Feeling frustrated with the inadequate lighting in my Tormach CNC Lathe enclosure, I engaged in a conversation about potential lighting solutions with my friend, John Bower. He's the regional Tormach distributor in Northern California, and his store, Santa Cruz Electronics, carries a plethora of unique electronic components for projects like this. In no time, John crafted a practical and affordable LED lighting solution for the interior of the lathe enclosure which works perfectly. Here are a few images illustrating his work:
Take 4 LED strips, sandwich them in acrylic with a foam tape barrier, some aluminum channel, and silicone cement to seal it up against coolant...
Bolt to top of enclosure, up out of the way. Wiring for the LEDs is low voltage, so even if there is a link we won't have line voltage running around inside the enclosure...
Now we have a nice well-lit lathe: thanks John!
BTW, if you're wondering why there is an endmill chucked up in the lathe, I was boring another toolholder to take an ER collet chuck. Only had 1 on the turret and needed a 2nd for a project I'm doing. One will hold a twist drill and the other a tap. Boring them this way ensures they're accurately aligned on the spindle axis. It'd be even better to ream the hole, but I didn't want to spend the money for a 3/4" reamer and this will be good enough for my purposes.
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