What do you use for a drop or work light?

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Rusty I use a combo. I have some cheap clamp on reflector lamps and a couple of beat up conventional old drop cords. The "trick" is that I use cheap LED screw in bulbs in 'em. They don't get hot and you can drop them a few times

CAVEAT: I did drop one the LED came out of the screw in base which was crimped to the plastic "bulb." I actually epoxied it back in, been workin' ever since LOL

I need LOTS of light anymore
 
Thanks Del. When I saw the price of LED thing at amazon, my first thought was how ridged is it?
 
Hi, Red, I think these are the low-buck Home Depot "Ecosmart" bulbs. They don't seem too bad if you buy the soft white. The "daylight" bulbs are so blue they are annoying. I finally learned not to buy them, even for "outdoor" work. They are so blue they make things hard to see
 
I use a CFL bulb in the reg caged housing, and I cut the bottom section of a clear water bottle and stick it over the curly bulb to protect it, partic. from welding flash melting a lite tube.
Lasts forever, No heat, drops often without breaking, easy clean cover (new bottle), choice of brightness.
AND - the CFL doesn't trigger the welding mask into dark, as many other lite sources do.
 
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RustyRatRod said:
Yeah, those WORK, but they are dangerous. Can cause fires an plus they get HOT and will burn the PISS outta you. But, they do work.
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I use an LED bulb in mine and that takes cares of the burning the piss outta ya part, at least... Plus, you don't need a rough service bulb. The LED bulbs are pretty tough.
 
Frnknsteen said:
I have a couple magnetic, but my favorite is an LED that installs into a standard trouble light. I found and attached a picture. Basically it replaces the guard on a standard trouble light and gets clamped in place so it doesn't come loose. Works like a standard trouble light with no heat of a normal trouble light. I've been using mine for a couple years now. Need to order a couple more.

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this is what I was talking about ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^best dam drop light I ever used !!!
 
DFX 340 Duster said:
I use two led fixtures. One is a drop light with multiple leds and the other is a rechargeable Cat brand portable from Costco. I use both of them to illuminate the work area from two opposite directions. They do a good job of eliminating shadows and providing enough brightness for my bifocals. I like Treblig”s idea of a headset. I have one but haven’t used it yet.
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I have a cheaper one and don`t hardly use it, but then again I cant stand to wear a hat either ---------
 
inertia said:
I use a CFL bulb in the reg caged housing, and I cut the bottom section of a clear water bottle and stick it over the curly bulb to protect it, partic. from welding flash melting a lite tube.
Lasts forever, No heat, drops often without breaking, easy clean cover (new bottle), choice of brightness.
AND - the CFL doesn't trigger the welding mask into dark, as many other lite sources do.
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I tried that too till Ingot the led mentioned above.
 
famous bob said:
I tried that too till Ingot the led mentioned above.
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UPDATE ! I just found one on ebay like the one I like so well, 110 lumen led ,screws in to ur droplight , no cage as mentioned above---------------$18.00 , that's cheaper than the one I bought at lowes. Gotta stop spending $ this month, have been buying porting tools .
 
I have a few I use depending on the situation.

I agree with post 9/10 but back when I was too poor to afford anything like that (about 1988) I took an 18" kitchen fluorescent fixture, and attached a 75 foot extension cord. I also threaded a wire coat hanger through the length of the fixture, so that the hook end was on top.

Viola! Total cost $3 yard sale extension cord. The light fixture came out of a house remodel $0.
I still use it and have only ever put 2 bulbs in it in 30 years!

I've also got a single ended CFL purpose made drop light, but the plastic hook keeps breaking off.
I've had 1/2" EMT straps, cup hooks, velcro loops.....as replacements.

...and I have a pile of harbor freight LED "free" magnet/swivel hook lights.
I keep one of those in every car and several in the shop.

I found one of those dual 300 watt quarts heads on a tree fixtures in my dumpster a couple years ago. Last year I shoved a 4500 lumen 4 foot LED fixture under the heads.
Didn't do too bad, and was a lot cooler and less expensive to run.
 
Treblig said:
Ever since I switched to a head band light I'll never go back to a trouble light. I searched long and hard for a super bright adjustable head light and asked for one for Christmas (2 years ago). I got the one with a super bright light and hours and hours of battery time. It's worked really great especially in tight places like under the hood or under the chassis. But where it really shines (no pun intended) is under the dash. Us older guys need more light than the younger crew so these new high intensity head lights can't be beat!! It leaves both hands free, never falls off, shines whereever you turn your head and you don't have to worry about moving it every time you change positions. Pics after the sun comes up.......Treblig
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My problem with headlights is, they are small enough that I lose them every dang time.

Yall have given some good ideas......and believe it or not, I have not thought about putting an LED bulb in an old trouble light. I think that would probably be the answer.
 
Hutch71Scamp said:
Check out Amazon and search spring loaded LED light bar. You can clamp it under your hood or across the roof of the interior.
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I just got one of those for xmas. It's a Milwaukee 12V LED. I'm waiting on batteries I had to order for it. My son thought it used the same batteries as my Milwaukee impact ratchet, but unfortunately it does not. Milwaukee sales info and batteries are a little confusing, and don't expect Milwaukee to answer your questions at all. Anyway, I'll add to this discussion when my batteries arrive tomorrow, and I can try the underhood light out.
 
I also sold a lot of Dewalt lights. I had a lot of guys that had bought Dewalt cordless from me and had extra batteries and chargers.
 
Treblig said:
The brand I bought is really great.....it started giving me trouble staying "on" after about 1 year, I called the company and they sent me another brand new one on their dime....gotta love it!!!
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Being an avid rock climber, a good headlamp is critical. I keep cheaper extras in all my cars. The best 3 brands out there are listed here. They may be expensive but they perform the better than the Shitty ones you see sold at Costco. They can be bought on amazon or head to you local REI or outdoor camping store. I’ve used all three brands. I prefer petzl.

Petzl
Black Diamond
Princeton Tec (best warranty)
 
LED under cabinet strip lights. I bought some off the clearance rack at Lowe’s. You can lower them in tight spaces, wrap them around things, stick them up under dashboards. Best thing I ever found for old eyes.

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My 2 cents.
Broke down and bought the summit pack of led shop lights to replace the 4 ft florescent.
That alone made a gigantic difference, went from dim yellow light, to bright white that fills the garage in every area and eliminates dark shadows. I can see things I used to need a flashlight to see.
I was able to spread them out more as well and ended up with an extra one that I slide under the car or bungee under the hood when needed.
They even plug into each other so you only need 1 outlet.
Also 2 small led work lights, one on a stand, the other with a clamp, both mounts removed from the old hot burn your arm off don't touch or they'll explode heat your house spin your meter long log bulb type work lights.
Smaller places, a small magnetic led bar/pen light, and a harbour freight magnetic/hook blue freebee light, which has both the multiple leds and an led flashlight, works great, best nothing I've spent.
Once in a while the headset light.

No more rechargeable lights, die and sol, over charge, can't even plug them in to use, etc.
 
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I went to Lowe’s and found a great looking light, on a stand. Unfortunately they refused to sell it to me. I guess it was a floor model and they weren’t being sold for a few days or whatever. Either way it pissed me off. I went to Home Depot and bought the biggest one they had and oh boy is it a steaming pile of dookie. The stand is super hard to adjust. The top is so loose that I have spring clamps keeping it tight to the stand. Sure it fills the place with light, but it’s so unstable I’ve been hit in the head with it several times. It does run pretty cool though, being LED, and I would have gone through a half dozen halogen bulbs by now
 
TheGrateRonzini said:
View attachment 1715279507 View attachment 1715279508 I went to Lowe’s and found a great looking light, on a stand. Unfortunately they refused to sell it to me. I guess it was a floor model and they weren’t being sold for a few days or whatever. Either way it pissed me off. I went to Home Depot and bought the biggest one they had and oh boy is it a steaming pile of dookie. The stand is super hard to adjust. The top is so loose that I have spring clamps keeping it tight to the stand. Sure it fills the place with light, but it’s so unstable I’ve been hit in the head with it several times. It does run pretty cool though, being LED, and I would have gone through a half dozen halogen bulbs by now
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My 16x38 garage is too crowded to put anything in the floor, would be tripping over it and knocking it over till it broke !-or me !
 
RustyRatRod said:
That looks pretty bright, Karl. Cool 442. Whose is that?
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It's one of their customers...

It's all original car and in beautiful condition... 68 Olds 442 with a 400 engine... I believe they said that it has around 80 k original miles...

The guy is getting an edelbrock performer manifold installed...

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The garage does general mechanical work and is very good... They only fix what is needed and don't try to pump up the repair bill...

They specialize in exhaust work and do custom bending...

That's where we took Eddie's Dart to get the x-pipe... They did from the headers back and hooked it up to his existing mufflers...

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Here's the Dart after it was finished and we installed a distributor rebuild with a custom curve for it from @halifaxhops and tuned it in...






They are pretty cool guys that work there... I've hung out with them after work when they close the garage and have a few drinks... If they are closed when I get there, they will open the door and let me in and we hang out for a bit...

I've hung out with the owner a few times... One time I had two extra tickets to the Roger Waters concert performing the Wall at the Cub's stadium on a Saturday... I invited the owner and his GF to come... They happened to be able to reciprocate the next day as one of their other good customers gave them free tickets to a White Sox game... Awesome hook-up - paid parking near the entrance of the stadium, second level private booth with catered food and drinks all free with padded seats right behind home plate and even had waitresses taking drink orders and delivering them to you in your seat... You didn't have to pay for the drinks, just tip the waitresses if you felt necessary...

We all had a great time and that made an awesome weekend... Great concert on Saturday, and seats right behind home plate on Sunday... They were the best seats that I've ever had at a ball game... I told Mike after the game, "We have to hang out more often.."


The owner, Mike, is my buddy Doug's uncle... It turns out that he grew up in the neighborhood right next to the first one that I lived in when I was a kid... I get to walk in the back of the shop and hang out with them when I go there, even though 'regular' customers are not allowed in the shop....
 
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