Sherline Mill Ring Light

[No Idea]

Hi All

 

I know that a few builders on here use a Sherline mill as do I.  I have found that my eyesight needs more light as I get older so I have wanted for a while to make a decent ring light for my mill.  I found some cheap 60mm ring lights that run on 12/24v that seemed to be about the right size.  Unfortunately it couldn't be directly attached to the mill head as it would remove any access to the Tommy bar spindle hole.  So a carrier was required and I bashed this up out of 10mm aluminium.

 

The slot allows the wiring to travel up through the mill head which is already there.  It keeps the look of it wiring free

I milled a small slot each side to allow for the Tommy bar to reach the spindle

Its held in place with double sided tape

And the wiring is encased in polyester braiding to try and make it look as though it has always been there

The results are really good

I hope this helps someone or gives a bit of inspiration to make the lighting on your mill a bit better - Anyway I can now get back to ship building instead of filling my workshop with aluminium swarf!!

 

Mark

 

 

 

[paul ron]

nicely done! i may do something similar for my drill press although it will have to be with a much larger hole to clear a 1/2" chuck. and will be fixed so it wont travel wtth the quill. right now ive got a light on a goose neck but i hate the side shadow.

 

thanks

[Dr PR]

Very nice! You can't get too much light on the work area!!

[mgdawson]

Hey Mark, nice job, I picked up a couple of those, one for my mill & one for the drill press.

 

Everyone, if you're looking for these, search for 'Angel Eyes' on the chinese stores, there are all different sizes, they're actually sold as car headlight surrounds.

 

Mark D

[wefalck]

Well engineered! It's only a pity that these 'angel's eyes' for cars only come in this unpleasant cold white. 

 

I made a similar one for my antique mill some ten years ago. As it is cast iron, I attached the ring-light with a neodynium magnet.

[No Idea]

7 hours ago, mgdawson said:

Hey Mark, nice job, I picked up a couple of those, one for my mill & one for the drill press.

 

Everyone, if you're looking for these, search for 'Angel Eyes' on the chinese stores, there are all different sizes, they're actually sold as car headlight surrounds.

 

Mark D

Hi Mark - yep you are spot on they are sold as car accessories.  I got two of these lights for £10 delivered

2 hours ago, wefalck said:

Well engineered! It's only a pity that these 'angel's eyes' for cars only come in this unpleasant cold white. 

 

I made a similar one for my antique mill some ten years ago. As it is cast iron, I attached the ring-light with a neodynium magnet.

You are right about the cold white light.  It would also be good if they could be dimmed a little too.

[paul ron]

put a yellow filter over it?

 

question... when you dim it, does the color temperature change or is it dimmed by pulse width modulation n keeps the same temp?

[No Idea]

2 minutes ago, paul ron said:

put a yellow filter over it?

 

question... when you dim it, does the color temperature change or is it dimmed by pulse width modulation n keeps the same temp?

Hi Paul - you know what a yellow filter may just calm down the stark colour of white so thanks for that as it's something I may try.

 

As for pulse width modulation - mate is this a name of a new band?  Only joking - I'm a bit old now and I don't understand electrics at all.  In fact my wiring is probably questionable at best but I do think that people that understand this aspect could easily move this forward as you suggest.  In fact if they do let me know in very very simple terms how to do this.  I just run the light off of a 12v plug in charging transformer.

 

 

[Seventynet]

That is a nice idea, Mark. Since I see you are not CNC did you use a fly cutter to make the hole? I think I will make this too. I notice there are dimmable RBG and possibly white light rings on Amazon that could address brightness levels. How did you run the wires up? It looks like the wire comes out the top of the headstock spacer…?

 

Regards,

Ian

[Dr PR]

There are several ring lights that are made for macro photography - I posted a description of one here:

 

https://modelshipworld.com/topic/36412-ring-light/?do=findComment&comment=1040024

 

They have a variety of controls to dim/brighten the light, and I have seen at least one that allows the light color to be varied. But most of them are battery powered to be used in the field. You could modify one to be powered from an AC "wall wart" power supply, or just used a rechargeable battery to eliminate extra wiring.

 

I once bought a cheap USB powered ring light that was large enough to fit around a cell phone, complete with a phone holder. It was intended to illuminate a person taking a selfie or on a video conference. You could vary the colors and brightness. There are all sorts of ring lights available on the Internet.

 

****

 

No Idea - Pulse width modulation just means turning the light on and off quickly, with a variable on/off timing. The longer the light is on (with shorter off times) the brighter it is. The pulse timing is very short so you can't see the flicker, just brighter or dimmer light. The advantage of this is that the light is operated at full power while on, always producing the same color light whether bright or dim. Some lights change color between high power (bright) low power (dim), and that isn't good for many applications.

[No Idea]

9 hours ago, Seventynet said:

That is a nice idea, Mark. Since I see you are not CNC did you use a fly cutter to make the hole? I think I will make this too. I notice there are dimmable RBG and possibly white light rings on Amazon that could address brightness levels. How did you run the wires up? It looks like the wire comes out the top of the headstock spacer…?

 

Regards,

Ian

Hi Ian - Thats a really good question and one that I had thought about too.  I was going to use a fly cutter which is perfectly feasible but as I machine in my home I didn't want too much swarf.  I cut the hole by using a rotary table with a 4 jaw chuck so the centre came out in one piece.  I used a 3mm 2 flute end mill to do this.  The wires run directly through the mill head - here's a better picture

@Dr PR many thanks for the explanation that makes sense to me now 👍

[wefalck]

Another option is, if you have a lathe with a face-plate, to cut a ring-slot with a boring tool. This is what I did.

[gsdpic]

15 hours ago, paul ron said:

put a yellow filter over it?

 

question... when you dim it, does the color temperature change or is it dimmed by pulse width modulation n keeps the same temp?

 

Look for photography "CTO filter film" or "CTO filter gel".  CTO is (I think) color temperature orange.  You can get it in varying strengths (1/8, 1/4, 1/2, full, etc) to adjust how much affect it has.  In photography, it is used to warm up the light from flashes and strobes. 

 

Here's an example from amazon:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Lighting-Transparent-Photography-Colored-Flashlight/dp/B0DB8CV8MY/ref=sr_1_10?crid=1TLZ9JT93EEHP&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.x0wTrENnH-2vuwJlVYDhS-un3odqtXIV6wNY_PGochC0diU2uC8BKnx_arZWnWG9Q91MmggcYRwC9q_pKqp4Ad3slkOlV8g8u32aGBXO9q0MKtS2QS1bMHQs0usGxOFc4RIUbNlxfZAzGvZ_BXFNmdHZ2UfMJgiFAMIWmkepIQPgfhQIJ0tqkA2XvGO4yAW1U2Fu7H6OHAmA0V1TkvZa4krowKNwvpIgb2xiT-t_6io.K5-wDVyk_QTNtgA3r_Y61cJ0wnFNE2dasjN-ShlLgWA&dib_tag=se&keywords=cto+filter+film&qid=1740919732&sprefix=cto+filter+film%2Caps%2C189&sr=8-10

[wefalck]

It seems that 'warm' LEDs actually have a layer of yellow, transparent varnish on them. That's why they a 10% lower output in lumen, compared to the cold white ones.

[Seventynet]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the explanation. The hole in your spindle stock stumped me until I realized that the headstock I have predates yours by a few years when there was no through hole, which as you say is perfect to run the wires up out of the way. That’s too much aluminum for me to tackle so I’ll try to find a different solution.

Best,

Ian

[No Idea]

Hi Ian this could easily be made from hardwood and the hole made using a hole cutter. Good luck with your project 👍

[Seventynet]

Mark,

I don’t foresee any problems making the carrier out of aluminum, I am just a bit hesitant about drilling the hole through the spindle headstock. It seems like drilling through 4 or 5 inches of aluminum would be quite an adventure and I don’t own a drill press. But it might be easy enough to mill a slot in a 1/2 square piece and epoxy it into the headstock inside corner to hide the wire. I’ll figure it out. Thanks again for the excellent design.

Ian