Best Ceiling for your shop?

Self Made Knives

Well-Known Member
Ok guys, not a knife WIP, but we all have to have a place to work on knives right? I've got a couple videos I'm posting up that relates to choices and techniques I'm using in putting a ceiling in my knife shop. Here's the first one...
[video=youtube_share;rOwCQCQ9w7c]https://youtu.be/rOwCQCQ9w7c[/video]
 
Anthony...nice video. My son and I enjoyed it a lot. Easy to follow. Also...you will never get pain on the drywall as nice as the pre-finished metal.
 
another great video! the metal will look good. more importantly, it will hold up insulation which is going to drop your temps drastically in the summer. Not to mention, that lower ceiling gives you infinite lighting possibilities. The LED lights that are available now are practically free to operate. I'm replacing every light I have with LED as they burn out. The new surface mounts look good, put out tons of light, and they pull a whopping amp. At one amp you can daisy chain a bunch of them on one run. Better yet, you never have to get on a a ladder ever again to juggle fluorescent tubes.
 
Thanks Ted and John, I looked at LED lights today in fact! I had previously bought 3 eight foot T8 fixtures at Lowes, but I wasn't very happy with them. One of the ballasts made crazy radio interference and on really cold days they seemed to take a long time to get bright. So, I went to a local electrical supply house this morning to see if they had any better T8 fixtures. Guy at the counter insisted I check out the LED eight footers, so he unboxed one. They look pretty cool, but they're $96 each! I was thinking about having 12 T8 fixtures, so that many LEDs would be nearly $1200! Guy at the store was adamant I go with LEDs, I'm still on the fence. I may be leaning a little though. :biggrin:
 
Ok, here's the 2nd part of this project. Give me a pass on the goofing around part, still working on my comedy! In this vid, I show a tool I came up with to make installing the ceiling 1000 times easier. Best of all, it's made from scrap materials I already had around. Free!
[video=youtube_share;V-DaowKfcuw]https://youtu.be/V-DaowKfcuw[/video]
 
Thanks Ted and John, I looked at LED lights today in fact! I had previously bought 3 eight foot T8 fixtures at Lowes, but I wasn't very happy with them. One of the ballasts made crazy radio interference and on really cold days they seemed to take a long time to get bright. So, I went to a local electrical supply house this morning to see if they had any better T8 fixtures. Guy at the counter insisted I check out the LED eight footers, so he unboxed one. They look pretty cool, but they're $96 each! I was thinking about having 12 T8 fixtures, so that many LEDs would be nearly $1200! Guy at the store was adamant I go with LEDs, I'm still on the fence. I may be leaning a little though. :biggrin:


That's just it... unless you already have 100 fluorescent light fixtures don't buy the LED fluorescent replacements. Just use the surface mount LED fixtures.

My shop (garage) isn't nearly the size of your building but now I have four empty fluorescent light fixtures and a scad of LED lights. I went from working in a cave to needing a ballcap to shield my eyes from looking up at the lights.

the LED flush mounts i use: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Project-Source-2-Pack-7-4-in-W-White-LED-Flush-Mount-Light/999918952

If you already have tons and tons of fixtures then it probably makes sense to just buy bulbs. But it's amazing to see a little flush mount fixture replace 60W of light and burn 12W. The electric bill doesn't lie: I can burn 5 of these for the price of one 60W bulb. Five fixtures is a lot of doggone light- for the energy cost of one bulb. I can put one wherever I need it and tie it into whatever circuit is available with zero concern about the load on that circuit.
 
Ok, here's the 2nd part of this project. Give me a pass on the goofing around part, still working on my comedy! In this vid, I show a tool I came up with to make installing the ceiling 1000 times easier. Best of all, it's made from scrap materials I already had around. Free!
[video=youtube_share;V-DaowKfcuw]https://youtu.be/V-DaowKfcuw[/video]

You are one handy son of a gun, Anthony. That is genius.
 
On led stuff....I have bought 8 footers to do two fixtures. The light is very nice...but expensive.
What I realized is that with my new layout I don't really know where I need light.

So I have been buying cheap aluminum droplights from Walmart that have a nice spring clip. They are less than $10 and decent construction.Then I either buy a 100watt equivalent (about 18 watts) or a 90 watt spotlight. One will give you more ambient the spotlight more direct.Both led. You can get different kelvin ratings for the type of light you like. The daylight one feel a bit blue initially but for me really seem to cut eye fatigue. I am a light junky. Cannot get enough...

This solution seems to be working as I can move them around easily. I find screwing a small piece of 1 x 12 to posts about arms reach overhead makes a nice clip spot for bouncing off the ceiling.

Just an idea....
 
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My ceiling is done in the small room in the video, 9'x14' with 10' ceiling, so I think I'll go pick up some LED lights to test. This room will be my primary machining and knife making area, so I want it really bright. I'm thinking 2 eight foot fixtures should do it for a room this small. After that, I decide about the rest of the shop.
 
LEDs come in several light temperatures. the Natural Daylight looks great. Just like incandescents, the "soft" light variety makes everything yellow and dingy looking.
 
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