Search the Community

I have been very unhappy with the one original DeWalt light that came with my DeWalt 788 Scroll saw. I've tried several alternatives, including halogen drafting board lights. Having two lights, one on each side of the saw made a big difference in reducing the shadows around the blade, and whiter brighter lights also helped. The halogen lights worked, but they were very hot. I frequently burned my forehead on them and after cutting with them all day the backs of my hands would get sunburned, but I continued to use these lights, while looking for something better. I recently found and purchased two of these LED lights to mount on my Dewalt 788 scroll saw in place of the single original DeWalt light Shop Style Selections 15-in Adjustable Brushed Steel LED Clip-On Desk Lamp with Metal Shade at Lowes.com I designed and built a bracket to mount two of these lights to the upper arm of my DeWalt 788 saw, after my initial plan of clipping the lights to the rear of the saw table failed, because I kept bumping into the clamps with my work. The new bracket that I made wraps around the upper arm of the saw just ahead of the DeWalt label, and extends out from both sides of the saw arm. Each side extension of this bracket has a hole where I attached one of the lights, after removing it from it’s original clamp. Only a slight trimming of the bottom edge of the plastic piece that holds the saw speed control and power switch is necessary. The rest of the saw does not have to be modified to add these lights and bracket. Adding the bracket and attaching the lights to it required dis-assembly of the lamp head by removing the two screws in the plastic lens of the lamp. The lens and PC board with the LEDs attached to it can then be removed from the lamp head. Un-solder the wires from the back side of the PC board. Then remove the wires from the flex tube, and then remove the original clamp from the base of the goose neck. After installing the base of the goose neck on my new bracket I then re-threaded the wires up through the the goose neck tube into the lamp head, re-soldered the wires in their correct positions, and then re-assembled the lamp head. There is a small flat on the back edge of both the PC board and the lens that must point toward the goose neck as the lamp head is assembled. The same was done with the second lamp. The lights run on low voltage DC, so it's necessary to maintain the correct polarity of the wires when they are re-attached. There are tiny + and - signs on the PC board and one of the wires has a line of - signs on it, so it attaches to the poing with the - next to it. The other wire by default is the + wire, so it attaches to the point with the + sign next to it. I twisted the wires from both lamps loosely together and routed them back along the left side of the upper saw arm fixing them in place with tie-wraps. The switches for the two lights ended up along side of the rear saw frame casting, so I attached them to this casting, one above the other, with double sided carpet tape. Between the switches and the power supply/plugs there are several feet of additional wire that would easily reach a wall outlet if one was directly behind the scroll saw, but I have mounted a power strip to the left side of the rear leg of the saw stand, so I loosely twisted the wires together and then plugged the lights in to this power strip. The saw and foot switch for the saw are also plugged into this power strip. I’ve now been using these LED lights for almost 6 months and find them ideal for my purpose. They are very bright and emit a very white, non-flickering light that is perfect for scroll sawing. Being able to easily position them on each side and slightly forward of the blade and shining down at about a 45 deg angle at the blade eliminates all of the blade shadows and makes it very easy to follow the lines of my patterns. Running all day long the lamp housings never heat up to much over 80 or so degrees, so I never burn my head on them either. These lights would make great auxiliary lighting for most any shop tool and the price is right to have many of them, either mounted on their original clamps or on specially made brackets. I now own 7 of them, not only on my two scroll saws, but also on my band saw and drill presses. Be careful not to buy the weighted desk top version of these lights. The base of the flexible shaft looks the same but it is different than the one with the spring clamp shown in the link above. If you buy one of these it will be much harder to modify for use on a bracket, like I did. Attached are photos of this installation on my DeWalt 788. I'm now in the process of making a slightly different bracket to mount two more of these LED lights to my Delta Q3 40-650 scroll saw. If you are unhappy with the lighting on your scroll saw and have difficulty seeing where the blade is cutting because of the strobe like shadows being caused with the one light and the upper blade grip, then this modification will solve all of it for less than $45. They are great unmodified for use on other tools too. Charley