Lighting when garage door is up?

[Cruiser787904]

Hi guys. I have lurked for awhile and found a lot great info doing so. I haven't seen this partcular scenario addressed and I tried searching. I appreciate any and all help.

I have great lighting in my shop when the garage door is down but in the summer time I like to have it open. However, when it is open it is blocking the lights I have attached to the rafters.

I was thinking of attaching the same lights to the door itself and then plug them in when I need them. To me that seems like it could be accident prone so I wondering how you have handled this?

 

[AMCguy]

Wall lights.

I have a two bay shop with a row of lights down the middle and a row on each wall. This way neither the roll up doors or the hood of the car can cast a shadow. The light comes in from the side. Brake work is nice too because the light comes in over my shoulders.

Glenn

 

[Marctrees]

Myself, I plan on getting one of the new LED small panels or strip lights w like a 1' cord, mount it on center panel... when I need it..plug into a light gauge/weight ext cord..done.

But the point is.. arrange the cord so that when you close the door the cords just drapes on the floor... NOT so it pulls on the cord.

I see no problem w a bit of common sense.

Marc

 

[Marctrees]

Wall or overhead.. all depends on what direction you need light from.

Marc

 

[jon72vega]

I purchased a set of brackets that are made for attaching to the roller track.
I fastened my light to a long piece of conduit that is attached to the brackets.
The cord for the light was routed along the conduit then to a electrical receptacle.
The light is well away from the door when the door is open, and the light is on anytime the rest of the lights are turned on.
Here's an old picture.

 

[driftpin]

I did something similar to jon04. I actually have stringers running under the tracks, hung from Simpson Strong-tie butterflies. I have two FEIT/Costco LED double 'bulb' lights each is 4 ft, under the single door on each side, and another 4 ft double bulb in the middle between the garage doors (not hung in this pic). The lighting is great, good and bright. If you enlarge the pic, you can see one OH door side has the 1" X 4" PT stringer in-place while the other OH door has the Simpson 'butterfly' in-place, but no 1" X 4" stringer yet-hung. I used construction screws and fender washers through the sheet metal of the luminaires to hold them to the stringers.

This pic is from the trial fit, I removed the brackets and through-bolted everything, and did a neater job of running the wiring. The lights are very low-profile.

The camera 'lies' a bit, the luminaires are actually equally-spaced across the width of the doors.

 

[Cruiser787904]

Jon04 and driftpin. That is the ideas I was looking for although running the light on the wall would work in a maller garage to. Hopefully, tomorrow I will have time to take a look at it and see how I can make it work for me.

I have a car to detail this weekend and it would be good to have this in place. Thanks everyone for throwing out ideas as I wasnt coming up with anything myself

 

[Marctrees]

For "This weekend" just hang something temp w rope or something... then...after... take the time to think it all through for future permanent.

Marc