Pardon if this is the wrong sub-forum, I took my best guess =)
Just finished a big car project here in a garage with pretty sub-par lighting, consisting of a halogen floor lamp and a garage door opener light + a harbor freight 10 cob light and one of those yellow-and-black ones that takes one or two 18650’s. (… and running 2 is probably not the safest idea, since then they’re 2 in parallel)
The light that my Convoy M3 makes on even medium was head-and-shoulders above either of those, and that with longer runtime too. It’s just far more efficient. What do BLF folks recommend for a work light? Magnetic is nice but not absolutely necessary, I’m used to just setting the light on whatever I’m working on. I see that they now sell ones that accept an 18650 and have a hook at the top like an oldschool trouble light (remember those ones that took 40 watt bulbs? … and ran at about a million degrees, just waiting for a distracted mechanic to bump into them? ouch!) Are these newer ones any good?
For a car project, if I can do the work wearing a baseball cap, I’d most likely go for my EO2 II. May not be enough light for body work but unfortunately there isn’t enough light for me to do good body work;-) Ti3 would be the next best in that situation. In either case I would be ready for a break when I had to swap batteries. If I didn’t have room for a cap or want to swap batteries I would choose my SP40. Could provide enough light for body work and more than enough for what I need to work on a car. Still comfortable enough that I would prefer the superior vision from the light pointed where I am looking vs wherever I could stick a flashlight.
Light where you want it, you can get good brightness, an easy-on-the eyes warmer color-temp, high CRI if you want/need it (eg, reading wire colors), and so on.
In fact, get one with a magnetic base, and you can stick it to sheet-metal, etc., too.
PL47MU **I work on as field service tech on all kinds of machines so I’m in electrical cabinets, under, in, and above machines in dark places. I have learned that floody works best. I like high CRI because a lot of things are color coded. I also like small. I actually just bought a PL47MU from FF-light and I love it for work. It has a magnetic base, hi CRI if you want it and the 21700 lasts for hours at reasonable levels. Plus it has a head band if you need it.
That almost looks like the holy grail light for me;-) Too bad I have blown my light budget for the year. Looks like it combines almost everything of two of my favorite lights, the E02 II and the TS21, into one package. Perhaps one situation where it may fall short. How good is the clip relative to the weight of the light? Can you clip it to a hat brim to use as a headlamp or do you need to use a headband for that? Can you clip it to a button up shirt to use as a hands free light or will it slide down or be uncomfortable? Have you used the clip to carry in a front jeans pocket? Is it comfortable to EDC carry that way or would it require the shorty tube?
It is one of my favorites for work. As far as the clip I can not say for sure. I know the clip holds on to the light very tight but the PL47MU is of course a right angle mule so the brim of your hat would end up right in your eyes. I think the weight would be annoying on a shirt and since the head sort of sticks out it would probably swing around too much for the shirt. What I use most is the magnetic base. The magnet is more than strong enough for the light, even when you hang it horizontally. I would send a picture if I knew how but I have not perfected posting pictures yet.
I am happy to hear you like your TS21, I have one on the way and I am looking forward to it.
Back in the day I started using an old Zebralight headlamp- the one with an XRE LED and a pure flood lens. It was a game changer. These days its an Armytek Wizard Pro (either warm or nichia depending on the day). I’ve found that to be perfect for my needs, though I’m sure many others including ZL would work too. A nice floody headlamp is now indispensable in my tool kit.
PL47, at first glance, is amazing. But its riddled with problems. The durability is extremely low, drop it once and the bezel goes flying off, some have even had it come off with just heat. It steps down almost immediately, and most have measured it well below its claimed output. So the sexy aux lights are just icing on a turd cake. It also is a little heavy for the head, in my opinion. With that said, if they make a g3, I'll buy one. Until then I'd save my money or get an armytek or sofirn for now.
That may be with the PL47. I haven’t been too rough on it yet and I haven’t dropped it. I do wish it had threaded bezel. But a right angle mule with a 21700 is hard to find. The aux LEDs on the mule do look odd since there is no optic to hide them.
As for work lights in general I have found myself taking the cheap approach and using Convoys. I have a S12 that I have been using a lot at work too. For the price I just don’t worry too much about the occasional drop.