A Little Light on the Subject

The corner of the garage where Rick put in his workbench has always had a lighting disadvantage.  The garage light is more toward the middle of the garage, so anyone who works at the workbench is always casting his or her own shadow on the bench top.

Additionally, the freezer right next to the workbench has the same problem.  When we go out to the freezer a bit before dinner time, seeing what is in the depths of the freezer with little illumination can be a real problem.

The problem: the area above the workbench
had no source of light.

For approximately $40, a couple of scrap 2 x 4's, some already-on-hand wire, and about an hour of hot work, Rick solved the problem today.

We started the venture at Home Depot to pick up a small can light, a "decorator" ring, and some LED light bulbs.  The bulbs consume low wattage but give off 120 watts of light.  Just what that corner needed!

Then up the ladder Rick went.  We wanted the light centered over the workbench, so Rick had to scab on some scrap 2 x 4's to the existing 2 x 4's for a surface onto which he could attach the can lighting fixture.

Two scrap 2 x 4's were added to existing
2 x 4's in the ceiling to hold the new light.

From there, it was a matter of running the wire to the fixture, attaching the wire to the rafters, and splicing it in to a power source.  Of course, the garage lights were one of the only switches in the electrical panel NOT identified, so trying to turn off the power to the garage took almost as much time as actually connecting the wire to the can light fixture.

Success! The new light eliminates shadows
and excused about not being able to see to work.

In the end, we now have a 120 watt "daylight" illumination above the workbench that also does a great job of adding a little light into the depths of the freezer.

Now Rick has no excuse not to get a lot of work done out on the workbench in the garage!