8/19/11
DIY 36" 152 watt Hanging MH and CFL light
Sure I'll get one. I've just been itching to get this underway. Been rolling it over
in my head for weeks now.
It's basically as the title sez. IT's made from sheet aluminum for the reflector/
shell, with wooden endcaps Housing a 100 watt MH in the center and 2 26watt
CFL's on each end. THe finished fixture will have a glass shield in the bottom and
be equipped with a 4 inch exhaust fan.
I built the very basic shell for step one today.
The top:
I'll be painting it black when I'm all done and cleaning and finishing the poplar
End caps with a nice stain.
I'm going with an industrial type look.
I plan on Getting the 100watt MH ballast socket and bulb assembly out of a
Security light. I'll use a heavy duty extension cord, and wire the male end straight
to the MH socket. Then Take all the ballast components and put them in a
metal box, out of the way and run the female part of the ext cord from the
ballast to accept the plug you previously installed to the bulb. THen just wire
up a male plug power cord to the ballast and voila! Remote ballast. I usually
make the plug from the lamp long and the ballast acceptor plug short. so the
connection is made near the ballast.
Then wire in two porcelan household light sockets for the CFL's and double
wire them to another power cord. So you have a cord that goes into the wall
and one that plugs into a ballast. This way either the Cfl's or MH can be
operated indepedant of the other, or together.
Materials:
Hood
1 24 X 36" .020ga piece of aluminum sheet metal
2 36" 1/8" X 1" steal slat metal pcs
1 36" 1/16X1-1/4 aluminum Slat metal
1 36" 1/16X1/2" aluminum slat metal
2 24" 1X8" pcs of poplar wood
Cooling
1 4" 120volt fan (Radio shack)
1 4" mesh exhaust hole cover
1 36"X14" sheet of glass
6 small 1/2" "L" brackets, bendable are best
6 sticky back rubber discs (for making things nonslip)
Lighting
2 26 watt 65K CFL bulbs
1 100 watt Metal Halide security light (dis-assembled)
2 porcelin Household sockets Keyless
3 Large "L" Brackets for mounting bulb sockets
4 feet of color coded wire for wiring the lights
Construction hardware
6 wire nuts
2 bgs wood screws
4 bags 1/2" nuts bolts
glue for securing wiring
Tools:
Power Drill
Jig saw
Drill bit a bit smaller than the wood screw
Drill bit the same size as Bolts
I didnt get the steal slats till later. The
Concept is simple.... Cut out some arcs from the wood and mold the sheet
metal around it. I planned on sinking the end caps about 1/2" on each end
and piling in screws to give it a factory rough look.
I made one fatal mistake in my design. I didnt think I'd need to brace the
sheet metal cover with anything more than the end pieces.... Yeah its very
clear now why it doesnt work. I really should have used 4 of the steel slats
and made an arc skeleton over the end caps. Then simply screw on the sheet
metal.
Heres some pics... You'll see what I mean.
End pieces and the aluminum skin/reflector/cover.
Simply line it up and figure out the screw points
Drill the screw holes in the sheet metal, then start to attach the endcaps.
Here's where i realize... I left out a step. I should have at least attached the
ends together with the steel supports on the bottom 1st. (And 2 more would
be even better)
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