Jun,1 2024
Bench light
Bench light is a position, not a brighter bulb.
We set the arm so the pool of light covers the hands and a little of the bench beyond them. The rest of the shop can stay dim. A floodlit room flattens the wood and you stop seeing tear-out until the shaving is already wrong.
If you are left-handed, reverse the rule. The lamp goes on the right. The principle is the same: the shadow leaves the cut.
The shadow should fall away from the cut, not across it.
A lamp behind you throws your own head onto the work. A lamp on the same side as the tool throws the tool. The opposite side, a little in front, is the place. Then you can see the edge you are about to make.
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Put the lamp on the left if you plane with the right hand.
Warm light for the evening, and enough of it to see a pencil line.
A dim bulb feels kind and hides a scribe line. Use a bulb you can read a ruler by. Save the very warm lamp for the room after the work is done. The bench wants to be clear first.
Clamp the lead so it does not cross the bench. A cord in the path of a chisel is how a lamp gets pulled onto the floor. The brass arm in this edit stays put once you set it. Tighten it before you start, not after it has drifted onto the work.
Keep the shade above the splash of finish and glue. Paper and linen both stain, and a stained shade is a darker room next month.
One lamp is enough for one pair of hands. A second light is for a second bench, not for removing every shadow. Some shadow is how you see a surface.
Left or right, in front of the shoulder, bright enough for a line. Then leave it there.
The lamp is a tool. It does not need to be moved to look considered. The work moves under it.