Suggestions for milling machine illumination

Hi, a machinist friend who has helped me a lot, wants to illuminate his milling machine. This machine has a vertical 220v spot and he wants a solution which can be moved, like gooseneck.
My first thought is using 2 led modules like these.
Which are your suggestions about the grip and the choice of led&power supply?

wquiles on here or mtbr (I can never remember which site I’m on!) converted some really cool goose neck lights by machining a small heat sink for a Nichia 219 and direct driving it with a 5V wall wart. The voltage sag from the LED pulling the voltage down resulted in a manageable 800mA current or so.

I’m planning on doing the same for a small magnetic base light for close up work and for a larger angle poise work lamp I’m going to use a 12v XM-L EZW, a 350mA driver and a 12V wall wart. Both lights will have wide angle (45deg?) TIR optics that I’ve scavenged from 12V spot bulbs. I’d avoid reflectors (because of the glare) and narrow angle TIRs (because you want even illumination).

whatever you do, post up the results!

And stay away from anything with low PWM..

That gives me a headache just thinking about low PWM and a spinning machine spindle.

Yup, thats my point. Its really crucial. I have a light with a DrJones driver (2kHz PWM IIRC) and sometimes there is a little fragment of a second where the rotating tool seems to be standing still although its spinning really fast. Not dangerous on a Dremel (because its small and the RPM always vary) but thinking of PWM and a lathe or mill.. ugh.

Although it is not a gooseneck lamp, something like this should work well (Nichia 219 Desk Lamp Retrofit)

I used a triple Nichia 219 star from Illumination Supply (https://illuminationsupply.com/nichia-nvsl219ath1-4500k-92-cri-b10-bin-20mm-triple-star-p-160.html) and a 10 watt driver for MR16 style light bulbs (http://www.fasttech.com/products/1612/10001419/1110706-12v-1x10w-high-power-constant-current-led-driver) The driver uses the PT4115 chip and does not do PWM. You feed it 12V-30V (ac or dc) from a wall wart.

Find you a gooseneck lamp and you’re there…

Thank you all for your opinions & suggestions.
Texaspyro, I really read your suggestion after I ordered a couple of these .
I believe they can be place in two sides of the machine.
I would like to use these Nichia with these optics. Can you suggest a power supply for 220 or 12V. I guess wires in series would be easier?

I would probably use these drivers: http://www.fasttech.com/products/1612/10001411/1110713-12v-1x3w-high-power-constant-current-led-driver (or something similar, there are LOTS of them on Ebay) and power them off of a 12V wall wart. I would use a separate driver in each fixture. 3W into a Nichia 219 should give around 250 lumens. I suspect that you don’t need/want to use any optics, but they might help keep crud out of the lamp heads.

The specs on those lamps say they are running the a 1W. From the looks of them 3W should be OK… but you might need to improve the heat sinking.

Hi again, I just received the gooseneck spotlights:

The 1w led

very simple build

So, I have to change the 1w led with a nichia. Should I keep the 15? degree diffuser or change it with something else?
I have also received the 12v power supply mentioned above from fastech.

Try it both ways and see what works best for you.


The project is moving. Now I have nichias at the goosenecks.
I have to place them at the milling machine.

One question that have bother me a lot: I ordered the drivers texaspyro suggested (http://www.fasttech.com/products/1612/10001411/1110713-12v-1x3w-high-power-constant-current-led-driver)
and I really can’t understand how they have variable voltage output?
I have measure them and their output voltage is 12v, but they work with leds that accept much less voltage.
Am I missing something?

they’re constant current buck drivers, so they provide constant current but convert the input voltage down to whatever voltage the LED needs at the current. As long as you’re LED voltage at that current is below the max. output voltage of the driver (12V in this case) is should work fine, so theoretically this driver should also work fine with up to 3 LEDs in series, unless that exceeds the power rating of the driver’s components.

Job’s done!
The result is excellent, thanks for your advices!