Is your own shadow falling across the job?
The light in a workshop is almost always behind you and above you, so the moment you lean in over the vice, your head and your hands put the job in shadow. A task light sits on the bench with you and lands the light on the work instead. There are six of them here, built for a workbench rather than a desk, and every one is £50 off while this stock lasts.
They are not the same light in six colours. They differ in how far they reach, how tight the beam is, how truly they show colour, and how they fix to your bench. Answer six quick questions below and we will point you at the right one for the work you do.
Your shed light is behind you, so you shadow the job the moment you lean in. These six sit on the bench with you. Every one is £50 off, and six quick questions will point you at the right one.
Alex Pratt OBE | Founder
Or call free on 0800 032 9364, Mon–Fri 8:30am–5:30pm
£50 off every light · 237 left
What a light on the bench does that the ceiling cannot.
A strip light fills the room. It does not put anything on the job, and it cannot get past your hands. These are the three things that change the day a task light goes on your bench.
Your hands stop shadowing the work.
Light from the ceiling arrives over your shoulder, so you block it yourself every time you lean in. These come in low and from the side, on an arm you bend to the angle you are working at, and the light lands on the carburettor or the board or the joint instead of on your back.
You can tell one colour from another.
Colour accuracy is measured out of 100, and daylight is the 100. The Focus scores 98 and the Mini 95, so a brown resistor band stays brown, a stain looks the shade it will dry, and you can see the difference between two greys in a wiring loom.
You set it once and it stays there.
Every arm here is the stay-put kind. Bend it where you want it and it holds, through the vibration of a pillar drill and the knock of a spanner. Bolt the base to your bench, clamp it to the edge, drop it on a magnet or hang it off the wall, and the aiming is done for good.
This is what changes on the bench.
Two things go wrong under a strip light, and neither of them is fixed by a brighter strip light. The first is where the light comes from. The second is what it does to colour.
Two things go wrong under a strip light, and a brighter strip light fixes neither. Where the light comes from, and what it does to colour.
A ceiling fitting throws light down onto your shoulders, so your head and your hands take it out before it reaches the job. A light standing on the bench comes in low and from the side, which is the one angle your own body is not in the way of.
Which one of those five is the brown wire?
An illustration of what the number means, not a photograph. The wires are drawn identically in both panels and only the light over them has been changed. Colour accuracy runs from 0 to 100, where daylight is 100. The Focus and the Gary Light score 98, the Mini 95, and the two Reach lights 85.
Reach is the number people get wrong. On a bench 600mm deep a 500mm arm covers most of the top, which is where the work usually sits. The extra 200mm on the two Reach lights clears the whole bench, so the base can live right at the back and stay out of your way, and the head still comes down over the front edge.
Start with what you do at the bench.
Six lights, and the right one depends on the work rather than the price. Pick the line that sounds like your bench, or run the six questions underneath and we will do it for you.
Six lights, and the right one depends on the work. Pick the line that sounds like your bench, or run the six questions underneath.
Not sure? Answer six quick questions.
Tell us what you work on and how it needs to fix to your bench, and we will name the light.
What do you work on at the bench?
Choose all that apply
How big is the area you need lit?
Choose one
How does it need to fix on?
Choose one
How far does it need to reach?
Choose one
Do you want to turn the brightness down?
Choose one
Which of these matters most to you?
Choose one
For the work you do, we would fit
Not what you expected? Call free on 0800 032 9364 and an adviser will talk it through with you.
Workshop Light Focus
The brightest and the truest of the six. It puts 2,600 lux on the job at 50cm and renders colour at 98 out of 100, which is as close to working by a north-facing window as an indoor light gets. The switch is on the head, so you reach for the light rather than hunt for the base.
Perfect for painting, staining, finishing, and anything where the shade has to be judged by eye.
98 colour accuracy, 4,000K, 2,600 lux at 50cm
500mm stay-put arm, swivel head, switch on the head
5.5W, 30,000 hours, plug-in driver included
Screws to your bench. White clamp and wall bracket available.
Workshop Light Mini
A small aluminium head that fits where the others will not, and two optics in the box so you set the beam yourself. Fit the 8° optic and you get a tight circle on one joint or one component. Fit the 40° and it opens out across the tray in front of you.
Perfect for soldering, model work, watch and clock repairs, and anything under a magnifier.
95 colour accuracy, 4,500K, 1,980 lux at 50cm
8° and 40° optics included, 25° as standard
500mm stay-put arm, swivel head, switch on the base
Screws to your bench. Clamp, magnetic base and wall bracket available.
Workshop Light Reach Swivel
A 700mm arm, which is 200mm more than anything else here, so the base can sit at the back of the bench and the head still gets over the middle of the job. The arm is sleeved, so it wipes clean of oil and swarf, and there is a wire handle on the head so you move it without touching the hot part.
Perfect for a deep bench, a lathe, a pillar drill, or anywhere you want the base out of the way.
700mm sleeved stay-put arm, our longest
Swivel head with a 15° beam, 2,200 lux at 50cm
3W, 3,500K, 85 colour accuracy, 30,000 hours
Screws to your bench. Clamp, magnetic bases and wall bracket available.
Workshop Light Reach Fixed
The same 700mm sleeved arm and the same light engine as the Swivel, with a fixed head instead of a swivelling one. If you aim it once at the vice and leave it there, that joint is one less thing to work loose, and the light costs you £25 less.
Perfect for one job in one place, aimed once and left alone.
700mm sleeved stay-put arm
Fixed head with a 15° beam, 2,200 lux at 50cm
3W, 3,500K, 85 colour accuracy, 30,000 hours
Screws to your bench. Clamp, magnetic bases and wall bracket available.
The Gary Light
Gary has run our workshop for 28 years. He was fed up with the light at his own bench, so he built himself one out of the industrial parts he uses every day, and this is it. The clip takes two hands to open and grips anything up to 40mm, which means a bench edge, a shelf, a car door or the leg of a Workmate.
Perfect for working in more than one place, and for jobs that are not always at the bench.
98 colour accuracy, 4,000K, 250 lumens
It dims. Three beam filters in the box: 20°, 30° and 36°
500mm stay-put arm, clip grips up to 40mm
3.3W, 30,000 hours, plug-in driver included
Workshop Light
The same head as the Gary Light on a base that screws down into your bench, so nothing gets knocked out of position. One button does everything: press it to switch on and hold it to dim, and three beam filters in the box take it from a 20° spot to a 36° pool without any tools.
Perfect for a bench you always work at, where the light should be part of the furniture.
It dims from one press-and-hold button
Three beam filters in the box: 20°, 30° and 36°
Stay-put arm and a swivel joint at the head
Screws to your bench. Clamp and magnetic bases available.
No code needed. The price on this page is the price at the checkout
How do the six compare?
Every one of them has a stay-put flexible arm, a plug-in driver in the box and an LED rated for 30,000 hours. What changes is the reach, the beam, the colour accuracy and how it fixes on.
|
Best light
Focus
Colour work
|
Mini
Fine work
|
Reach Swivel
Longest arm
|
Reach Fixed
Longest arm, less money
|
Gary
Clips on, moves about
|
Workshop
Bolts down, dims
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Judging colour | Small, close work | Reaching across | Reaching across | Moving about | One fixed bench |
| Colour accuracy | 98 | 95 | 85 | 85 | 98 | To confirm |
| Light on the job | 2,600 lux at 50cm | 1,980 lux at 50cm | 2,200 lux at 50cm | 2,200 lux at 50cm | 250 lumens | To confirm |
| Beam | 20°, the widest here | 25°, plus 8° and 40° optics | 15° spot | 15° spot | 20°, 30° or 36° filters | 20°, 30° or 36° filters |
| Arm | 500mm | 500mm | 700mm, sleeved | 700mm, sleeved | 500mm | To confirm |
| Head swivels | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dims | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| How it fixes | Screws down | Screws down | Screws down | Screws down | Clip, up to 40mm | Screws down |
| Magnetic base | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Finish | White | Black | Black | Black | Black | Black |
| Left in stock | 50 | 43 | 33 | 28 | 48 | 35 |
| Price | £149.99 | £99.99 | £149.99 | £124.99 | £99.99 | £99.99 |
| Focus | Mini | Reach Swivel | Reach Fixed | Gary | Workshop |
Focus
Colour work
Mini
Fine work
Reach Swivel
Longest arm
Reach Fixed
Longest arm, less money
Gary
Clips on, moves about
Workshop
Bolts down, dims
How it fixes to your bench.
Every light except the Gary comes with a sub base, which is a small block that screws down into a wooden worktop with the screws supplied. If your bench is steel, or you would rather not drill it, there are three other ways to mount it.
Every light except the Gary comes with a sub base that screws into a wooden worktop. If your bench is steel, there are three other ways to mount it.
G-Clamp, £19.99.
Clamps to the edge of a bench, a shelf or a desk and holds hard, and it comes off again when you want the bench clear. Nothing to drill and nothing to make good afterwards.
Magnetic base, £29.99.
Drops onto any steel surface and stays put, then lifts off and goes somewhere else in a second. On a machine, a steel bench or the side of a toolbox it is the quickest mount there is.
Wall bracket, £19.99.
A heavy bracket that screws to the wall or to the back of the bench, so the light comes in over the job and the whole worktop stays clear underneath it.
Built to be the best, not the cheapest.
Any hardware shop will sell you a clamp lamp for twenty pounds, and for some jobs that is all you need. What is on this page is a different class of tool: an LED rated for 30,000 hours, which is over twenty years at three hours a night, on an arm that holds its aim through the vibration of a pillar drill, with a plug-in driver instead of a bulb you have to go looking for in five years.
A warranty is only worth the company standing behind it, and a good many of the lamps you will find in an online auction are sold by businesses younger than the warranty printed on the box. We have been building lights in Buckinghamshire for forty years and repairing them for just as long, and the phone is answered here.
Forty years on nothing but light, from one factory in Aylesbury.
Over a million lights sold across 93 countries.
30,000 hours on every light here, which is over twenty years at three hours a night.
About £1.50 a year to run. The Focus draws 5.5 watts, so three hours a night comes to six units of electricity in a year.
Thirty days to send it back, if it turns out to be the wrong one for your bench.
Before you order.
Which one should I get?
It comes down to the work rather than the price. If you are judging colour, take the Focus. If the job is small and close, take the Mini. If you need the head out over the middle of a deep bench, take one of the Reach lights, and if you want to be able to turn the brightness down, take the Gary or the Workshop.
The six questions above ask exactly that, and they name one light at the end. If you would rather talk it through, call free on 0800 032 9364 and an adviser will go through it with you.
What does colour accuracy actually mean at a bench?
It is a score out of 100 for how closely a light shows colour compared with daylight. A low score does not look dim, it looks flat, and that is when a brown resistor band reads as red, a mixed paint dries the wrong shade, and two wires in a loom look like the same grey.
The Focus and the Gary both score 98, the Mini scores 95, and the two Reach lights score 85. For general bench work 85 is plenty. For anything where you are judging a colour by eye it is not.
My bench is steel. Can I still fix one to it?
Yes. The sub base in the box is meant for a wooden worktop, so for steel you want the magnetic base at £29.99, which drops on and holds without any drilling. The G-Clamp at £19.99 does the same job on any bench with an edge you can get to.
The magnetic base fits the Mini, both Reach lights and the Workshop Light. The Focus takes the white clamp and the white wall bracket, and the Gary Light has its own clip built on.
Do any of them dim?
The Gary Light and the Workshop Light do, from a single button. Press it to switch on and hold it to run the brightness up and down.
The Focus, the Mini and the two Reach lights run at one brightness. On those you change the spread instead: the Focus is a wide 20°, the Mini comes with an 8° and a 40° optic in the box, and the Reach lights are a tight 15° spot.
What comes in the box?
The light, a plug-in driver that runs on ordinary UK mains, and the mounting base with its screws. The Mini also comes with its 8° and 40° optics, and the Gary and the Workshop each come with three beam filters at 20°, 30° and 36°.
Clamps, magnetic bases and wall brackets are sold separately, so you only pay for the mount you are actually going to use.
Do I need an electrician?
No. Every light here runs off a plug-in driver that goes into a normal thirteen amp socket, so there is nothing to wire in and nothing to notify.
Fitting is a screwdriver job. Mark the base where you want it, put the screws in, bend the arm to the angle you work at, and that is it.
How long will the LED last?
Every light on this page is rated at 30,000 hours. At three hours a night in the shed that is more than twenty years of use.
The LED is integrated rather than a bulb you swap, so there is nothing to buy again and nothing to go looking for in five years.
What if it is the wrong one when it arrives?
You have thirty days to send it back. Get in touch and we will sort it out, and if the answer is a different light off this page we will swap it rather than leave you to reorder.
The same phone number gets you the workshop if anything goes wrong later. We have been repairing our own lights for forty years.
Why are these reduced?
Because they are the last of them. The two Reach lights were built for a trade supplier who has stopped stocking them, the Gary Light was a run of fifty, and the rest are final batches with no more scheduled.
There are 237 lights in total. The price comes off to clear the shelf, not because there is anything wrong with them, and they are all brand new and boxed.
There are 237 of these left.
Six workshop lights, £50 off every one of them, and no more coming when these have gone. The Reach Fixed is down to 28 and the Reach Swivel to 33, so those two will go first.
See the six lightsThirty days to send it back if it is the wrong one for your bench. The price on this page is the price at the checkout.
Or call free on 0800 032 9364, Mon–Fri 8:30am–5:30pm.