Gunsmithing Paint booth lighting

[Easy_E]

I put together a booth for coating and we are having trouble getting good lighting . The walls are plastic so some outside lighting comes thru but shadows make it hard to see where thin areas are. Right now we have four florescent four foot fixtures on each wall. They were mounted vertical at floor level I just moved them to eye level and it didn't help.
What setup do you use ?
Thanks Ed

 

[Jrb572]

What type of bulbs? How big is it? Does it have a ceiling that you can angle lights in? When I painted cars we used the new t8 bulbs and they were special ordered from our paint supplier.

 

[Easy_E]

Its roughly six foot by six foot square eight foot tall and I believe the bulbs are T12 3500k color . It would be possible to two rows horizontal angled up and down its all steel studded .

 

[Jrb572]

You should probably have enough lights for a 6x6 room. Damn I think our booth had four or five on each side and two on one end and it was 20' long. It was probably 10-11 foot tall ceilings. They had four bulbs in each fixture and they ran vertically. Maybe try putting a light in each corner verticality. It sounds like the light is not dispersed evenly. My only opinion would be put your lights on an extension cord and move them around until you achieve what you like.

 

[GH41]

For obvious reasons anything you do in or around a spray booth needs to be explosion proof.

 

[hino895]

I too use 4' T8's in my booth.
4 3 tube fixtures and I keep a couple cheap led flashlights laying around to examine up close.
I found that LED bulbs in the fixtures were too shadowy.
the bulbs are the hottest daylight bulb you can buy.

 

[Wannashootit]

Far from a lighting expert here, but from what I understand (and what works for me)...
Temp is too cool. Try 5500 - 6000 with a CRI of 80+
Far as I know, the old T-12's haven't been manufactured in years (?)- and the ballasts are no longer available.
Consider changing out to T-8 or T-5

 

[Terry Cross]

A few years ago, I built a roll-around coating booth out of square tubing and Polar White colored R-panel. Put a butt load of LED panel lights (roughly same style and shape as the old 48" double fluorescent shop lights.) LEDs above and on each side of my work area inside the coating area. The light is very even with no shadows. Also, the LEDs produce no heat!

 

[ejg]

Our purpose built spray booths for stocks only have one 4ft tube which is positioned parallel to the stock about 12" from the stock. Of course in such a way that one can't see the tube while spraying. We also have a 10W LED side on. Plenty light. We have a large extraction fan in the spray booth. Tube hardly get's paint on it. We change the tube maybe once a year after hundreds of stocks.
edi

 

[Easy_E]

Thanks guys for the info I moved the lights to just above eye level and it helped . I'm thinking the clear plastic is giving some glare the main shop lights are bright . At work we stock all kinds of florescent tubes but nothing hotter than 5000k . Terry We have the LED conversion bulbs I might give them a try.