
I'm supposed to be on 'light duties' so I thought that this was an entirely appropriate activity

I decided that the internal lighting in the machining cabinet of my Traub CNC lathe was pretty dismal and needed improving. The original is a folded fluorescent tube, housed in a thick walled glass tube of about 2.5" diameter, with rubber bungs at both ends with the starter in the asembly but the choke mounted remotely.
Simples: buy another identical one and mount it at the other end of the machine cabinet. Well perhaps not as although available they are over £400 each

So a home brewed design is called for. Impressed with the 'under cupboard' LED lights we've had installed in our newly built kitchen I thought that I'd investigate whats available.
Needs to be water and coolant proof, not deteriorate with oil, and stand the impact of swarf flying everywhere. So I thought that a polycarbonate tube with LEDs in side should fit the bill, but what LEDs ?
A bit of research seemed to imply that the best 'bang for your buck' comes from rolls of 'SMD' LEDs that come on a roll of 300 complete with a self adhesive backing.
Quick test showed that they were certainly pretty bright: