Shop lights , where do you put them?

[guido]

Hello,
Many types of lights for the shop are always a good topic, but where they hang(ARE),
must make a difference right?
At work all of the lights were on the walls of the shop. Worked real well for the type of shop we had, long and narrow for one vehicle only.
Guido.
 

[fixerupper]

Depends what you want to do with the walls and how much ceiling space you have. I'm in the process of building a fairly long narrow shop in a cattle shed and I've been seriously considering putting the lights on the walls, possibly T5 flourescent. The overhead doors and openers take up too much ceiling space for lights to work well. In the old shop I have too much storage along the walls so ceiling lights are better in that situation. Jim
 

[redneckpulling]

I was with a 4h group visiting a tv station years ago when the guide ask 4h'ers why the lights were on the ceiling. Nobody had an answer--guide say "because they would be pain to walk around on the floor. All i could think was smart a$$ guild.
 

[PJH]

My first shop - they were right down the center of each bay. Not good. My present shop - they are a couple feet in from the sides of each bay. Much better. Lots of lights - the older you get, the more you'll appreciate them.

Paul
 

[C.R.]

I have a shop in the basement and I have 4 foot flouresent fixtures hung up over the saws/tools and benchs its hard to have too much light before I got my lights up I used a two headed halogen worklight its on a tripod and portable
 

[Hogleg]

I am going to put up 2 sets of lights. Flourescents along the sides and spaced across the center so they light up both sides of the tractors that I will be working on. Hope to find some used 4-bulb fixtures. But they tend suck in cold weather for a short run to the barn so I plan to have 4 300W old style barn light fixtures, so I can see and find what I need in the cold on a quick run to the barn. I hate digging for something I have misplaced and freezing my b*tt off because I can't see well.

There is another post on flourescents btw, that talks about some bulb sizes being discontinued, so buy the right fixtures...

John
 

[showcrop]

My main building has just overheads, but the inner room where I do most work (16x22x100 has one 8 footer on the ceiling near the center, and another parallel to it high on one side wall. Then I have two four footers on separate switches that I can turn on when needed, one high on the end wall and another high on the other side wall over the bench.
 

[Awlknottedup]

Main lights, task lights, drop lights, you can never have too much lighting.

I have two sets of six strip lights down each side of the shop, each side on a separate switch. I have four four foot two tube lights over each bench and the table saw, all with pull switches and connected to a single wall switch. I have a drop light near the big door, small battery powered light over the sink, and desk lights over the lathe, band saw, and scroll saw. I also have motion detector lights over both shop doors.
 

[hd6gtom]

We are putting up a new 66'X120' shop at work. Our new shop forman is having lights put overhead and on the side walls pointing at the work. Will have lights put over all the benches and equiptment. We have regular 8" floresent in the old shop, but there are going to be a different kind, maybe some type of sodium overhead.
 

[guido]

Hello hg6dgtom,
I would not use any sodium or similar lights overhead. They cast a shadow! very annoying.
We had the ones at work removed!
Guido.
 

[36 Coupe]

I find that lights over a workbench should be set back along the outer edge, not over the bench center.I use a light that swings over the bench for close work.In an unheated wood shope I use a double 40 fluoresent and a 200 watt edi son bulb.The fluoresent dosent like the cold so it gets unplugged when it acts up.I do have a double 40 fluoresent over the picnic table bench the works fine a 0 degrees.