Halogen Lights

O

Outlaw

So Im getting impatient waiting for warm weather here in Montana. I have a heated shop but my intakes pull in cold air pretty fast (40-50 degrees). Air exchange booth is in the vicinity of complete exchange in 1'45". I can getf electric heat going again as soon as I have exhusted the fumes but its slow getting metal temp up to 70 (thats my minimum for SPI Epoxy. Im looking at some of the 500 Watt Halogen work shop lights on stands to aim towards the projects and to keep epoxy temps up until shop heat reaches 70 degrees. I tested the single halogen I have and it does a pretty good job getting sheet metal up to 60 plus in short order and climbs from there. I aimed the heat gun at the light lens of the halogen and it flashed back 375 Degrees. Wondering if it would be worth it to make my own heat lamp on stand with 6 Halogens?
 
The heat is not directional with a halogen fixture so most will go into the housing. I would recommend a red R40 infrared heating lamp with a clamp on directional reflector as a low cost alternative heater. I use a few of these on a panel when doing spot painting and it works very good. You can get them at Home Depot and the lamps come in 150w and 250W each. Even a BR40 works too.

Mike
 
I sprayed 3 or 4 gallons of epoxy this year with a similar heat setup & colder outside just let the heat come back up in an hour & had no issues. Halogens will put heat the way they are directed, I have successfully thawed gelled diesel fuel tanks overnight with just a halogen pointed at the tank outside in 0-10 degree windy weather.
 
MikeS;n81741 said:
Good point. I recommend one of these if you have a Harbor Freight near you. It's accurate and works great. I use it in the winter to make sure that not so much the air temp but the body panels are at the correct temp.
http://www.harborfreight.com/non-contact-infrared-thermometer-with-laser-targeting-69465.html

Mike

I actually have the temp gun and would be in the dark without it. Thanks Mike. I have not ruled out a salamander space heater either. They have some new propane ones that burn pretty clean.
 
MikeS;n81737 said:
The heat is not directional with a halogen fixture so most will go into the housing. I would recommend a red R40 infrared heating lamp with a clamp on directional reflector as a low cost alternative heater. I use a few of these on a panel when doing spot painting and it works very good. You can get them at Home Depot and the lamps come in 150w and 250W each. Even a BR40 works too.

Mike


Thanks Mike, I will look into these options.
 
MikeS;n81737 said:
The heat is not directional with a halogen fixture so most will go into the housing. I would recommend a red R40 infrared heating lamp with a clamp on directional reflector as a low cost alternative heater. I use a few of these on a panel when doing spot painting and it works very good. You can get them at Home Depot and the lamps come in 150w and 250W each. Even a BR40 works too.

Mike


Thanks, I will definitely be checking this option out.
 
The nice thing about the infrared lights, whichever type you choose, is you can point them on your aching back after a long day of sanding paint or panels, for muscle relief. :)
 
What is the difference between an R40 and a standard flood light? Is R40 the standard base for all light bulbs?
 
Thanks Mike. Im thinking about building my own tripods (2) with 3 electrical boxes and castors on each one. That would let me attach three single or dual adjustable sockets for infared heat lamps. When I need a paint rack, I would attach two pieces of horizontal tubing to connect the tripods.
 
I can only get the fixtures for my DIY Light Pole rated for 150 watt bulbs so Im just going to add three bulbs which will make a total of 9. I figure 9 150 watt bulbs will be more evenly distributed than 6 250 watt bulbs. Each socket has a lot af adjustment to it.
 
That's how I have mine, 150watt bulbs. The reason is because I have a one car garage and not much side clearance so the heat output of the 150w is more suited for up-close placement without over heating. And like you said, you can get more and spread out evenly.
 
The bulbs are smaller in size and can put out a lot more lumens per watt and also can have a broader visible color spectrum to be close to that of sunlight. An Infrared lamp puts out most of its spectrum in the visible red and above color range which is also radiant. Radiant energy is the heat you feel from the Sun or at places like Home Depot when you see those heaters high above the door openings and yet you can feel their heat when you stand in front of them at ground level. I do astro-photography work so I'm familiar with the various spectrum's.
You can use quartz halogen also for curing a panel but there are short and med wavelengths with short being more common. They are smaller in size usually and the light spectrum can be better controlled and heat better focused and if you do a lot of auto paint then it may be more cost effective to buy one of those because the bulbs can last a long time.
I forgot to also mention that the quartz lamps can be much longer and thinner and more compact than a round IR lamp.
 
Im glad I posted this thread! Learned a lot. At the moment Im working on a light tree that going to hold 9 heat lamps. The adjustable fixtures I found are rated for 150watts but Im trying to find 250 watt rated sockets to swap them out. Im only painting three trucks and thats pretty much it. Three lamps at the top of a six foot post. The center lamp is straight out and two on each side will be at a 45 degrees to that. Mid way on the post will be the same set up, and again at the bottom end of the post. Im wondering if I should abort and to with a quartz halogen instead. If I can not find 250 rated sockets, I will have a total of 9 150 Watt lamps. Best case scenerio, 9 250 Watt lamps. What do you think Mike?
 
9x150w = 1350 watts total and approximately 11.5 amps current draw. If you have a typical 15 amp outlet you will be riding close to its rated capacity. If you go with a single quartz lamp they are around 1500 watts for a single bulb so that's about 12.5 amps (using voltage value as 120 for the equation P=E x I ). Either one will work fine but I like the flexibility of separate lamps. You can control the area to heat and also control the total amp draw of electrical circuit with separate lamps. The only difference will be the "clutter factor" with a single quartz lamp w/stand vs. 9 lamps on a tree. But you can always take the 9 lamp housings and clamp them to a 1x4 shelf high up on the garage wall and out of the way.
Don't forget to leave one lamp aside for your aching back and a cold brewski in hand.
 
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