DIY- compact fluorescent fixture

[mspofford032579]

SO I was pricing compact fluorescent fixtures with bulbs onbline and I just couldn't see spending over a hundred bucks for a kit, so I got ghetto with it and built my own! See attatched pics...

[mspofford032579]

The only thing I have left to do is use the wire connectors to attatch the cord and it's done, but I need to get a cord with a polarized plug... Anyhow, I'm posting the plans if anyone else is interested...

[mspofford032579]

While reading various threads in this forum, I observed people spending upwards of 20 bucks making light assemblies using modified bathroom fixtures, and I thought; why do that when you can make something better yourself for about half the price? So here it is: plans to my 136w compact fluorescent fixture.

Shopping list:
Some scrap sheet metal
4 light sockets w/pigtails and 90 deg. Mounting brackets (lowes part #75121 â??phenolicâ??)
1 can of flat white spray paint
1/8â?� inner diameter rubber grommets
Wire connectors (the in line tap kind)
An old plug from a tv or something- make sure it has the polarized end (one prong larger)
A small assortment of machine screws, nuts, and locking washers
Marine epoxy, caulk, or any kind of paintable sealer you can use to seal the edges to keep them from leaking light


Tools Required:
Sheet metal scissors or â??aircraftâ?� tin snips
Screwdriver
Pliers
Utility knife
Straight edge
Black magic marker
3 pieces of scrap plywood or â??OSBâ?� (must be at least 14â?� long)
A couple of C-Clamps
Drill with assorted metal bits
Rivet gun with a few rivets
Protractor (that plastic half circle ruler thing you used to measure angles back in high school)

[mspofford032579]

1) Start by cutting a 14â?�X20â?� piece of sheet metal as shown in figure 1
This piece will become the reflector for your light housing. The dotted lines represent where you will eventually be folding. The two black dots represent where you will be drilling holes to mount the posts which will support your sockets.

[mspofford032579]

2) Using the straight edge and the utility knife, score the two lines where you will be folding. These lines are represented by the dotted lines in figure 1. To fold, take two pieces of scrap wood and line their edges up. Then, place the sheet metal in between the two flush pieces of scrap wood, making sure to line the edge you just scored (using the utility knife) with the flush edges of the wood. Hold them all in place using the clamps. Then, place the third piece of wood on a flat surface like the table or floor, and bend the metal against it. Make sure before you bend, that the side you scored with the utility knife is bending outward not inward. You want a 115 degree bend as shown in figure 2
Use the plastic protractor as best as you can to check your work. After you have bent one side, switch it around and fold the other side. Drill the two holes in figure 1 using a bit with the same diameter as your machine screws.

[mspofford032579]

3) The next step is to cut the two side plates which will be riveted on later. Draw the
dimensions shown in figure 3 onto a piece of sheet metal.
I found it easier to actually draw the above image onto a piece of construction paper, cut it out and trace it, but any way that works best is fine as long as your measurements are reasonably accurate.

[mspofford032579]

Before you cut out the pieces, you will need to trace on a couple of tabs, shown in figure 4.
These tabs are what you will fold over, and rivet to the top part of the reflector. Simply put, they are 1 inch square, at a 90 degree angle from the 4.5â?� edge, and they start an inch from the corner. The black dots on the tabs represent a hole drilled through the center. Use the appropriate sized drill bit to match the rivets you will be using. Draw these tabs onto the plates you have already sketched out, drill the holes, and cut out the two plates. Once you have cut both side plates out, use the pliers to fold all 4 tabs at 90 degrees.

[mspofford032579]

4) Once you have prepared the side plates, place them on the sides of the hood so that the tabs are on the outside, and see how they fit. Thereâ??s probably going to be some gaps, and thatâ??s ok. Thatâ??s why youâ??ll be using the epoxy or whatever you came up with to seal it later. Itâ??s not critical what you use to seal the cracks either. It just needs to be hard and something you can paint over. I built two of these so far and I used some old bondo from the garage on my second one. Anyway, with the side plates propped up where they need to be, mark where you will need to drill the reflector so you can rivet. Once you have drilled out the necessary holes, use the rivet gun to secure the sides onto the reflector. This is all very wordy and seems pretty hard, but the project isnâ??t really that tough when you actually do it.

[mspofford032579]

5) Now is as good as a time as any to fabricate the two posts you will be mounting your sockets onto. Start by cutting out two rectangular pieces of sheet metal. Each will be 2 inches wide and 4.5 inches long as shown in figure 5.
Once again, my crappy ass diagrams make this thing seem like way more headache than in reality. After you cut out your strips, drill the two holes on each strip. Then, make the inch long cut (shown with the dotted line) on each of the two strips. Fold both strips the long way at 90 degrees. Next, where you made the inch long cut at the bottom, fold the two flaps inward at 90 degrees so that they end up on top of each other. Lastly, once both of these flaps are folded in and make a sort of base for the post, drill a hole (the size of your machine screws) right through the center of both folded flaps. The result should be a post with a 1â?� squared base and a hole drilled through the center of the base. Paint both posts with white spray paint.

[mspofford032579]

6) Moving back to the reflector with the side panels riveted on, there are obviously going to be some cracks and gaps. Fill them in with whatever you have, marine epoxy, bondo, caulk, also â??quick steelâ?� epoxy stick works well. Anything that will seal the light in is just fine. Once it hardens, paint the entire fixture with the flat white spray paint.

[mspofford032579]

7) Mount the light sockets onto the posts using your machine screws and hardware. Theyâ??ll only really fit one way; you have to picture the post being installed in the hood in such a way that the corners point to each other and edges are parallel. I know that wording sounds really confusing so try to look at the jpegs Then make sure the 90 degree bracket on the light socket goes inside the post, not outside. Drill two holes near where youâ??ll be mounting each post. These holes will be for the rubber grommets, in order to determine what size whole you will need to drill, look at the package from the grommets, and drill a hole equal to the outer diameter. Stuff the grommets into the holes.

[mspofford032579]

8) Since you have 4 light sockets with 2 wires each for a total of 8 wires, and you only drilled 4 holes, youâ??ll need to wire the sockets on each post in parallel so that only one pair has to go through the grommets in the hood on each side. Do this by taking your wire connectors, and matching the colors on each end. White to white, black to black. For each post, leave one set of wires at their full length, and trim the wires on the other socket as short as you can and still crimp them to the longer pair. Once this is done, mount the posts (with the sockets attached and wired in parallel) to the hood using more machine screws, and send each of the two pairs of wires through the grommets to the top of the reflector.

[mspofford032579]

9) Lastly, youâ??ll need to attach a plug. Take your polarized plug and cord, and crimp the two sets of wires coming out of the top of the hood onto the cord, in parallel. I used a polarized plug (with one prong larger than the other) for consistency. Remember: youâ??re dealing with AC here- black is the â??hotâ?� lead with 120VAC running through it, and white is the â??neutralâ?� lead, which means it is technically neither hot nor ground. On a polarized plug, the wire connected to the wide prong is the neutral (or white) lead, and the skinny prong is the hot (or black) lead, so connect them the same way.

[mspofford032579]

10) Thatâ??s it! The result is a shroud which is the economy version of a 125W grow lamp. I like it because There is enough room to fit two 42W (2700K) CFLs horizontally across the middle, and I can switch the outside bulbs between two 26W (6500K) cool white bulbs for veg, or two 26W (2700K) bulbs for flower. Also, with this design, you can replace individual bulbs when something fails. With a 125W CFL, you have to spend about 50 bucks to replace the whole thingâ?¦

DISCLAIMER: I do not grow cannabis or any other illegal substances. I designed this light fixture to help me grow my own indoor organic tomatoes. I do not condone or encourage anyone to build this device or use these ideas to do anything illegal.

[fishman3811]

HEY thats pretty cool good info thanks

[mspofford032579]

I just wanted to share it around... It almost took me longer to make all the posts with pictures than it did to buiild the thihngs the first time around:)

[postmandave]

Nicely put together a great peice of info for those on a low budget.be safe the postman.

[mspofford032579]

:cool:
Nicely put together a great peice of info for those on a low budget.be safe the postman.

Thanks. I'm planning on taking apart a failed predecessor to this unit for parts, and making a smller 2 bulb hood for vegging seedlings. More pics and info to come...

[madeline]

Just be sure your homeowners'/renters' insurance is paid up.

[mspofford032579]

It runs hot :( Ill have to post some solutions for cooling down. Probably going to trim te sides and drill holes in the bulbs housings, mabe add fans

[mspofford032579]

OK, so I trimmed the sides a wee bit ;) I cut the side plates to where they are only 1.5 inches off the edge of the folded shroud. They look more like boomerangs now, but it runs a lot cooler. Doesn't matter anyway because the side pieces are just there to keep the shroud piece from slowly unfolding or bending out of shape... The good people at GE told me these bulbs ran so cool I could safely run as many of them as close together as I wanted. Yeah Right. Anyway, I'm going to add some 3 or 4 inch computer fans to blow air across the bulbs and across the topside, and post back. Will have more pictures soon too...

[latewood]

I did this awhile back. I set my lamps alternating across from each other. great idea. Very nice job.

I just wish you had taken piks of entire process, then I would want to post this in the growfaqs? As it stands...Too many people will have a hard time figuring out how you assembled the unit. I know, I Know...great job, but not everyone can decipher instructions without piks...

Let me know if you can show assembly piks...I have a trick that I believe will work to merge the piks into your tutorial. Peace

[mspofford032579]

I know... it's way too wordy... Do you think it's safe? It runs a little hot but I'm going to put some holes in the plastic casings of the bulbs for ventillation. I'm also planning on mounting two 3" fans on either side of the top to blow air across the outside of the shroud. There will be a third fan on one side of the inside part (where the bulbs are) top blow air across the bulbs. On the other side is where I'm going to mount an exhaust fan (this is supposed to go into a rubermaid box) so there will basically be two computer fans blowing air across the top, and on the bottom one computer fan blowing air towards a bigger exhaust fan which will be drawing air currents off the three fans. I'm going to set it up and run it empty for a couple of days. I'm hoping it won't burn my house down ;)

I'm sorry for the lack of pics... I made the tutorial after I made the project. I was pretty excited to share it with everyone... I can probably get some more junk sheet metal and take some pictures of me re-making the parts... I'll post the pics here if I can do that and let you know... It would be great for this one to get immortalized. The way I see it, if you buy one of those hydrosun cfl units or whatever, it costs like $150, and once the bulb goes, thats like $60-$80 to fix... This bad boy cost me less than 1/4 of all that and I can replace the bulbs as needed for a fraction of the cost, plus mix and match to get more light frequencies...

[mspofford032579]

A word to the wise: this whole thing is probably more trouble than it's worth. I spent hours with a protractor and other drafting tools making the prints to build the first prototype, and after substantial re-design, came up with the (second) model shown here. Even now, the final project is MUCH different from even the most recent pictures in this thread. I've had to cut trapezoid shaped pieces off from the side panels to where there's only about a centimeter of sheet metal left. That way air gets through there. I've also added PC case cooling fans to the top and bottom of the side panels, all blowing in the same direction to promote air flow. I even drilled holes into the plastic shell housings of the CFL bulbs to try to get air flow across the ballasts. For all the pain it was to design and make this thing, if it doesn't run cooler now (haven't had time to test it yet) I'd say it's best to just buy one. Building this thing was easy for me, but probably too much of a pain in the ass for the average newbie. At least if you buy one it's tested by UL laboratories and stuff. Nothing would suck worse than having to explain yourself to and insurance adjuster, the fire department, or even worse the LAW. Although that third one will never happen to me because I'm using mine exclusively for the purpose of growing indoor organic tomatoes :)

[SaH]

Check out this CFL setup works great....

Buy the The Designers Edge L-81 130w Fluorescent Light at Hardware World - The world's #1 home hardware site (http://www.hardwareworld.com/130w-Fluorescent-Light-p38H35L.aspx)


Here is some pictures of some plants I grew with that light from start to finish.

http://boards.cannabis.com/cannabis-pictures/115955-blue-streak.html

S_a_H

[deadhead65]

Check out this CFL setup works great....

Buy the The Designers Edge L-81 130w Fluorescent Light at Hardware World - The world's #1 home hardware site (http://www.hardwareworld.com/130w-Fluorescent-Light-p38H35L.aspx)


Here is some pictures of some plants I grew with that light from start to finish.

http://boards.cannabis.com/cannabis-pictures/115955-blue-streak.html

S_a_H

How many lumens in that setup? It takes two 65 watt CFL's right? Do you use the same lights in veg and flower with those bulbs or does the 65 watt come in different colors?

[SaH]

How many lumens in that setup? It takes two 65 watt CFL's right? Do you use the same lights in veg and flower with those bulbs or does the 65 watt come in different colors?

Designers Edge L-765
Mogul Base
White Color 6300' K
4900 Lumens

Didn't change anything and ran 18/6 for 9 weeks. I plan on buying up to 5 more of these lights here in the next couple months and put them on some wire racks to use. I like it alot where I live its about 110 + outside and inside in the closet I run about 78-82 degrees.

S_a_H

[mspofford032579]

Check out this CFL setup works great....

Buy the The Designers Edge L-81 130w Fluorescent Light at Hardware World - The world's #1 home hardware site (http://www.hardwareworld.com/130w-Fluorescent-Light-p38H35L.aspx)


Here is some pictures of some plants I grew with that light from start to finish.

http://boards.cannabis.com/cannabis-pictures/115955-blue-streak.html

S_a_H

Listen to good advice everyone: buy this thing instead. Although technically mine has about 2K more lumens, it also took me several re-designs and almost a year to finish. If it weren't for my die hard commitment to finish everything I start, I would have given up on this one a long time ago. I'll probably end up buying one soon myself and forget all about this bad dream. Good luck and thanks to all for bearing with me.

-Mark

[Zcomp]

I'm gonna post pic or two of my DIY fixture. You'll see it takes much less time and expense.
First-off you don't need to get sockets for each bulb. CFL's come with a 120V ballast built-in. That means that you can just take off the metal screw-cap and get the 2 wires out that way.
That means that my fixture can go from the 10,200 Lumens it is now to almost anything.
Also I used heat conscious materials. If any on wants instructions just say so and I'll start a thread.
This fixture dissipates heat and is mylar reflected. 2 plugs for this fixture to distribute wattage and serve the dual purpose of being one plug for veg, both for flower.
This fixture took about 2 days to complete the first model(which used tinfoil for reflection) and 1 more to replace the old reflection material to the new.
Visit my log to see this setups progress.

[SmokinAce23]

Check out this CFL setup works great....

Buy the The Designers Edge L-81 130w Fluorescent Light at Hardware World - The world's #1 home hardware site (http://www.hardwareworld.com/130w-Fluorescent-Light-p38H35L.aspx)


Here is some pictures of some plants I grew with that light from start to finish.

http://boards.cannabis.com/cannabis-pictures/115955-blue-streak.html

S_a_H
Hey there SaH. I'm thinking about buying this setup you posted. But I wanted to know the link you posted. Is that just for the fixture? I have all my bulbs already. also, I wanted to know would that setup use 2 23w cfl in a Y socket. From the looks of your grow, it looks like the fixture has two sockets to connect lights. I could be wrong. Thanks for your time

[medicinegivers]

Nice DIY