Homemade light

[Racefan]

When I first came here I made a claim to making my own air cooled reflectors. Well I want to prove that I'm not just saying things so here are a couple of pics of the last light I built. I built it in 2004 as you can tell by the item name I gave it. It's 100% sealed because I ran co2 when I built it. It's a 1000watt air cooled HPS with 4" flanges and drier hose with a 400cfm fan sucking the heat from the light. The light rides back and forth on a 4foot light rail. My room is 4' deep X 5' wide X 7' tall and is exhusted by a 8" elicent fan.
In the very near future I plan on making a new reflector and I could make it a tutorial if anyone is interested. I have a lot of new ideas about some improvements I can do. Especially in the area of accessing the glass and bulb for change outs and cleaning. Then I have some other ideas too. Let me know what you think of my original reflector and if your interested in a learning the art of sheet metal bending.

 

[realtalgrower]

Wow. I would love to see a tutorial of this.

 

[DankCloset]

show ur shit man, iam actually gonna buy another 1000watt hps kit, i would love to make and install it into a home made air cooled hood.

i actually have some ideas for you, i cut glass for a living and drilling holes in it is actually easy and pretty safe to do.
so my suggestion is make the whole bottom with glass detachable and screw it in with wingnuts accessable and easy to manover with

 

[Racefan]

show ur shit man, iam actually gonna buy another 1000watt hps kit, i would love to make and install it into a home made air cooled hood.

i actually have some ideas for you, i cut glass for a living and drilling holes in it is actually easy and pretty safe to do.
so my suggestion is make the whole bottom with glass detachable and screw it in with wingnuts accessable and easy to manover with

That would be pretty cool but can you drill/cut tempered glass? The last time I tried to do it I had millions and millions of little pieces of glass all over the place.lol The pieces of glass I use are replacement ones for actual air cooled lights. The local hydro store sells them cheap. I think the glass in the picture is only $12 or $13. The piece of sheet metal runs $15.00 and then there are the rivets and metal tape. In total it's $35.00 max for a killer air cooled reflector. I've been using the one above for 2 years straight and average 3+ ounces per plant. Actually closer to 4 ounces but who's counting.
I was thinking about angled end plates with one of them utilizing these new specialty rivets I have. They have threads built into them to allow a person to use screws for continual access. Plus if I angle the flanges I can get my intake and exhaust hoses to attach at straight up and down angle which would make using my light rail easier. Heck, I better stop talking ablout it or someone will build it before me.lol
Give me a week or so. Mom-in-law(girlfriends mom) is coming in on Wednesday and will be here until monday for turkey day celebration so I have to wait until she leaves to begin. If anyones interested in following along and needs a item list, PM me and I will get one to you tonight.
Thanks for the comments peeps.

 

[DankCloset]

hey man, actually what you do is drill the holes in the glass before you temper it.

 

[Akornpatch]

sweet.

 

[Racefan]

hey man, actually what you do is drill the holes in the glass before you temper it.

Hey dank, your idea is good but I wonder about cost. I can get a pretempered piece of glass for $15.00 right here. Then considering I won't use untempered I would have to get the new piece tempered. What does that cost and is it even possible for me to do? I think it would be cheaper in the long run to just use the hydro store glass don't you? But I like your ideas. Got any more?lol

 

[vintner]

Hey, I have a question for you guys. I realize that every grow area is going to be different, but as a general rule, if you only use low watt HPS (250 watt) and you have pretty good ventilation, how nessesary is a vented hood?

 

[DankCloset]

250watter wont put off that much heat, but the ballast will put off heat, and these together are pretty gnarly, see the thing is i know iam gonna need a vented hood, iam going with some pretty heavy wattage. at any rate i asked some questions at work and came up with this, i also work on a piece of equpment called a water jet, a flow table,. if you dont know what that is, look it up. for cutting sheets of glass 72 x 96. anyway this machine utilizes water and a granite called shit i forgot but its like sand, and it cuts right through metal, anyway this machine is designed to put so much presure on the glass that it "parts" more or less cuts a whole, anyway this machine will puncture a whole in type of glass and tempered glass, but wont cut tempered glass, too much pressure. anyway anysize piece of tempered glass, coated, Loe2 window glass. no argon though. anyway. I got an idea but need to think on it.

 

[Racefan]

I wasn't doing this to sell them for profit. I'm doing this for any and all growers to have an idea on how to make their own reflectors. If you could make this reflector for less than $50.00 and have it produce as well as any store bought one that sells for double that, wouldn't you do it? Well that is my incentive. Just like my reason for helping others here, I do it for my love of this plant and to help other (although, after today, I now question how much help I truly am to anyone) growers try to have good equipment at bargain prices. The prices are what the components to make it with cost. Nothing more. If someone wants to run with this pattern and make their own for profit, well then I applaud them. that's just not me though.

 

[Stix]

Every light I bought didn't come with the glass. Glass was considered XTRA. So your already one up on the rest of us dank.

 

[Racefan]

The way I plan on making this light is to have a small lip for the glass to sit on and slide in and out on. I plan on making it so that by removing 3 or 4 small screws you take off a end piece and slide the glass out or reach in and unscrew the bulb. This reflector is going to be all about accessibility and performance.

 

[Racefan]

Thanks for the heads up. I wasn't too sure of the wing nut idea either but if someone else wants to try creative ideas on building lights I won't stop them. Trial and error with others imput on what will or won't work is what has made america what it is. I've always had great results with a small lip for it to sit on and that is how I plan on making the first one.
Yes I use a brake but it's homemade with a couple of 1 x 4's and some small hinges. I used to use the crack in my back porch landing but rebuilt the porch and the crack is no longer there.lol
I do ballast work as well. In my gallery are some pics of parking lot light I turned into a remote grow ballast. I'm one of those people who are Jacks of all trades but masters of none. My whole life I've been the type who isn't afraid to take things apart to see how it works. Plus I once took a home correspondence VCR/TV repair course so I'm used to and not afraid to work with high voltages.
Any and all ideas and observations are welcome here. If someone notices or knows of any ideas that may help or are better, please speak up.

 

[Racefan]

A sheet of dimpled un painted aluminum wrapping the inside of the hood like a lining, gives better reflection and reduces heat build up in the hood acting like a heat sink and a double wall.
Make a bracket for the mogul socket so bulb is centered with the duct hose.
Inlet and outlet ducts should be centered to reduce drag.
This is all I can think of looking at your hood, looks real good by the way.
Where you get your metal and what gauge sheet you use? Looks thicker than aluminum flashing you can buy by the roll at a hardware store.

Thanks for the ideas Herby. Your 100% correct on all of those tips. But I want to keep cost down and dimpled aluminum is expensive as hell. Like 2 to 3 times what the sheet metal I use costs. So I use a high temp white paint instead of raw aluminum. I use 26 gauge plate steel. I buy it from a store here called Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH) in 2 x 4 sheets at about $15.00 a sheet. I'd never use flashing for a 1k light. Way too thin IMO. I did use flashing to line a 400 watt reflector once. I wasn't really impressed over the unlined one and the trouble to get the lining perfect was a pain in the ass! lol
On my new reflector I plan on angeling the end pieces and even angeling the hose flanges so that my air cooling hoses comes down and enter the reflector straight up and down. I think it will help with my light rail. They both were going to be centered. Once I get it built I was going to give Dank a choice of styles.lol
Thanks Herby for the props on the construction. It's not half as hard as it looks to make. Anyone with a slight mechanical aptitude could do it. The way I see it, if I could do it, anyone could.lol