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LED lighting for inside an enclosure?

DocsMachine

Titanium
Joined
Jan 8, 2005
Location
Southcentral, AK
I have a machine with an older fluorescent tube light for inside the enclosure. Said light is dead, both bulb and ballast, so I'd like to swap the whole assembly out with a hopefully brighter LED unit. It's a standalone part, I can fit a light of almost any size and shape in there, though with a max of only maybe 24" long. (Old tube is about 18-19" overall.)

McMaster has a nice selection, and of course there's a ton on eBay ranging from $29.95 crap to $800 repurposed driving light assemblies. :)

Any recommendations for something good, waterproof and reasonably bright? Current setup is 110V, but I could make a 12V/24V work too.

Doc.
 
In my cnc mills I bought chicom led flood lights on ebay. My preference is 3000k color temp so was Able to get that. They have been great. Newest one has 2 50w. Very bright.
 
We have used some of the cheap outdoor security LED floodlights, so far so good.
 
And water/coolant intrusion hasn't been a problem? The light I pulled out, which admittedly wasn't that great to begin with, had strong signs of getting water/oil inside, although not particularly large amounts.

Doc.
 
And water/coolant intrusion hasn't been a problem? The light I pulled out, which admittedly wasn't that great to begin with, had strong signs of getting water/oil inside, although not particularly large amounts.

Doc.

The housing is one piece on these and the glass is siliconed in place. Bright and cheap.

LEPOWER 50W LED Flood Light 2 Pack, Outdoor Work Light with Plug, 250W Halogen Bulb Equivalent, IP66 Waterproof, 4000lm, 6000K, Outdoor Led Lights ( White Light ) - - Amazon.com
 
Before I got my Brother I used LED tape lights off Amazon stuck to the inside of the roof. Super cheap, easy to install, and gave more light than I knew what to do with.
 
I have one of these guys mounted over my knee mill, it's rated for wet environments
Tamlite Lighting TATFLL5030BZ 30W 2899LM LED FLOOD 120/277V DL - City Electric Supply
I have not subjected it to a coolant spray environment so I can't speak about it's actual water-tightness. Tamlight does have some enclosed and gasketed led fixtures for industrial applications on their page though.
Tamlite |
Industrial & Enclosed


I've been happy with their products, they are down Florida somewhere, so it's at least American made. That said, I'm also installing a bunch of the super cheap led strip lights from Amazon run off a meanwell 3d printer powersupply. They're crap, but they work and I can replace them for next to nothing.
 
I also just use Home Depot exterior floodlights. Like $45 and have been running them a few years now. I just spliced them to a extension cords so I could plug them in. Tons of light and if they die I don't care. Just couldn't justify the $800 price tag on the special "CNC lights" at the usual parts places. Both VMC and lathe. On the lathe I put it on the back wall above the tailstock. Seemed the only non moving surface not directly in the coolant. Hyundai Kia SKT250.
 
I’ve never gotten coolant in any of mine. They’re mounted above most coolant though. They see more splatter than anything.

-This is in an Omniturn lathe, and the 'ballast' end of the fluorescent tube was pretty much right in the "line of fire" of spray coming off the part. A light anywhere from the middle of the door and to the right won't see much, but anything to the left of that will get pretty well hosed.

I like those Lepowers, but yikes, at almost 9x12", that's gonna take up some room. The machine's enclosure isn't all that big...

Has anyone used one of those automotive LED light bars? Those would presumably be waterproof, and I can get those locally in several sizes and lengths.

Doc.
 
Bit the proverbial bullet and sprung for a 'proper' machine light off eBay. Picked one up that's native 110/220V (without an external power supply, or at least they didn't show one) so I can hardwire it into the machine without a wall-wart or something. I suspect the original one was as well, but it'd been disconnected (likely because it was dead anyway) when I got it.

Was only a few bucks more than the linked Lepowers, and according to the diagram in the ad, will be surprisingly close to fitting the original bolt holes. Either way, I believe a long thin one will fit a little better than those big ones. (It's not that big a machine. :) )

Thanks for the input, guys!

Doc.
 
I removed my Brothers ancient and corroded fluorescent tube housing and replaced it with a regular outlet (NOT inside the enclosure). This source has 110V output with safety isolation (= good), but almost all power supplies can operate within 110-240VAC so that is not a problem. It has dedicated button on the front panel, which is nice.
This has now 5m of bright Ikea led strip going around the upper corners, arguably couple directional lights would be easier to install. Other socket is in use for network adapter. Took about 1 hour to convert.
 
I was wondering about those LED tapes or strips. I know I've seen some that were well enclosed in what looked like clear vinyl tubing, so presumably as long as the ends were sealed or protected, something like that would be workable. Wasn't sure if that'd put out enough light, though...

On the connection, it looks like this original light may have been standalone- it just had a 110V plug, that I'd thought briefly (as noted above) was supposed to be plugged into a connection on the machine itself, but I have so far found no such thing.

I'm hoping that I can connect the new one to the main power bus in the electrical cabinet, so that the light is on whenever main power is on.

Doc.
 
I use DC LEDs because I don't want AC inside the machine near sensors and scales and such, also for the sake of coolant exposure. The latest purchase is this - 2PCS 4"Inch 12V 788W LED Work Light Bar Flood Pods Driving Off-Road Tractor 4WD | eBay. They are unreasonably bright, the inside of the machine is brighter than anywhere else in the shop. I bought a cheap 24VDC power supply, also on ebay, mounted it in the elec. enclosure and ran cord to the lights. You need floodlights, a lot of vehicle lights are spotlights and are narrowly focused, I have one of those in a lathe trained on the chuck and it's OK but floods are better.
 
I have a machine with an older fluorescent tube light for inside the enclosure. Said light is dead, both bulb and ballast, so I'd like to swap the whole assembly out with a hopefully brighter LED unit. It's a standalone part, I can fit a light of almost any size and shape in there, though with a max of only maybe 24" long. (Old tube is about 18-19" overall.)

McMaster has a nice selection, and of course there's a ton on eBay ranging from $29.95 crap to $800 repurposed driving light assemblies. :)

Any recommendations for something good, waterproof and reasonably bright? Current setup is 110V, but I could make a 12V/24V work too.

Doc.

I retro fit LED lights in my tree mill. At first I just wired the lights in, thought it was causing a watch dog alarm, so I redid the wiring on it, hard wiring the lights in from a different power source, even had it so I could use the controller switch. Long story short, don't buy the cheap LED lights. They suck. They didn't last much more than a year before they started to flicker and then die. From what I am told, a company will have the cheapest bidder make a ton of lights, then sell them. Once the inventory is sold, they'll fold the company name and re-incorporate under another name and do it again.
 








 
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