trouble light, work light

Mxfarm

Mxfarm

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Aug 15, 2007
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838
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KPTS, 1K4, H17
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Display name:
Marc
What’s your favorite trouble light or work light? Between a poorly lit hanger, someone still not reconciled to wearing glasses, and a current light that might be possessed, I have got to have an improvement.

marc
 
My favorite:
en.m.wikipedia.org

Sun - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Just open the hangar doors.

Second favorite is a headlamp. Those old-fashioned hanging trouble lights don’t work well for me. Never a good place to hang it, cord is always getting the way, I keep knocking it down, etc.
 
I am always concerned when they include 2 of them...But wait there's more...as seen on TV etc.
I have at least 3 headlites and they all still work if you keep putting fresh battery's in them but all of them are wore out from stretched out elastic head bands. So stupid and cheap. Next time I need it it is not useable because of the cheap elastic material.
 
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Most of the rechargeable tool families (Dewalt, Rigid, Ryobi, Cobalt, Makita, Milwaukee, Craftsman, etc) have multiple variations of work lights. Once you are invested in batteries and chargers, it makes sense to stick with whatever brand you are bought into. I keep at least a dozen Ryobi 18v batteries charged and handy, so have bought all kinds of Ryobi work lights over the years. They are also quite useful for hurricane preparedness in Florida, since glancing blows by storms often knock out power for a day or two.
 
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Gary Ward said:
I grabbed one from lowes a while ago. I like it, so far has been tough and battery lasts a long time.
Battery and led of course. It’s a blue kolbalt
Sorry no picture
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I have a light very similar to this. It has a magnetic base (that doesn't stick to an aluminum airframe - lol) and it will also flash red LEDs if you need it for a roadside emergency. Don't remember where I got the thing ...
 
That is what happened to us a couple years ago. We bought my wife a set 3 ryobi lawn care tools that are light weight with one+ 18V battery's. Now I have roybi back pack sprayer and just bought a polisher and they all use the same battery's.

BTW I will never give up my GAS stihl lawn care tools, it's what you use when you want to get the job done well and fast. lol
 
It would not cost much to buy a few 8 foot LED overhead strip lights, I've done three hangars now.
Cheap, easy to install, blindingly bright much less eye strain.
Unless you are talking about working under the panel or something like that.
 
This was my first hangar rented. It had enough light to check the oil.
100_1.jpg

Then I moved across the taxiway to a better hangar but it only had 2-100watt light bulbs. The old fashioned 100 watt light bulbs! Not enough light to check the oil.
036_2.jpg

I asked ahead of time if I could upgrade the lighting, they said just as long as the fire inspector was ok with it. I did but it is still not enough light to work without aux lighting. I have 2 favorite flash lights I use. I use the kolbalt light at home shop.
IMG_72991.jpg
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
It would not cost much to buy a few 8 foot LED overhead strip lights, I've done three hangars now.
Cheap, easy to install, blindingly bright much less eye strain.
Unless you are talking about working under the panel or something like that.
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let's say - under the glare shield, which the panel is sitting on top of. :goofy:
 
Gary Ward said:
I am always concerned when they include 2 of them...But wait there's more...as seen on TV etc.
I have at least 3 headlites and they all still work if you keep putting fresh battery's in them but all of them are wore out from stretched out elastic head bands. So stupid and cheap. Next time I need it it is not useable because of the cheap elastic material.
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I have had maybe 15 headlamps, various makes. I find that the expensive ones don't work much better than the cheap ones. I just need one that has a spotlight or two; don't need floodlighting, as my eyes aren't aimed out to the sides anyway. The spot is always where I'm looking, and it's hands-free. You want one that can tilt downward for workbench work.

I bought one recently at a dollar store for about $5. It has a built-in rechargeable battery. Use an old phone charger with the micro USB plug on it. Last week I bought another dollar-store headlamp, 200+ lumens, for $6. Uses three AAAs. enough light. I don't need to set fire to stuff with a 1200-lumen light. These are Canadian dollars, too, and in the US you could probably get LED headlamps for $3 or $4.

Mine tend to get beat up, scratched lenses and so on, before the elastic quits. But even then, elastic is cheap at a fabric store. I have made new elastics for my respirator, as a new respirator costs a lot more than $6. I have an old sewing machine under one of the workbenches.

My shop has a bunch of four-foot LED lights, various makes and lumen ratings. Old eyes need the light.
 
Got this as a Christmas gift. Excellent light. Use it all the time working on airplanes. Spot, flood, dimmable, magnetic, USB-C rechargeable.

Snap-on Store

shop.snapon.com shop.snapon.com
 
I would have been skeptical about the magnetic part but another A&P let me use his. I was impressed. It works well more often than you may think, especially around the engine area. Even the airframe areas usually have a bolt or steel bracket somewhere close by. Certainly a good option to have! If there’s nothing magnetic nearby it’s not a problem. Just open the flex flood and prop it up or hang it somewhere on the airframe.
 
I got a Dewalt 20V set of tools as a gift some years ago. There are a number of lights that fit these batteries but the one that came with the kit is good enough that I haven't bought more. It's the lowly DCL040, which is reasonably bright and can be tilted to sit on the floor and point at the angle you need.

Like @Ed Haywood, I like being able to throw a ready-to-go battery into the light as easily as into the drill hanging next to it or the string trimmer. Unlike him, I haven't invested in enough batteries to have a dozen ready to go at any given time. (If the power goes out for a few days, these are not my primary emergency lights and I have a generator to fire up.) I particularly like the Dewalt 20V air tool (DCC020IB) for setting tire pressures on all the small things as well as inflating air mattresses and towable lake toys.

In my cars, I like NEBO Big Larry flashlights. They're a good compromise among size, cost, and performance and they run on AA batteries, which I've standardized on for most battery-powered items to reduce the chance I'll need to use it and come up short on power. If I have to deal with something on the side of the road at night, they'll be good enough and a lot more useful than the bigger light sitting on a shelf in the garage.
 
Be careful with anything magnetic around an airplane. You can wreck the compass real quick if those strong little magnets get near it. If the airplane has the Amsafe shoulder harness air bags, a magnet on the floor under the front seats can trigger the airbag release valve switch that is located under the floor. The bags are each inflated by a small air canister under the seat that has over 6000 psi in it. Big expensive boom.
 
catmandu said:
The one I hang/wedge/stick to non-alum/bite with my teeth:


Starting to use this on my head more and more, after seeing ads on FB and searching for the cheaper version:


Spending 10 AMU’s on a dozen industrial LED high bay lighting fixtures for the T hangar has helped the most.
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I'd literally ordered the head one this morning, looking forward to trying it.
 
Dan Thomas said:
Be careful with anything magnetic around an airplane. You can wreck the compass real quick if those strong little magnets get near it. If the airplane has the Amsafe shoulder harness air bags, a magnet on the floor under the front seats can trigger the airbag release valve switch that is located under the floor. The bags are each inflated by a small air canister under the seat that has over 6000 psi in it. Big expensive boom.
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Thanks. Good info. I’ve never worked around an airplane with airbags. Certainly wouldn’t get it near a magnetic compass.
 
Compasses are not that pricey.

Consider if you magnetize the Airframe!

Steel parts can get magnetized in other ways too.

DC welding and jumper cables among them.

Mooney “ Johnson Bars” were a prime patient.

Troubleshooting can take time.
 
Magman said:
Compasses are not that pricey.
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$318 plus installation plus calibration. $500, likely. Certainly not worth risking wrecking it by using a magnetic worklight.
 
I can see that $500 or more spent on degaussing too!
 
It's hard to beat the ol' tried and true MagLite. This is my goto flash light most times (2 D-cell LED). ELTs with D-Cells are still common enough to keep me stocked up with good batteries. :lightning:

 
This Coleman LED flashlight in my favorite hangar flashlight. I found it in a old truck that we bought at work and it was well used then. I have been using it since 2018 in the hangar and dropped it many times, tough. Takes reg AA batteries and they last a long time.
Just on and off, no flashing or red lights just on and off. It's kept either on this table or in the top drawer of my tool box.
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I grabbed a handful of different LED worklights from Lowe's a while back. One has a rechargeable battery which is handy at times. I've got a smaller battery operated one I use when I'm upside down under the instrument panel, etc...
 
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