A circle LED light for the mill spindle

[Bill Pace]

Several times I had seen where guys had cobbled up a circle of LED lights for the mill spindle, but had never saw what looked easy - and cheap!- hey, I like to take the KISS approach when I can! So the other day one of my buddies was over borrowing the Cuttermaster (Delta Enterprises from the forum here) and we visited a good bit and he was telling me about this light he had found that was real easy - and cheap - to get on the spindle

I had done searches for a "halo, circle, ring" light and all I could get were the camera and microscope LED rings, which are just too small to adapt to the spindle--- soooo, look under camping! So I guess everbody knows this, but just in case some body dont -- like I didnt,-- heres the link.... They got a buy it now, but I just put an $8.50 bid in and got it -- and check out the FREE frt!

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trk...All-Categories

The light came today and I took bout half hour to get it on, --I think this in gonna help these ole eyballs. Its battery operated as comes, and the hole is a bit shy at around 1 1/2-1-3/4", and the little switch has to be moved -- and you gotta hunt up a wall wart (and NOBODY has any of those, do we?)

I used a 2" hole saw and ran the hole out, reset the switch over to the outer rim with a spot of super glue, scrounged up a wall wart & soldered it in the wires, and stuck it around the spindle with a ring of hot glue --- Now thats KISS engineering - and cheap!

[Liger Zero]

Now you need a sequencer so the lights blink on and off with the spindle rotation.

[lenord]

Bill,

Thanks for posting the link and the pictures. I bought one just now.

Lenord

[nheng]

I knew I had seen it before:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUcOaGawIW0

Awesome price and nice job !

[SGW]

What's the maximum size you could enlarge the center hole to?

[ClintonH]

Looks great, just about like the one I made form my RF45 clone. I had it bought before the mill showed up.




Clinton

[dockrat]

I think thats a better idea than my lil pot lights...maybe time to redo things

[Evan]

You can buy them here for a few bucks at the Dollar+ store.
You need to be carful how you feed them. They have the LEDs in series-parallel and they rely on the battery internal resistance to limit current. If you put on a power supply with the same voltage but higher current capacity it will look really good. For a while. Then it will become dimmer, dimmer, dimmer, and dimmer.

I can't tell you exactly what current you need to be feeding it since they come with different numbers of LEDs in different configurations. The standard limit for a 5mm white LED is 20 milliamps maximum.

[dockrat]

If you put on a power supply with the same voltage but higher current capacity it will look really good. For a while. Then it will become dimmer, dimmer, dimmer, and dimmer.

Hmmmmmm maybe I will stick with my lil pot lights then

[nheng]

You could pulse the LEDs with a simple timer circuit and dial a speed that freezes your spindle. You could then watch your chips form, clear, etc. About $0.25 in parts and you have the strobe, alternately you could use it as a dimmer. Den