Ed wrote:

I guess almost everyone uses fluorescent lighting in their
shop/shack/workbench. As we all know it tears the heck out of receivers and
is especially a bother when working on one. Any suggestions for taming
fluorescents or lighting alternatives?

I hate conventional fluorescents as high-detail worklights, EMI or not.
I'm running the squigglies seen at HD for $8+ that I got a mess of at
Building 19 last year for $0.49 apiece ("equivalents" 40/60/75/100w
incandescents). I love 'em & they're all over my house & e-shop (but
not the mechanical & woodshops). Insignificant or no EMI, nice
K-color, cool-running, frugal on juice, and a 1/2 min warmup from lower
brightness that's nice on the eyes when entering a dark space. Wish
I'd bought 50 more. Only 1 dead in a year. They hold up great in
outdoor fixtures @ -20F, too. Also great in track cans made for 75w
floods. My juice bill now looks like it's from 1960, I only bother to
pay it every 3 mos now.

Even found 2 dim-able "75w" ones but no more since or anywhere, at any
price. :-( But I found U can use the normal ones (at least of this
LiteWiz Chinese brand) in dimmable tracklights with, say, 2 of 'em plus
a normal 75W spot, & they will just come off/on at a low dimmer setting
while the conventional spot bulb will dim for the task or accent area.
Way cool, a complex & useful dimming/not dimming scheme for free. So,
the package warning "Do not use with dimmers" is up for grabs.

I also bought dozens of the other variants of these bulbs for a large
rental property I was managing at the time, such as the vanity globes,
flood-style versions, and other "folded" type "looks like a normal
bulb" versions. They are all garbage & the plain squiggies work great
in their places.

There is more than one size base (the while plastic affair enclosing
their electronics) for various brands/models of these bulbs, and the
differences are subtle to the eye but many will not fit some fixtures
because of it, so look closely or try one in several fixtures B4 you
buy 20. My cheapies are all smaller & go in almost anything, but the
ones I see around at retail won't.

They also "say" not to burn 'em base-up, but they work perfectly &
reliably this way; they just come up to full brightness more slowly.

The little size is great in a bench magnifier lamp & has half the glare
of a "soft" incandescent. I have enough trouble seeing tiny details
with the magnifier AND reading glasses, and it's a lot better now.

Shop the big closeout/buyout places, lots of good shop things. Got the
best rubber mats ever seen, brown or red honeycomb commercial
grease-resistant kitchen product 2' x 3' sections, American made,
retail $150 for $6 apiece, nice on feet & outstanding dielectric mat.
Lined the sailboat cabin sole with 'em sliced in half & fitted, no more
cabin carpet cleaning, outstanding traction wet or dry, hose 'em right
thru into the bilge. All I need now is a rich woman to pay the marina
fees to truck & put 'er in the bayBG. Put more half-slices around
the kitchen tile floor at work areas, best thing that ever happened to
someone who cooks like man. Makes a helluva doormat. You never have
enough $$ on you when you find stuff like this, and of course it is
gone by next week.

The best bench lighting of all is sunlight. I never saw the sense in
backing the bench with shelves & test gear, it seems stupid to me & I
have all that on a heavy shelving to my right where I can reach & use
all of with without making a rat's nest of leads over the work. I also
never saw the sense in working mostly at night. Instead, there is a
big double casement window right over the bench. Good for the eyes,
ventilation, and the spirit.