Let's talk DIY lights

Out of likes, but it’s called being at work lol. Not exactly easy on an old man 300’ in the air.

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A very happy birthday to you, @dbrn32, my friend. Hope you have a wonderful, and high day.

Thank you! Not sure about the second part, but I’ll do my best to try

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Happy birthday to the best light builder on this forum! :+1:t3::birthday::tumbler_glass:

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Much appreciated, thank you!

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Here it is lit up. 550w at the wall. Gonna be a beast of a light in this 4x2.5 tent I have, especially having it turned down, should be able to get 190+lm/w from each board. The lowest I can dim it is 173w. Just need to add the t5 fixture and it’s good to go.

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Happy Birthday! All the best to you and yours.

I’m not going to rush out and buy BlackDog lights. But I just thought their stuff about leaf temperature and HPS putting out a lot at 1000 nm was interesting.

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I have a question, does anyone have any recommendations on a reflector to use? I need a 2’ long piece to stick my t5 fixture in. The u channel I got could work, but it’s really heavy duty, and I am looking for something thinner so I can bend the fins out to around 45° to create more of a reflection area. I’ve looked around for some thinner uchannel but cant seem to find anything.

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Aluminum rain gutter in bright white?

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Maybe, I ordered an actual t5 reflector that looks like it might work, but that is also a good idea, if I can find a place to get a 2’ peice

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@dbrn32 happy birthday buddy! Thanks for all the knowledge you graciously pass around!

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Thanks for the birthday wishes!

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Thanks! Much appreciated.

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Happy belated birthday my friend :+1:

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Thinner u-channel would likely break if you tried to bend it out, you’d be just as well getting a thin plate and bending it yourself. In fact, you could probably buy the “dimpled” reflector plate at a big DIY store, you’d definitely find it online, just cut and bend to size, and no issues with polishing and coatings to stop the ally going “matt” again due to contact with the air.

And, in reality, you would need at least 4 times that total, unfolded, width to have any hope of using it as a reflector as the second you start “opening” the u-channel you raise the lower edge and expose the tube. When that happens, light goes sideways.

So you need another solution or buy a plate to bend.

I bought a reflector that will hopefully do the trick, thanks for your insight

Remember your angles and Pythagoras.

For a 120° reflector that means 60° off the vertical per side, so that becomes a “3, 4, 5” triangle where a vertical distance of, say, 3 inches translates to a reflector length of at least 5 inches from the bend in the metal at 60° from the vertical, or, I think, height multiplied by 1.66. For 90° then, iirc, it’s your vertical height multiplied by 1.41 to get the 45° from the bend on each side, and for, although I don’t know why you would, to get a 30° per side should you need a 60° reflector, iirc, height multiplied by 1.25.

There’s no sense in complicating things further than that, if my maths is right then there’s the simple size multiplier for finding the MINIMUM length for the most common reflector angles, I would always add a bit more but that’s just me.

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I really only need it to reflect the top back, as I need it to travel sideways because I’m using a 2’ tube width wide in a 4’ length tent, the one I got should accomplish that

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I’m just debating if I want to hang the uv below the fixture slightly or above it, if I hang it below, then I run the chance of interfering with the QB light slightly, but if I hang it above, I dont know if I will get the coverage I need from the UV lamp

Oh yeah, that’s perfect, won’t be expensive, sometimes DIY is more of a waste of time than buying “off the shelf”.

But the figures above are something to remember, they apply to the most common angles when munching metal or chomping wood (That was the third attempt, I can’t figure out a way to rephrase that so it doesn’t have the “Fnarr Fnarr” factor) to make your own “whatever”.

Had the calculator out to confirm, for it was done by memory as they were the factors used for doing things like bending cable tray/trunking/ladder and fabricating all sorts of supports and I ain’t used any of that for over a year now, and they do work in, these three conversions can make life so much easier so remember “1.66, 1.41, 1.25” or get them written down in your notes and then, should you decide you need to make your own reflector, as an example, you have the info you need to design it quickly.