Surgical shop light

The hospital I used to work at recently did some remodeling and replaced a number of surgical lights. They were going to scrap them and offered them to people who worked there for personal use. A number of guys, including myself, grabbed one to use as shop and garage lights at home. They are in extremely good condition and fantastic lights for lighting a fairly small area such as an appendectomy or a carburetor rebuild. I'm sure everyone who got one was thinking the same thing as I was, just mount it on the ceiling above your bench or lathe and you're all set. But I was in for a rude surprise when I downloaded the installation manual and found that the ceiling mount must be able to withstand 350 ft.-lbs. of torque. That's more than the torque than at the rear wheels of my Porsche during wide open throttle. The extreme torque is generated because 18" diameter lamp is suspended on long arms resulting in a lot of leverage. There is no way my 1/2" OSB ceiling boards would withstand that much torque. Fortunately I do have access to the ceiling rafters above my lathe and there is a reasonable crawl space. So I used 2x12s to make an insert to fit between the rafters with a 2x12 flat board across the bottom. As an after thought I put in a transverse 2x12 to prevent the rafters from twisting. The light has a heavy cast iron mounting flange with 5/16 bolt holes in it. I copied the bolt pattern onto a piece of 3/4" plywood and drilled holes all the way thru the plywood, the 2x12 below it and the ceiling OSB. Then I bolted the flange to the ceiling, put the cover over the flange and hooked up the wiring. It's a fantastic light for use in turning, it adjusts in any direction and lights the inside of bowls very well. I will try to see if the other guys who got these lights were successful in installing them, you really need access to the framing in the ceiling, you don't just put in a sheet metal box like you would for a ceiling fan or chandelier.

It used to light bowels, now it lights bowls. I like it!

I've often thought one of those lights would be very useful for small task work.

Nice quipt, Dan.

I'm guessing torc in an OR would be over built, but you did a great job on it. Is it full spectrum? It appears to be more of a dental light, but I'm always out when I go under the light. Usually they are more like 3-4' in diameter the times I've come around early.

Good one Dan, I love it!

The spectrum seems to be a bit on the warm side but not too far from daylight. It's not a huge surgical light, 18" but much larger than a dental light, it could be meant for minor surgical procedures. Sometimes two or more lights are mounted over an operating table to reduce shadows in the operating field. I didn't get to see how it was mounted at the hospital but I asume there were metal studs or something sturdy like that.

That's a great light, I kind of wish I had one. Luckily, you can get up there to reinforce the structure, which doesn't seem to be that difficult overall. Great score, you've got a lot of people jealous.

Interesting. I've worked in ORs my whole career, and I just assumed that the lights had counterweights in the ceiling to avoid the huge amounts of torque. Learned something.

Most ORs are switching to LED lights. Each light has hundreds of LED bulbs in it. Saves a fortune over replacing those old bulbs, and a lot less heat over the surgeon's shoulders (although, to be most accurate, most surgoens are pretty dim over their shoulders).

Wow...that's a great setup for your purpose for sure!