Electrician's Task Light Build

Woot

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Dec 6, 2018
Messages
1
Hey guys brand new here. So I'm sure I got a bunch of noob mistakes to make when talking about lighting. My project is- I want to put rechargeable spot lights (like a drop light or work light/ led's seen on the back of pickup trucks) on my work cart. It's just a small 3 shelf rubbermaid its 3' x 1.5'. I'm an electrician and need to light up all different areas, small/large/high/low... so I could obviously go with a prebuilt Milwaukee m18 light and clip it on the side. I have their batteries n charger so just the cost of the light would be like 80 bucks minimum or up to like $300 for the dual power mona lisa rocket light they offer. But either way... that gets me 1 light. That's it. And probably due to the budget, it gets me one battery power only light. I would like dual modes of power (110v/18v) and at least 2 lights if it can be done with in a decent budget. I really have not sat down to think about it because I fear the budget is going to blow any project right out of the water and send me to home depot as usual. As an electrician I have some lights, batteries from drills and exit signs wire and all that crap. I was thinking something with a small battery charger to an inverter off of a small battery that I can leave on the bottom of the cart n just plug in for a few hours or overnight. Has anyone tried anything similar? I understand that these things usually end up being budget busters so I'm about 80% ready to buy some Milwaukee lights but I if anyone has had success with this type of project then please share your experience. I wont be able to move on until I'm sure I cant do it myself for cheaper then big box store crap. Thanks. Woot.
 

nbp

Flashaholic
Joined
Dec 16, 2007
Messages
10,970
Location
Wisconsin
Hello and welcome!

I moved your thread to the Homemade/Modified area as it seems like more of a "build thread" than a budget flashlight topic. I also renamed it so it was a little more descriptive to reel in more views. Feel free to change it up if it doesn't suit you. ;)
 

DIWdiver

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 27, 2010
Messages
2,725
Location
Connecticut, USA
Wow, Woot! So many things to talk about here.

1. Emitter/optics/light head
2. Driver
3. Batteries and charger
4. 120V input

And of course all that depends on how much light you want, what pattern (I'm guessing medium to wide flood), how long it has to run, how many heads you want, etc.

You might look around to see if you can find a light head you like already built. Pond lights and Bike lights might make suitable heads, and MAG lights have been modified for years for various purposes. Or if you feel industrious, pick an emitter and optic (probably a shallow to medium reflector) and build your own.
 

Lynx_Arc

Flashaholic
Joined
Oct 1, 2004
Messages
11,212
Location
Tulsa,OK
First off you need to sort of figure out how many lumens and how long of runtime you need and also what type/pattern of output.
Personally I was using a Porter Cable slip on light and it worked ok but had limits in that on the cart it couldn't get everywhere to light up things I needed so I went to a headlamp as you can get by with a lot less output and have decent runtime.

One thing I saw at Walmart was a rechargeable 1000 lumen light which I think has 18650 batteries in it for about $20 I think.
I have some Porter Cable 20v tools and they now sell a high output LED light that uses 20v batteries or 120v power which costs about $70 or so.
 
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