I have been using this head lamp to help me with the build, it is the second one from the same manufacturer ( There is no manufacture name on the light except that it is made in, surprise, China) the first one lasted about 3 months then quit, the second one, still working and, at the beginning it worked pretty well. Now I am noticing that the light loses brightness rather quickly, I fully charge the thing, then in about an hour of use the intensity of the light decreases quite a bit. When new it would keep the charge for several hours.
Since my eyesight is not what used to be, ( I wonder why, I am only 78, LOL ) I have decided to find a new light. I went to Amazon and did a search and found several pages of lights, so the question is this which one should I pick.
I saw this topic and thought it was going to be about making headlights for model cars or something to that effect. After reading two or three times, I realized you are asking about a head lamp you would wear to provide light when you are working? You may want to re-word your subject and question --it may get you more responses. Personally I don’t use a head lamp. I have a standard clamp on work light that clamps to a shelf right over where I usually sit at my bench (like the one pictured here):
cbaltrin: Thank you for taking the time to discuss this item, sometimes I have a difficulty expressing what exactly I want to say. Yes, what I am looking for is some sort of a light that is attached to a band to put around you head so you can work and have the light pointed to the item.
I have a lamp similar to the one you display, but it does not work for me, because I find it the sometimes the shadow of my hands cover the item or being of such size the it can not be put were I need it most.
There is a large variation of head lights, and, since this is my third one (I have another one which I never use because the light is not sufficiently strong) I want to make sure not to expend money on something that is worthless.
I have been using head lights for model building and at my job for years and always had the same kinds of issues that you had. The batteries didn’t have a good reputation for standing up to long-term heavy use and some critical part of the headband assembly would always break after only a few weeks. Ended up finding this brand on Amazon and after two years of daily use, usually for several hours a day, they’re still going strong. They’re even bright enough at the lowest setting that you don’t have to turn them all the way up to see well with them.
The batteries supplied with most things are really cheap. Unfortunatly replaceing a replacing a rechargable is more work than just dropping in a new AA or AAA cell.
However, it can be done if it is a popular product. It must be phyically compaticble, same voltage and reasonably of a similar capacity. Too little and you will need to charge more frequentently. Too much would be okay, except that this would be hard to find,
After trying a few other things with limited success due to bad switches, etc., I decided to mount a short section of picatinny rail on top of the lens shield of my OptiVisor and then attached a lightweight pistol light. VERY bright, lightweight and superb switches. It runs on CR123 batteries (I use rechargable).
I got this headlamp at my Local Lowes. It was one of about five they had with various features and prices. This one uses thre AAA batteries and has a feature that lets you tilt the direction of the light down from the straight ahead position so that the light is on your work.
I use a similar one when doing stage lighting work and I have to poke my head into the flyspace above the stage. In our theater, it’s just the space in the rafters, so, it’s not lit, it’s full of wires, wood drops to hang things, insulation bats falling from the bays, etc. The head lamp is very useful to get light on my work. There’s no magnifyer on it, though, not necessary, for that application.
For model work, though, I agree with getting light on your line of sight. The suggestion for work lights mounted on clamps is good, to increase your general, ambient light on your bench. I have a well-lit workbench, too. But I like to have an additional light aimed at the spot about 18 inches in front of me, where I hold things I’m working on. Even with a brightly lit space, that additional light helps me.
For that kind of an application, I find that a magnifier I can wear on my head, with a built-in light, is perfect. There are different styles, such as an OptiVisor, or a glasses-type magnifier. But the important thing, for me, is getting that light focused on that spot.
eaglecash867: The headlamp you pointed to is very similar to the one I have, actually it looks like they are made by the same manufacturer. The band is the same one that my has. What I have been doing of lately is to charge it more frequently, even when I put it down for short amount of time. This keeps the lamp fully charge for about 45 minutes to an hour.
missileman2 :You are correct that the design of these head lights makes it difficult to change the batteries, if it was easier I could have another set of batteries being charge then exchange then with the one being use. Why they just do not have a easier access to the batteries?
Strongeagle / The Baron: The lamp you show looks good, I have to drop by my local Lowes to chek it out.
I would like to thanks all off you guys for your recommendations, I will keep you posted since I going to do some more research on these lights.
Just from what you’re describing in your reply to everybody, it doesn’t sound like you have the same headlamp as the one I have. Mine lasts for 6 to 8 hours on a charge. The batteries are also extremely easy to replace. There is a rubber cover on the inside surface of the battery box that peels off really easily, and there are two batteries in there that go into a tray similar to the typical AA battery tray. There’s no soldering or special tools needed to replace the batteries on my headlamp.
In my unit the battery case has a cover that it is hold by 4 very small screws, it is not a big deal to remove the screws to see if the batteries are of the type that can be easily replace. So far, I have not open this case, but it seems to me that if the manufacturer intended for the end user to replace batteries, they will have made it a lot easier. The reason I assume that my unit was of a same manufacturer is because the head band is identical to yours.
So far, by recharging constantly, I am able to use the unit, but I still intent to go to Lowes and see what they have over there.
I went to my local Lowes to check on the head lamps and I found this one that advertise to have 800 lumen, if true, it would make it nice and bright:
The unit, when fully charged, is very bright, but, I notice that as you use it the brightness slowly reduces. This would take about 1/2 before you start noticing it. Since I work on the models for usually no more than 1 hour, as soon as I stop working I put it to charge again.
The is what I have found with the unit:
It looses brightness over time
To charge it there is this door that have to be open to get to charging port and they made it difficult to open this door.
The batteries can not be remove, the instruction are very clear to the point that they advice as not to open the batteries compartment because some chemical may leak that apparently is bad for you.
The instructions indicate that you can recharge this unit 500 times, then what? I guess you have to trow it away a get a new one
I do the same except I got a small used bedside table reading lamp and replaced the normal bulb with a reflector led lamp that directs the light straight down from the socket. The bulb is a 100 watt equivelent and puts out a lot of light right where I point it.
