Lighting Show us how your hanging, cob frames and mounting.

[BigSm0]

Just throwing this out there to my afn bro's and sisters who share the same love for DIY as I do.

Id love to see what everyone's buildings and what materials are being used. I admit it's not easy and with out having a machine shop every build is limited. Please show off what your doing so others can get some ideas.

A lot of Mars hacks going on and thanks to Jupiter even a kind hack but the rest of you folks have got to be building something fun.


This was my recent build with cheap 2530's and some fancy 80/20 extrusion. Before this I did a lot of 3/4 X 3/4 aluminum angle but I really want to build my next light as a more commercially made product.

 

[BigSm0]

Great universal frame by northern grow lights . Around $65 shipped. Holds most common sized pin heat sinks and also set up to hold hlg drivers and junction box

 

[BigSm0]

This is the old aluminum plate that held the LEDs on a Mars hydro. I used a pair of side cutters to cut the solder that held the LEDs down and sanded off the remaining material and paint. Then put it all back together. The cobs behind was an impulse buy and the hammers are only when things don't fit. :smoking:

 

[Ozone69]

I used a drill press to make three small holes around the edges of the round, passive pin style heat sinks. Then I used small wire looped through the hole and ferrulles to crimp 'em off to hang them. I'm using eyebolts through some EMT conduit on the other end and hanging them from that using split link rings to make it easy to take 'em off if needed. Driver is just strapped on using plastic wire ties.

Future mods I'd like to do include shortening up the cables they're hanging on a bit and using the ratcheting rope hangers to strap them to the eye bolts. Then get some of the coiled, extending style wire (think old school phone handset cord) to make jumpers. The idea is that each light could then be lowered individually from the others.

 

[BigSm0]

This is great ozone. I always thought I was pretty crafty but I never thought of drilling and tapping the sides of the sink itself.

As for the wire you could easily make this yourself with some solid 18g wire and something long and round. Either tape or hold one end and start wrapping in circles.

 

[Dudeski]

The sinks sold by Northern Grow Lights are pre drilled and tapped in 4 places on the outside. I can get some pics tomorrow.

 

[BigSm0]

Not sure how many are familiar with 80/20 but it's fairly inexpensive material considering. $50 for an 8 foot length. The hardware to connect it together is the expensive part. Here are some photos

My problem is mounting the pin heat sinks to the frame. If I could buy or make these I'd be thrilled.

 

[F.N.]

Simply put EXCELLENT thread BigSmO. 80/20 material is a starting point to making great led light and that grow northern plate too keep up the good work BigSmO and Dudeski

 

[BigSm0]

Simply put EXCELLENT thread BigSmO. 80/20 material is a starting point to making great led light and that grow northern plate too keep up the good work BigSmO and Dudeski

Thanks again FairlyNew. I really hope the diy'ers here and possibly future diy'ers can use this thread to help with their builds. I spent days looking for ideas before I just started cutting metal. It's simple if you want to throw something together but some of us are after the nice quality builds.

 

[Dudeski]

The sinks sold by Northern Grow Lights are pre drilled and tapped in 4 places on the outside. I can get some pics tomorrow.

This is incorrect! The 140 sinks are only drilled in 2 places. So, i gotta look at it and think.
May just drill and tap 2 more.