?Lighting over and around lathe?

[joe greiner]

According to my imperfect understanding, seizure susceptibility occurs at about 11 cycles per second, i.e. resonance with alpha waves in the brain. You can sometimes observe this directly by sweeping your vision past a brightly illuminated dot; series of dots, not a streak. Just tried it with a laser pointer (viewed from the side, not straight on, please), and it didn't work there - probably peculiar to laser light.

A former neighbor, a clinical psychologist, had a patient whose seizure was triggered by the (relatively) moving pattern of shadows from trees above Tallahassee's beloved (?) canopy roads. Patient promptly surrendered his driving license.

I've heard tales of rotating machinery appearing stationary, but for maximum danger I think you'd need a strobe light or square-wave signal, in sync with the machinery. Like a timing light for automotive adjustments.

Joe

[Chris Barton]

Chris out in one part of my wood shop it is not heated. I got the little T-8 bulb fixtures from the Big Depot. They have electronic ballasts in them and snap right on even when it is 35 deg in there and not a flicker. I am now in the process of changing out all my fixtures for these. Daylight bulbs give me about as true a color for me and plenty of light.

I got all my lights from the Home Dumpo as well and I've used several different brands of tubes. I'm currently running through a box of GE daylight bulbs and they seem to be doing OK. But, in the winter when my basement get down to about 56* they snap right on, just a little dimmer, and take about 4-5 minutes to really warm up and reach full brightness. I have 16 double tube 4 footers plus a double handful of dedicated task lighting using the new florescent screw in type bulbs. More light is better!

[Neal Addy]

LOL! Curt, you're my hero.

I have similar thoughts every time I open an instruction manual. Fifteen pages of warnings (in at least three languages) about how many ways you can die by using the unit followed by two pages of actual instruction... usually nothing more than "to turn on the unit flip the power switch to the 'up' position". Duh.

Do we really need to be told that ingesting any part of a power tool might be detrimental to our health????? Whatever happened to common sense?

Sorry for the OT rant. Now, back to the topic at hand...

[Ernie Nyvall]

Well I have fluorescent bulbs in my shop. Every time my wife sticks her head in the door I seizure... if I'm facing that way. So... could be a combination of those two things.

[Nancy Laird]

A former neighbor, a clinical psychologist, had a patient whose seizure was triggered by the (relatively) moving pattern of shadows from trees above Tallahassee's beloved (?) canopy roads. Patient promptly surrendered his driving license.

I've heard tales of rotating machinery appearing stationary, but for maximum danger I think you'd need a strobe light or square-wave signal, in sync with the machinery. Like a timing light for automotive adjustments.

Joe

I have a friend who gets mini-seizures from being in a room with a rotating ceiling fan. We always had to turn the fan off when she came to visit.

Nancy

[Mark Cothren]

I have great sympathy for anyone who suffers from seizures of any sort. I guess in the case of flo lights it is a "either you are or you aren't" thing. I've been around flo lights all my life. I work under them all day in the office and then all the time in my shop. Now I do also use an incandescent light (or two) when I'm working on my lathe. Do they negate the flo lights?

Question: Is this a condition that can develop over a period of time?

The strobing on my computer screen drives me nutty. I use a dual monitor setup at work and if I'm not looking directly at my CRT when it has a bright background then I can see the strobe and it drives me crazy. Its a lot like what you see on TV when they are showing a monitor. Are there any reports from seizures caused by this?

[Marc Martindale]

Mark your monitor's refresh rate is probably set to 60, set it to 75 or higher and you won't notice it. The human eye is quick enough to detect the redraw at 60.(it's under Display Properties... Advanced... Monitor)

[Mark Cothren]

Thanks Marc, but I can only choose between 50 and 60.

[Patrick Taylor]

Thanks Marc, but I can only choose between 50 and 60.

Then you'll have to lower the screen resolution to get higer refresh rate options. Or buy a better video card. LCD's eliminate this effect because they don't use a line by line drawing method.

[Bill Wyko]

Rockler has some halogen light systems that are regularly 59 bucks for 3 lights. On sale now for 10 bucks. I believe the part number is 35159 or 27487. There very bright and a great price. I bought 30 of them.

[joe greiner]

I have a friend who gets mini-seizures from being in a room with a rotating ceiling fan. We always had to turn the fan off when she came to visit.

Nancy

Ceiling fans don't turn very fast. For a critical frequency of 11 Hz, critical speeds would be 132 rpm for 5-bladed and 165 rpm for 4-bladed. I'd hope that ceiling fan manufacturers or OSHA would have this issue under control, but perhaps not yet worked out. In any event, turning off the fan is more expeditious than buying a new fan. Either way, sounds like you're a good friend.

Joe

[Harvey Schneider]

Rockler has some halogen light systems that are regularly 59 bucks for 3 lights. On sale now for 10 bucks. I believe the part number is 35159 or 27487. There very bright and a great price. I bought 30 of them.

Bill,
Does your power meter spin faster than your lathe now?
Harvey

[Bernie Weishapl]

The strobing on my computer screen drives me nutty. I use a dual monitor setup at work and if I'm not looking directly at my CRT when it has a bright background then I can see the strobe and it drives me crazy. Its a lot like what you see on TV when they are showing a monitor. Are there any reports from seizures caused by this?

Mark they just updated our computers to LCD screens. Boy did they take care of that annoying refresh rate. Also easier on the eyes.