Very timely spot for me, i just added 7 twin tube LED new fixtures to my shop. WoW, what a difference that made. Now I have several older florescent fixtures that I will now convert to LED strips and put them in my garage. Good video, simply stated and performed. Well done, Sir.
I made this conversion myself earlier last year. I used the Hyperikon brand LED fluorescent tube replacement lights. I had several old 4 bulb fixtures that I used for the conversion. I disconnected the ballast and took them out completely. Wow, the light output is night and day difference. I recommend anybody who wants good shop light to go this route. I bought mine on Amazon Prime for $42 for (4) bulbs delivered.
I went with tubes in my shop. I bought several of the cheapest fixtures at the home center, tossed the ballasts and installed the 2700k tubes. Love the result.
I have been thinking about LED lighting and after watching this 😹 I now know it's the only way to go special with adding light to tight places for me not only in Dads workshop but for mine as well for my sewing machines for one but also making a custom light box for transferring my designs from paper to fabric 😹😹 also in the tight spots for my jewellery work bench tools and many other places but also for in the kitchen cupboards when I remodel the kitchen all my draws and pull out pantries can all have their own light which can be auto turning on when they are opened 😹 so many ideas are running through me head now so I'm off to write them all down 😹😹😹😹 thanks for showing us all how easy it really is to install🤗🤗🤗
I'm glad I saw this video! I changed my lights to led and didn't think about the ballast and it blew… now I'm going to try bypassing it and save some money! Thanks Matt!
I built a few of these awhile back, using simple 1/2" plywood and 1/8" white coated hardboard (bathroom paneling, whiteboard, etc.) as reflective surfaces. Most important, though, was the LED strips: I was able to find 5M strips WITH a 12V power supply for about $13 each on eBay! They're 5630 LEDs, which are the largest and supposedly brightest. Works amazingly well!
Hey Matt, when the adhesive on the LED strips on the bandsaw fails (because I've never had success sticking those things to a textured surface), I remedied my situation by adding clear packing tape over the LED strips...since they don't emit much heat, I've never had an issue with the lights and packing tape combo. Otherwise, that is a brilliant place to put them!
This is a great idea... I just replaced my fluorescent fixtures with some DIY fixtures using LED A-shape light bulbs. The light improvement is amazing and it was a very cheap improvement. I tried the retro fit tubes and it didn't work for me, it would have been cheaper still. But my DIY solution was only about 17$ per fixture (including the bulbs). It was about 50$ for me to replace all three of my fluorescent fixtures.
Matt thanks for the information on the LED strips changed my shop out a while ago to LED and love them. On the ballast I took them out and took them to the scrap metal yard and got ten cents a pound for them.
I did the same thing with LED strips. It has worked quite well for me. I did purchase some clamps since the tape on mine seemed pretty poor. I used the 600 count strips and they seemed to put out as much light as a 4 light florescence fixture.
Nice! ....and very bright! Amazing how much light you can get for a lot less electricity when converting to LED.I recently installed LED lights throughout my shop and I can only recommend that you fit some diffusers as they do make an enormous difference to the spread of light. Less blinding as well, if you should look up into the lights.
Great idea to retrofit the old fixtures with the strip leds. I was thinking about buying a new shop light but I think I'll just make an enclosure and use leds. Thanks for the inspiration!
Good to see some different alternatives to lighting. i have 8 of those 2 tube R12 fixtures that i haven't installed yet.....now I'm considering the strip LED. cool ideas.
Matt, great idea with the LED’s. 2 advantages to using them you didn’t mention (at least in this video) are operating cost which is a tiny fraction of incandescent bulbs and fluorescents and almost as important - the LED’s will last the rest of your life for most of us so the periodic hassle of replacing bad ones is gone. I’m shopping for a roll of them now and will outfit my band saw, drill press and router table right away.
Thanks for the video. I wish I had seen it before I replaced my fluorescent lamps with AC tubes. I really like the lighting I have now, but the tombstones (lamp holders) were facing outward instead of downward. This didn't make a difference with the fluorescent, but the LED tubes project light in 180 away from the tombstones.
I have created a number of LED projects over the last 2 years ... I have replaced nearly every hall / bathroom fixture with the LED strips. Some Daylight or Pure White ... Others with Warm White (bathroom). I like to use a hot melt blob about every 6 inches along the strip (keep it off the LEDs of course). You can find any size 12 volt DC power supply you need to power your projects all the way from 1 amp to 30 amps or higher. (I usually buy my LED and Power supplies off EBAY, but Amazon works too) The 5050 LED strips are the most common and most for the $$ to create the most light. They draw about 1 amp per meter at 12 volts DC. So if the strips are 5 meters each and you run say 4 strips in various places in your shop you will need 4 x 5 = 20 meters or about 20 amps at 12 VDC. I would recommend adding at least 20% overage on the power supply rating to keep from running the power supply too hard and shortening it's life. So 20 amps x 20% = 4 amps extra ... so at least a 25 amp power supply would work ... if it didn't cost much more an it usually doesn't to go to 30 amps I would - It will probably last longer. Best of Luck with your LED projects !!
Matt I have done this with hundreds a feet of this stuff. We were very successful using a 1/2 inch wide piece of aluminum c channel and using silicon with plenty squeeze out. The tape we used did not have a backer. If you didnt have the fixture plywood would work but the surfaces must be very clean silicon is more forgiving.
Ps the bandsaw idea is awesome. I kept tripping the bandsaw during startup with a high wattage output bulb and vacuum. I switched to led and a timer on the vacuum. Great video.
Hiya, great work, lovely concept. For diffusion you can fit tracing paper over the fixtures . This will not change the colour temperature of your light you would need CTO gel, i.e. colour temperature orange gel to move the 56,000 o Kelvin i.e. daylight temperature towards 32,000o Kelvin for tungsten light. Tracing paper will spread, or defuse the light. It will also attenuate it, dim it slightly. I used to work in lighting in film and TV here in the UK and Ireland. A small point, if memory serves me correctly in the US black is hot, white is return and green ground. If this is correct using green even for low voltage DC may cause confusion later to someone else. Just a thought...The extra light levels and spare capacity on the psu is worth every dollar I would think. You can never have enough light/power, clamps...
"I can see clearly now......blah blah rest of song"! Also, you no longer have an excuse for missing cutting on the line! Haha Thanks for the video, the demo of installing the strips definitely sounds like a great way to go. I may do that the next time my Fluorescents or their ballasts go bad! Like the idea of lights on the bandsaw, drill press and lathe!
I like your idea but I did something a little different. I bought LED shop lights from the local Costco for $24.99 each (after a instant rebate from the local power company; I think it was a $5 or $10 rebate but I can remember exactly - my final price was $24.99). When I rewired my garage to accommodate my workshop I added plugs along the ceiling where each light is anchored to the ceiling.These are all wired to a single wall switch. Cost for the lights was approximately $125 with another $25 for junction boxes and duplex receptacles. The light is fantastic.
When I adding more fixtures and converted them all over to 6,000K LED's I felt like I was in a Wal-Mart! lol I have 10 fixtures in my 550 sq ft. Oklahoma shop, I'll be installing 17 in my new shop, should be enough. They make a big difference, I always wondered how I worked in the dark for all those years! lol We always find a way to get stuff done in the shop.
Hi Matt, the best thing about the led strips is that you do not need a light fitting, you could just use a strip of wood and hang that or even just stick them directly onto the ceiling. As you said they can be used anywhere and do not take up any room, and are safe as well
They may not work depending on the age of your old florescent fixtures. They need electronic ballasts. I tied replacing the old tubes in an old fixture (25 years old) with LED tubes and it didn't work so ended up buying a new fixture (with electronic ballast, no lights) for $12 CDN and it worked. Total cost with new fixture and 2 LED bulbs for me was $25, half as much as the cheapest store bought led fixture with single tube and the light output greatly improved over old fluorescent lights.
I used the ones from Hyperikon in a few fixtures and they worked great. I did not use the ballasts at all. You simply remove the ballasts from the fixtures and wire 110v directly to the tombstones. Some require 110v at one end of the tube and some require 110v at both ends, but it is easy enough to make either one work. Some of these tubes are designed to work with or without the old ballast, but they produce more light without the ballast. If I recall correctly, they produce 90% with the ballast and 100% without. As a side note, removing the ballasts removes another point of failure as you never have to worry about the ballasts going bad and you never have to listen to the ballast hum. The last set I used had swivel ends on the tubes and this allows you to turn the tube 90 degrees either direction, so you can aim the LEDs where you want them. I won't buy the non-swivel type again.
Great improvement and certantly a very flexible system, LED technology has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. The only thing that would concern me is that dust will get into the power supply you have used and you can't really cover up the vents on it. An old laptop supply like you mention, or a wall wart might be smaller and avoid the potential issues of dust ingress as they're usually sealed?
Another thing you might want to try is using the colored LEDs. Most are about the same price and most you can adjust the color to what you want. So instead of pure white, you can add blue or yellow to "soften" it a little. Just a thought.
Nice job using a switching power supply. You should look into a PWM dimmer for your tool mounted lights. And consider white spray paint and using the angled areas of your fixtures to defuse and get a better spread of light.
A few things. The (supposed) 3M adhesive that I have falls off of the LED strip itself, as well as the thing you are sticking it to! (I do buy the cheapest strips though! £6/$8). I used to use hot melt to attach until I realized that the heat from the LEDs made it soft. I now use double sided tape nicked from my "routing template" box ;) and no more problems. 2nd - 5630 (that's 5.6mm x 3.0mm for size of LED) strips are the way to go. The 5050s or 3528 are old technology and don't put out as much light. Matt's LEDs look like the 5630s from here :) Good shout on using the leftover LEDs on tools. I've got a load on my drill press. I have wired most of my shop with 12V so that adding extra LEDs is easy to any dark spots or places where your shadow blocks out light. I've now got over 13m of strips all running off of 1 old computer PSU which switches on with the fluro lights (they're all on the same switch). The PSU still runs very cool... I could probably double up and still have headroom in that PSU. Great video :)
I glued up some oak about 2 in thick by 5 wide router 4 x 5/8 in wide strips the length and glued the ligts in. Pulling wires thru to top and cut in a small power supply and it hangs over kitchen table. I have made many things with led strips and found most time the adhisive back is not strong enough especaley in the cold. Good carpet tape cut to width works good as well as epoxy. They put out a better light and cheaper too
Thanks for the information, #MassiveMatt ....very helpful. I'll be switching to LED as my budget allows, I have not decided on tubes or strips yet, but with the information you've provided here I'm leaning towards strips. I really like to LED strips on the individual #Woodworking tools, too! That's pretty awesome! #HappyWoodworking! #KeepTheChipsFlying!
I did something similar with my bandsaw, only I wired a converter to the power coming into the saw. This way, when the saw is plugged in, the lights are on - little extra safety warning for myself, reminding me that the saw has power.
For my drill press I used an automotive product - I forget, but I think they're called angel eyes. Basically, it's an led ring to retrofit around your headlights. Cheap and easy!
Nice work Matt! For the lights on the tools, you can use wall wart power supplies to make things easier and not have to run long lengths of wire to the ceiling power supply. If that makes any sense! :)
The Costco in my neck of the woods sells direct led replacement for florescent fixtures. You just pull out the old florescent tubes and put in the LED tubes, no rewiring or fiddling. They're $17 for two 4' tubes. I think the color temp is around 4700K, so I don't think they would color match for your filming, but they are instant on, don't have to warm up, and no buzzing. Also, LEDs have a wide beam angle. Try and stick some foil tape in between the LED strips to help reflect more of that light towards the floor.
I've been watching your videos for a while now and watching this LED video made wonder how long did it take you to get comfortable working "on camera"? I think I would get frustrated when things went wrong and end up showing a lot of anger but you seem to remain calm even when you are struggling with something. Are you just mellow by nature or has it been a learning process for you?
im thinking about adding the strips straight to the floor joists above my head in the basement workshop. I tacked thin aluminum strips to the joists for adhesion already nut was looking for the right strips. i think i have them now!
Hey Matt! I just thought of a possibility for the diffusion issue. You could put a piece of white painted plywood on your ceiling and then hang the LED fixture upside down. The light would then be indirect instead of direct. If you wanted to make it partially directional you could replace the plywood with a curved white surface facing down. That would probably be brighter too, because not as much light would be bouncing straight back down into the fixture. I'm sure you could play around with the geometry of the white surface to get it to go where you want it. What do you think??
Very nice. Very smart. Do you think you could wire some up to the top (pointing down), of the clear plastic over arm dust collection blade guard on the Sawstop?
what i have found with these strips of led lights is there is a lot of voltage drop the longer you go and you lose a lot of light as the voltage goes down. I fine that 1 meter is about the max you want to go or 2 meters if you power the strip at both ends. you will see a big diff getting more even power to the led's. and get rid of the wire that came with the led's! PS : i'm using 4 rolls of led's 120 watts each roll to lite my shop and its bright!
One issue that you missed, Mat. When you go to 12 volts the amperage of the wire is very high. It is 10 times as much as 120 volts. So you need to use 10 gauge wire or bigger. Think about the wire size in a car. If you use a lower gauge wire it creates a lot of heat. That is why the LED strips heat up and come off. So, it is more work, but you are better off putting the LED strips into 4 separate pieces. That divides the amperage in 1/4 going through each strip. Which will be 1/4 the heat build up. Where you need the big gauge wire the most is going from the transformer to the fixtures. Also, the resistance in too small of a wire is like a resistor that decreases the light output of the lamps. On eBay you can buy "rigid" LED strips that have wires coming off the ends for easier hook up. The rigidity of the strips helps prevent them from sagging and coming off. Attaching them to an aluminum sheet works better than steel for heat dissipation.
My cheapo shop light fixtures are about a decade old and the ballasts are failing, I think I'll look into those self-contained led replacement tubes. I'll watch the video again, I didn't catch where you bought them
I have done the 'LED strip fix' to 3 old fluorescent fixtures around my shop and garage. All have worked out great and I am happy with them. I plan to do more, as the old tubes and ballasts die off. I had a bit of trouble with power supplies from eBay, which came rated for my load but lived only short lives. I'll be buying only honking big ones like yours from now on! Thanks for the video, interesting stuff and NICE shop BTW. Is that garage door access to your basement!? I'd certainly like one of those! Oh and btw, I used a dollar store shower curtain as a diffuser, on one of my modified fixtures. I cut it to size and hold it in place with a few short sections of fridge door seal magnet strip. It works great, looks ok, for a shop, and really takes the starkness out of the high brilliance LEDs over head. Hope this is helpful. Cheers and best regards.
Matt, do you think you would have better light spread if you lined the inside of the fixtures with the metal/foil/reflective tape first and then stick the light strips to that?
I've not seen the LED strips before. Wow that brings up an endless list of ideas for using those. Thanks for the video Matt! Question though, what voltage power supply do these require?
Hey Matt, awesome video. Thanks for sharing. What you do think the comparison between the tubes and the LEDs is when it comes to energy cost and life expectancy. Do you think one will be more cost effective than the other in the long run despite the cost up front? -Matt
Hi Matt -- Nice of you to share your LED conversion project. This is a project that's been on my mind for months and it took your video to kick me over center and get me started. I gutted my fixture and replaced everything with a small DC power supply to feed LED strips glued to the reflector. I pulled from a roll of 5050 LED's that were pre-wired for 12V. Unfortunately, the amount of light produced by my LED's was nowhere near the intensity of your LED's. Also, would you please say more about your choice of LED's and add a link to those specific LED's, if possible. I'm highly interested in knowing the specs rather than vendor, since many vendors stock from the same manufacturer. Many thanks.
Nice Matt, much brighter, don't look at the light.....don't you know if you tell someone not to do something they do it anyway....don't look at this....lol.
I looked at the data sheet for the LEDs that were used and it looks like they are run at 8-9 mA of current each. The life should be almost forever as the 5630 LEDs are normally driven with 20-25 mA each and still have long life. Even the smaller 2538 LEDs are driven at 15-20 mA of current. The current is limited by the one resistor that is used for every three LEDs. The current LED strip requires a 2.5 amp supply and there are alternatives that require a more typical 5 or 6 amp supply. LEDs with a temperature (K) of 3000-4500 are good for living, reading, and working areas while 6500 or so cold white look really good with aquariums & fish. Try a cheaper strip and don't worry too much about CRI, just select a desired temperature. Home Depot and other home improvement stores sell a variety of 24" by 48" diffusers in clear and milky white for around $10.00 which could easily be cut to size. The pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) is best used on high energy surfaces like metal, glass, and some plastics like ABS or polycarbonate. The PSA won't work well on low surface energy surfaces like powder paint, nylon, delrin, and some plastics like polyurethane or polyethylene. Heat will soften the PSA bond and if you ever need to remove it freeze it. The project came out good. I have seen rain gutters used as a reflector.
Hey Matt, awesome ideas for the drill press and bandsaw I was thinking also under the router table. Check the e-$(y I was able to get two light with two tubes each $35. They 4 foot with 5000k lite my basement shop up like a candle. Hope all is well take care.
How much power does each one take? The reason that I ask is I have a surplus of old pc et al power bricks. I was wondering if I could put an ac power box on tools or where ever and plug tool and power brick into the box and use the brick to power the lights. Would let me incrementally convert to use the LCDs, Use some transformers that I just couldn’t throw out, ...
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Very timely spot for me, i just added 7 twin tube LED new fixtures to my shop. WoW, what a difference that made. Now I have several older florescent fixtures that I will now convert to LED strips and put them in my garage. Good video, simply stated and performed. Well done, Sir.
I made this conversion myself earlier last year. I used the Hyperikon brand LED fluorescent tube replacement lights. I had several old 4 bulb fixtures that I used for the conversion. I disconnected the ballast and took them out completely. Wow, the light output is night and day difference. I recommend anybody who wants good shop light to go this route. I bought mine on Amazon Prime for $42 for (4) bulbs delivered.
I went with tubes in my shop. I bought several of the cheapest fixtures at the home center, tossed the ballasts and installed the 2700k tubes. Love the result.
I have been thinking about LED lighting and after watching this 😹 I now know it's the only way to go special with adding light to tight places for me not only in Dads workshop but for mine as well for my sewing machines for one but also making a custom light box for transferring my designs from paper to fabric 😹😹 also in the tight spots for my jewellery work bench tools and many other places but also for in the kitchen cupboards when I remodel the kitchen all my draws and pull out pantries can all have their own light which can be auto turning on when they are opened 😹 so many ideas are running through me head now so I'm off to write them all down 😹😹😹😹 thanks for showing us all how easy it really is to install🤗🤗🤗
I'm glad I saw this video! I changed my lights to led and didn't think about the ballast and it blew… now I'm going to try bypassing it and save some money! Thanks Matt!
That's brilliant, really got me thinking. I like using those on my projects, but hadn't thought about using them for just shop lighting!
Put them everywhere! haha!
Matthew Cremona haha yeah! Drill press gets LEDs, bandsaw gets LEDs, workbench gets LEDs, that gets LEDs, this gets LEDs, everything gets LEDs!
I built a few of these awhile back, using simple 1/2" plywood and 1/8" white coated hardboard (bathroom paneling, whiteboard, etc.) as reflective surfaces. Most important, though, was the LED strips: I was able to find 5M strips WITH a 12V power supply for about $13 each on eBay! They're 5630 LEDs, which are the largest and supposedly brightest. Works amazingly well!
Hey Matt, when the adhesive on the LED strips on the bandsaw fails (because I've never had success sticking those things to a textured surface), I remedied my situation by adding clear packing tape over the LED strips...since they don't emit much heat, I've never had an issue with the lights and packing tape combo. Otherwise, that is a brilliant place to put them!
Excellent ideas. Never thought of reusing an old fixture and changing to LEDs in the the way you show. Great.
Thanks!
Good Job! I used LED strips under my shop overhead cabinets with one strip along one entire wall. I like them!
Dude, that bandsaw addition is pure brilliance! Good stuff, Matt!
Thanks Brad!
This is a great idea... I just replaced my fluorescent fixtures with some DIY fixtures using LED A-shape light bulbs. The light improvement is amazing and it was a very cheap improvement. I tried the retro fit tubes and it didn't work for me, it would have been cheaper still. But my DIY solution was only about 17$ per fixture (including the bulbs). It was about 50$ for me to replace all three of my fluorescent fixtures.
+Live Free and DIY that's pretty decent. Nice!
Great idea, Matt! I'm adding LED lights to my shop now and a middle of the road LED fixture set me back $50, so this isn't too bad cost wise.
Thanks!
Matt thanks for the information on the LED strips changed my shop out a while ago to LED and love them. On the ballast I took them out and took them to the scrap metal yard and got ten cents a pound for them.
Putting the strips on the bandsaw is an awesome idea.
Thanks Douglas!
I did the same thing with LED strips. It has worked quite well for me. I did purchase some clamps since the tape on mine seemed pretty poor. I used the 600 count strips and they seemed to put out as much light as a 4 light florescence fixture.
You are right I never trust the glue alone on overhead applications. I used a dot of hot melt glue about every 6 inches on mine and it worked great.
Nice! ....and very bright! Amazing how much light you can get for a lot less electricity when converting to LED.I recently installed LED lights throughout my shop and I can only recommend that you fit some diffusers as they do make an enormous difference to the spread of light. Less blinding as well, if you should look up into the lights.
Great idea to retrofit the old fixtures with the strip leds. I was thinking about buying a new shop light but I think I'll just make an enclosure and use leds. Thanks for the inspiration!
Awesome! Thanks Kortt!
Good to see some different alternatives to lighting. i have 8 of those 2 tube R12 fixtures that i haven't installed yet.....now I'm considering the strip LED. cool ideas.
Very cool idea for the bandsaw and drill press.
Costco had some LED 4' fixtures for about $20 a while back that work awesome in my shop.
Good job Matt - I have done that very thing with two fixtures and love the brightness level. Thanks
Thanks Lynn!
Matt, great idea with the LED’s. 2 advantages to using them you didn’t mention (at least in this video) are operating cost which is a tiny fraction of incandescent bulbs and fluorescents and almost as important - the LED’s will last the rest of your life for most of us so the periodic hassle of replacing bad ones is gone. I’m shopping for a roll of them now and will outfit my band saw, drill press and router table right away.
Thanks for the video. I wish I had seen it before I replaced my fluorescent lamps with AC tubes. I really like the lighting I have now, but the tombstones (lamp holders) were facing outward instead of downward. This didn't make a difference with the fluorescent, but the LED tubes project light in 180 away from the tombstones.
I have created a number of LED projects over the last 2 years ... I have replaced nearly every hall / bathroom fixture with the LED strips. Some Daylight or Pure White ... Others with Warm White (bathroom). I like to use a hot melt blob about every 6 inches along the strip (keep it off the LEDs of course). You can find any size 12 volt DC power supply you need to power your projects all the way from 1 amp to 30 amps or higher. (I usually buy my LED and Power supplies off EBAY, but Amazon works too) The 5050 LED strips are the most common and most for the $$ to create the most light. They draw about 1 amp per meter at 12 volts DC. So if the strips are 5 meters each and you run say 4 strips in various places in your shop you will need 4 x 5 = 20 meters or about 20 amps at 12 VDC. I would recommend adding at least 20% overage on the power supply rating to keep from running the power supply too hard and shortening it's life. So 20 amps x 20% = 4 amps extra ... so at least a 25 amp power supply would work ... if it didn't cost much more an it usually doesn't to go to 30 amps I would - It will probably last longer. Best of Luck with your LED projects !!
Loved the thorough walk through and explanation of your methodology. Good work sir.
Thanks Carl!
great Solutions their Matt it was a heck of an idea. I especially like the lights set up at different locations that sure made a big big difference.
Matt I have done this with hundreds a feet of this stuff. We were very successful using a 1/2 inch wide piece of aluminum c channel and using silicon with plenty squeeze out. The tape we used did not have a backer. If you didnt have the fixture plywood would work but the surfaces must be very clean silicon is more forgiving.
Ps the bandsaw idea is awesome. I kept tripping the bandsaw during startup with a high wattage output bulb and vacuum. I switched to led and a timer on the vacuum. Great video.
Idea of lighting for bandsaw, etc. very neat. Thanks Matt.
Hiya, great work, lovely concept. For diffusion you can fit tracing paper over the fixtures . This will not change the colour temperature of your light you would need CTO gel, i.e. colour temperature orange gel to move the 56,000 o Kelvin i.e. daylight temperature towards 32,000o Kelvin for tungsten light. Tracing paper will spread, or defuse the light. It will also attenuate it, dim it slightly. I used to work in lighting in film and TV here in the UK and Ireland. A small point, if memory serves me correctly in the US black is hot, white is return and green ground. If this is correct using green even for low voltage DC may cause confusion later to someone else. Just a thought...The extra light levels and spare capacity on the psu is worth every dollar I would think. You can never have enough light/power, clamps...
"I can see clearly now......blah blah rest of song"! Also, you no longer have an excuse for missing cutting on the line! Haha
Thanks for the video, the demo of installing the strips definitely sounds like a great way to go. I may do that the next time my Fluorescents or their ballasts go bad! Like the idea of lights on the bandsaw, drill press and lathe!
I'm about to add lighting above my assembly table. This seems like a great option for me. Thanks Matt!
I like your idea but I did something a little different. I bought LED shop lights from the local Costco for $24.99 each (after a instant rebate from the local power company; I think it was a $5 or $10 rebate but I can remember exactly - my final price was $24.99). When I rewired my garage to accommodate my workshop I added plugs along the ceiling where each light is anchored to the ceiling.These are all wired to a single wall switch. Cost for the lights was approximately $125 with another $25 for junction boxes and duplex receptacles. The light is fantastic.
When I adding more fixtures and converted them all over to 6,000K LED's I felt like I was in a Wal-Mart! lol I have 10 fixtures in my 550 sq ft. Oklahoma shop, I'll be installing 17 in my new shop, should be enough. They make a big difference, I always wondered how I worked in the dark for all those years! lol We always find a way to get stuff done in the shop.
Hi Matt, the best thing about the led strips is that you do not need a light fitting, you could just use a strip of wood and hang that or even just stick them directly onto the ceiling. As you said they can be used anywhere and do not take up any room, and are safe as well
Fantastic Idea matt! thanks for the inspuration.
Thanks James!
Matthew Cremona vfgjbgžuz3
Thanks Matt.
I like those LED tubes.
I think I'll switch to those when I need to replace bulbs next time.
They may not work depending on the age of your old florescent fixtures. They need electronic ballasts. I tied replacing the old tubes in an old fixture (25 years old) with LED tubes and it didn't work so ended up buying a new fixture (with electronic ballast, no lights) for $12 CDN and it worked. Total cost with new fixture and 2 LED bulbs for me was $25, half as much as the cheapest store bought led fixture with single tube and the light output greatly improved over old fluorescent lights.
I used the ones from Hyperikon in a few fixtures and they worked great. I did not use the ballasts at all. You simply remove the ballasts from the fixtures and wire 110v directly to the tombstones. Some require 110v at one end of the tube and some require 110v at both ends, but it is easy enough to make either one work.
Some of these tubes are designed to work with or without the old ballast, but they produce more light without the ballast. If I recall correctly, they produce 90% with the ballast and 100% without. As a side note, removing the ballasts removes another point of failure as you never have to worry about the ballasts going bad and you never have to listen to the ballast hum.
The last set I used had swivel ends on the tubes and this allows you to turn the tube 90 degrees either direction, so you can aim the LEDs where you want them. I won't buy the non-swivel type again.
Great video! I was going to do the same experiment. So thanks for sharing and saving me the effort.
haha you're welcome!
illuminating idea , nice way to improve and up-cycle old fixtures .
haha thanks Joseph!
Thanks Matt, I have been looking for a way to improve the lights in my shop. I think I just found it. That will do the job. Thanks again.
awesome! Thanks Jesse!
My mind is racing with ideas for my shop now thank you so much
Awesome to hear! Thanks Tom!
Not bad. I've got one more LED to put up in my shop. Fantastic for around the lathe.
I love the lights on the bandsaw
+Jack Bench Woodworking thanks Charlie!
Great improvement and certantly a very flexible system, LED technology has come on in leaps and bounds in recent years. The only thing that would concern me is that dust will get into the power supply you have used and you can't really cover up the vents on it. An old laptop supply like you mention, or a wall wart might be smaller and avoid the potential issues of dust ingress as they're usually sealed?
I'll keep an eye on it but I'm not too worried. I blow my shop out pretty often so I can easily keep the supply clean.
Another thing you might want to try is using the colored LEDs. Most are about the same price and most you can adjust the color to what you want. So instead of pure white, you can add blue or yellow to "soften" it a little. Just a thought.
Some great ideas, my old lights burn out and the ballasts cost more that the fixtures. I will look into your conversion. Thx
+David Boeff thanks David!
Nice job using a switching power supply. You should look into a PWM dimmer for your tool mounted lights. And consider white spray paint and using the angled areas of your fixtures to defuse and get a better spread of light.
Cool stuff Matt, love the versitility of the LED strips.
Thanks Fred!
That's a great set up Matt !
A few things. The (supposed) 3M adhesive that I have falls off of the LED strip itself, as well as the thing you are sticking it to! (I do buy the cheapest strips though! £6/$8). I used to use hot melt to attach until I realized that the heat from the LEDs made it soft. I now use double sided tape nicked from my "routing template" box ;) and no more problems.
2nd - 5630 (that's 5.6mm x 3.0mm for size of LED) strips are the way to go. The 5050s or 3528 are old technology and don't put out as much light. Matt's LEDs look like the 5630s from here :)
Good shout on using the leftover LEDs on tools. I've got a load on my drill press. I have wired most of my shop with 12V so that adding extra LEDs is easy to any dark spots or places where your shadow blocks out light.
I've now got over 13m of strips all running off of 1 old computer PSU which switches on with the fluro lights (they're all on the same switch). The PSU still runs very cool... I could probably double up and still have headroom in that PSU.
Great video :)
I glued up some oak about 2 in thick by 5 wide router 4 x 5/8 in wide strips the length and glued the ligts in. Pulling wires thru to top and cut in a small power supply and it hangs over kitchen table. I have made many things with led strips and found most time the adhisive back is not strong enough especaley in the cold. Good carpet tape cut to width works good as well as epoxy. They put out a better light and cheaper too
Thanks for the information, #MassiveMatt ....very helpful. I'll be switching to LED as my budget allows, I have not decided on tubes or strips yet, but with the information you've provided here I'm leaning towards strips. I really like to LED strips on the individual #Woodworking tools, too! That's pretty awesome! #HappyWoodworking! #KeepTheChipsFlying!
I am new to your channel and i like your wood working style and the way you utilize different types of wood
Thank you!
I will try something similar in my shop. Can't have enough lights. Thanks for the inspiration Matt !
I just ordered LED lamps from Home Depot... cannot wait to take before and after pics of crappy flouro versus these!!
Great idea Matt, would love to add a few of these to my shop.
Thanks Dale!
I did something similar with my bandsaw, only I wired a converter to the power coming into the saw. This way, when the saw is plugged in, the lights are on - little extra safety warning for myself, reminding me that the saw has power.
Great idea...and yes that is a lot of light, and the idea on the bandsaw....awesomeness
Thanks Robert!
Hi Matt. Great video and I think I will do the strip lighting in hard to see areas soon.
Thanks Dave!
Looks like a good inexpensive way to convert. Thanks for the video
Great idea, one suggestion, I use Green Wire as a power source even in a DC application. Green is designated as AC ground.
For my drill press I used an automotive product - I forget, but I think they're called angel eyes. Basically, it's an led ring to retrofit around your headlights. Cheap and easy!
Nice work Matt! For the lights on the tools, you can use wall wart power supplies to make things easier and not have to run long lengths of wire to the ceiling power supply. If that makes any sense! :)
I used to have so many of those but I threw them all out last year lol
Always the case, isn't it!
The Costco in my neck of the woods sells direct led replacement for florescent fixtures. You just pull out the old florescent tubes and put in the LED tubes, no rewiring or fiddling. They're $17 for two 4' tubes. I think the color temp is around 4700K, so I don't think they would color match for your filming, but they are instant on, don't have to warm up, and no buzzing. Also, LEDs have a wide beam angle. Try and stick some foil tape in between the LED strips to help reflect more of that light towards the floor.
I've been watching your videos for a while now and watching this LED video made wonder how long did it take you to get comfortable working "on camera"? I think I would get frustrated when things went wrong and end up showing a lot of anger but you seem to remain calm even when you are struggling with something. Are you just mellow by nature or has it been a learning process for you?
im thinking about adding the strips straight to the floor joists above my head in the basement workshop. I tacked thin aluminum strips to the joists for adhesion already nut was looking for the right strips. i think i have them now!
Hey Matt! I just thought of a possibility for the diffusion issue. You could put a piece of white painted plywood on your ceiling and then hang the LED fixture upside down. The light would then be indirect instead of direct. If you wanted to make it partially directional you could replace the plywood with a curved white surface facing down. That would probably be brighter too, because not as much light would be bouncing straight back down into the fixture. I'm sure you could play around with the geometry of the white surface to get it to go where you want it. What do you think??
Excellent idea, I will have to invest in some LED strip for my shop too! Thanks Matt!
I cant believe how I used to work before I had led lights. Huge difference for a fairly low price!
lol maybe you didn't work hhaha
Why do you need a fixture? just attach them to your ceiling in long rows. Great video and you opened up a few ideas. Thank you!
Great Ideas. It would be nice to put some under shelves to provide hidden lighting for each shelf.
Great idea on the bandsaw. Gonna try that - Thanks!
Thanks Glen!
What did you use for power supply on band saw led's? Great idea Matt Thanks
thank you . the led lights look good . i got a 4 ft. t5 good light sure beat the candle i was using
Very useful,
Just a quick question - could you not simply have wired the replacement tubes directly from the other end and ignore the ballast?
Very nice. Very smart. Do you think you could wire some up to the top (pointing down), of the clear plastic over arm dust collection blade guard on the Sawstop?
Yeah, I don't see why not. You can run the wires along the dust hose to keep those out of the way. Thanks George!
was there a fan in that PS? I love the LED conversion I did in my shop
It doesn't have a fan. I've been running them for 6 hours now to see how hot the PS gets. It's hot but I can still touch it.
I had literally been thinking of doing the exact same thing with my bandsaw. Love to see how well it worked. I am right behind you.
it's pretty close to life changing
Eww crum! Turn them off until you clean that end of the shop! 😀
Very nice, and the comparison is nice, very much appreciated. Kudos to you again.
Another great project. One question, living in the great cold north the fluorescence do not do well in the winter. Does the LEDs have the same issue?
Thanks! They come up right away. My shop isn't too cold but it does take a few minutes for my florescents to come up to full output
what i have found with these strips of led lights is there is a lot of voltage drop the longer you go and you lose a lot of light as the voltage goes down. I fine that 1 meter is about the max you want to go or 2 meters if you power the strip at both ends. you will see a big diff getting more even power to the led's. and get rid of the wire that came with the led's!
PS : i'm using 4 rolls of led's 120 watts each roll to lite my shop and its bright!
One issue that you missed, Mat. When you go to 12 volts the amperage of the wire is very high. It is 10 times as much as 120 volts. So you need to use 10 gauge wire or bigger. Think about the wire size in a car. If you use a lower gauge wire it creates a lot of heat. That is why the LED strips heat up and come off. So, it is more work, but you are better off putting the LED strips into 4 separate pieces. That divides the amperage in 1/4 going through each strip. Which will be 1/4 the heat build up. Where you need the big gauge wire the most is going from the transformer to the fixtures. Also, the resistance in too small of a wire is like a resistor that decreases the light output of the lamps. On eBay you can buy "rigid" LED strips that have wires coming off the ends for easier hook up. The rigidity of the strips helps prevent them from sagging and coming off. Attaching them to an aluminum sheet works better than steel for heat dissipation.
My cheapo shop light fixtures are about a decade old and the ballasts are failing, I think I'll look into those self-contained led replacement tubes. I'll watch the video again, I didn't catch where you bought them
I have done the 'LED strip fix' to 3 old fluorescent fixtures around my shop and garage. All have worked out great and I am happy with them. I plan to do more, as the old tubes and ballasts die off. I had a bit of trouble with power supplies from eBay, which came rated for my load but lived only short lives. I'll be buying only honking big ones like yours from now on! Thanks for the video, interesting stuff and NICE shop BTW. Is that garage door access to your basement!? I'd certainly like one of those! Oh and btw, I used a dollar store shower curtain as a diffuser, on one of my modified fixtures. I cut it to size and hold it in place with a few short sections of fridge door seal magnet strip. It works great, looks ok, for a shop, and really takes the starkness out of the high brilliance LEDs over head. Hope this is helpful. Cheers and best regards.
Matt, do you think you would have better light spread if you lined the inside of the fixtures with the metal/foil/reflective tape first and then stick the light strips to that?
I've not seen the LED strips before. Wow that brings up an endless list of ideas for using those. Thanks for the video Matt! Question though, what voltage power supply do these require?
so in my recent search for new shop lights, sams club has the best deal. 10x 4' linkable led for $300, they also have it in a 5x pack I believe.
clamps and light two things you can't have enough of in the shop
truth!
Hey Matt, awesome video. Thanks for sharing. What you do think the comparison between the tubes and the LEDs is when it comes to energy cost and life expectancy. Do you think one will be more cost effective than the other in the long run despite the cost up front?
-Matt
Hi Matt -- Nice of you to share your LED conversion project. This is a project that's been on my mind for months and it took your video to kick me over center and get me started. I gutted my fixture and replaced everything with a small DC power supply to feed LED strips glued to the reflector. I pulled from a roll of 5050 LED's that were pre-wired for 12V. Unfortunately, the amount of light produced by my LED's was nowhere near the intensity of your LED's. Also, would you please say more about your choice of LED's and add a link to those specific LED's, if possible. I'm highly interested in knowing the specs rather than vendor, since many vendors stock from the same manufacturer. Many thanks.
Nice Matt, much brighter, don't look at the light.....don't you know if you tell someone not to do something they do it anyway....don't look at this....lol.
Great video. I've been thinking of doing this myself. I'm wondering if these lights give off buzzing or humming on your a.m. or FM radio in your shop?
I looked at the data sheet for the LEDs that were used and it looks like they are run at 8-9 mA of current each. The life should be almost forever as the 5630 LEDs are normally driven with 20-25 mA each and still have long life. Even the smaller 2538 LEDs are driven at 15-20 mA of current. The current is limited by the one resistor that is used for every three LEDs. The current LED strip requires a 2.5 amp supply and there are alternatives that require a more typical 5 or 6 amp supply. LEDs with a temperature (K) of 3000-4500 are good for living, reading, and working areas while 6500 or so cold white look really good with aquariums & fish. Try a cheaper strip and don't worry too much about CRI, just select a desired temperature. Home Depot and other home improvement stores sell a variety of 24" by 48" diffusers in clear and milky white for around $10.00 which could easily be cut to size. The pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) is best used on high energy surfaces like metal, glass, and some plastics like ABS or polycarbonate. The PSA won't work well on low surface energy surfaces like powder paint, nylon, delrin, and some plastics like polyurethane or polyethylene. Heat will soften the PSA bond and if you ever need to remove it freeze it. The project came out good. I have seen rain gutters used as a reflector.
Thanks for the tips!
Great work Matt!
Awesome upgrade! That bandsaw light upgrade is amazing! How many light fixtures would you be able to power off of that single power supply?
Thanks! I believe that supply is maxed out now with the two fixtures and the few leds on the bandsaw
great idea ---especially on the bandsaw
Thanks Richard!
Hey Matt, awesome ideas for the drill press and bandsaw I was thinking also under the router table. Check the e-$(y I was able to get two light with two tubes each $35. They 4 foot with 5000k lite my basement shop up like a candle. Hope all is well take care.
How much power does each one take? The reason that I ask is I have a surplus of old pc et al power bricks. I was wondering if I could put an ac power box on tools or where ever and plug tool and power brick into the box and use the brick to power the lights. Would let me incrementally convert to use the LCDs, Use some transformers that I just couldn’t throw out, ...
A great way to avoid cutting wood. LOL! LED's are becoming competitive. A good concept for rehabbing a fixture with a bad ballast.
Realistically it's getting to a point where its more affordable to convert to LED than replace the ballast.
I'm going to put some led strips on my dovetail saw lol.
Thanks! That was cool. Also, got me thinking about all the places I could use LED strip lights. Did you have a separate power supply for the band saw?
I used the same supply and ran wires to it. I may put it on it's own supply some day. Thanks!
Hey Matt! Nice job on this video!
Thanks Max!