. After the last of the lights are up.
    The shop was built around 40 years ago as a sprint car garage and welding shop. As of when I bought it 3-4 years ago. It has never been cleaned properly.
    The previous owner and builder, my father-in-law had run conduit, air lines and wiring on the ceiling that had to be moved or removed complicating the installation of the lights.
    The cleaning began a week before Christmas and will go on for another week or two.
    I fought the dirt and the dirt won?
    While all this does not sound foundry related, it is.
    It was all brought on by the ongoing desire to start casting. After several attempts and slow starts. The mess was unacceptable. To drive on with the ultimate goal of a foundry. I started a quest to put things in order. This means dealing with the shop and 4 sheds.
    It will most likely be the 4th of July before the first casting of the new foundry.
    1 full year after the original goal but it will be in a dedicated small 10 X 24 building with the needed materials to make a positive addition to the shop.

    Joe
     
  12. Peedee

    Peedee Silver

    White LED is in fact a blue emitter with a phosphor coating to give a 'white'. The quality of the phospor and accuracy determines the 'white' you get. Cold white is relatively easy and efficient to acheive but unfortunately leaves damn great holes in the colour spectrum with a pronounced blue peak. Our eyes switch modes between rods and cones in percieving intensity in lower light levels meaning blue appears much more intense than it actually technically is.

    I did a huge amount of work with this in my lighting days, particularly the effect of colour shift.
     
  13. That's one of the reasons I prefer a quad phosphor fluorescent tube, they are a bit pricy though. Even though supermarket LED's have now surpassed the efficiency of them at 110 Lumens/Watt.
     
  14. joe yard

    joe yard Silver

    I have now had several days to fully evaluate the new LEDs.
    At first I was sure that 36 total lights at 20 watt each in 4 foot style LEDs would be all the light I would want but after some time. I have decided that although bright enough to see very well. There are times when a bit more would not hurt. I have noticed that after dark. They put out the amount of light I want.
    It is mid day when the sun comes in the 2 south facing windows and the west facing overhead door windows that the lights could be a bit brighter. The natural light causes bright spots in the shop that my eyes adapt to. This makes corners and a few other spots a bit dimer than I would like.
    It would not be uncomfortable to use them as is but I think another 12 lights evenly spaced between the 3 rows would be a good idea.
    If they are there I can always turn them off if I don’t like that much light but that would be hard to imagine.
    I took some pictures of the lighting in the main shop and corners along with under a shelf and under some tool boxes just to show the light spread and shadows. I did have 6, 10 watt standard style LED bulbs plugged in on the ceiling when the pictures were taken. This made a very minimal difference and although the 4 foot LEDs were suppose to draw 20 watt each. They put out a lot more than 2 of the 10 watt LED lamp style bulbs.
    I would have turned the 6, 10 watt bulbs off but it made so little difference when I was trying the lighting with and without them. I forgot to turn them off when I took the pictures.
    The shop is still scattered and somewhat dismantled but after north of 100 hours cleaning. This is where I am now. The compressor in the front is disconcerted from the main air lines. It is ready to move and be coupled up to 2 other compressors for a total of 3compressors 2,- 5 Hp. And 1,- 3 Hp, a poor mans 13 Hp with 140 gallons of storage. That will all be placed in the back room.
    With “luck” as in I don’t have any heat in the back room at this time. I will have the front shop finished and will have sorted / arranged the back room by the end of the month. The back room does have a small room around 6 foot by 8 or 10 foot with a very low 6.5 foot +/- ceiling I will be placing the compressors in this room. I will most likely keep this little room just above freezing in the winter to keep moisture from the compressors IMG_2711.JPG IMG_2707.JPG IMG_2713.JPG IMG_2715.JPG IMG_2724.JPG IMG_2723.JPG IMG_2712.JPG IMG_2710.JPG



    Joe
     

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    Last edited: Jan 15, 2019
  15. Jason

    Jason Gold

    That looks good. It's tough to photograph lighting.
     
  16. joe yard

    joe yard Silver

    The camera will lie in comparison to the eye. I was hesitant to post lighting pictures for that reason. In the one picture of the note book. The picture is taken with the note pad directly under a large shelf. It is probably the darkest spot in the shop and there is still enough light to read all but the very fine print. I can read the finer print with a squint and some difficulties.

    Joe
     
  17. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Looks good Joe. what size is your shop? dimensions?
     
  18. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    I have started making my own shop strip lights.
    I use plastic screw shell holders, and mount six per a piece of 1 "x 4" x 96" wood strip.

    I use screw-in A-19 shaped LED bulbs with a 2700K color temperature.
    The arrangement looks a bit crude, but it works quite well, but has no shielding or directionality, which is ok with me since I mount them up in the air or on the bottom of the ceiling.
    https://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmar...Bulb-Daylight-4-Pack-A7A19A100WUL03/303574633
    Six bulbs at 1575 lumens each equals 9450 lumens total per strip.
    The non-dimmable LED bulbs are much cheaper than the dimmable ones.
    Each bulb uses 13 watts, so 78 watts per strip light, and 121 lumens per watt.

    I was using two T-12 high output fluorescent bulbs at 110 watts each, and 8800 lumens each, for a total of 17,600 lumens, 220 watts, 80 lumens per watt.
    The problem with tube fluorescent fixtures is that they require a ballast, which sometimes go bad, the bulbs are glass and so they break if you bump them, disposal is not so fun, and the plastic lamp sockets are somewhat fragile and prone to breakage.

    I have my crude strip lights hung on hooks, and I can take one down and carry it outside at night (I do a lot of night casting), and with plastic bulbs and lamp sockets, I can drop it or whatever with little or no damage.
    Worst case I break one bulb and can replace individual bulbs, or just carry on with a broken bulb since all the other ones still work.
    The plastic LED bulbs don't break easily, have a very long life, and they are self-ballasted.

    You can mount the lights upside down for indirect lighting that is very even.

    .
     
  19. joe yard

    joe yard Silver

    David
    The part of the shop pictured is 25 foot X 50 foot with an 8 foot 2-3 inch ceiling. The back room that is not in the pictures is a 25 X 18 unfinished pole barn style. The back room has a cement floor with a sloped roof starting around 12 foot on the high end and 7 foot on the low end. It is wired but has no insulation.

    Pat I was using the same type of A-19 lighting as you only on plug strips. I have a rather low ceiling so when I found the new lights so cheap. I just went with them. There is a lot good to be said about the A-19 style LEDs once up. I originally had the 4 foot florescent shop lights. They did not work well for me and I have nothing good to say about them.
    I keep the shop around 45 degrees when not in use. The florescent did not do well at that temperature.
    Joe
     
  20. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    Joe-

    Your shop is so clean its not funny.
    Looks like a nice mill too.
     

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