Hi guys
I've been hanging around this forum for some time now and have bodged together a few lights along the way with your help and support. One thing I've noticed is that there are a handful of fantastic engineers out there who mill and turn miniature works of art, plus a shedload of folks like me who haven't touched a machine tool since school.
So, I set out to design a light unit that anyone could make but wouldn't be completely disgraced alongside some of the beauties we see on this site. Hammond boxes are functional, but they don't really float my boat.
This is Version 1. It's not perfect (yet) but as it nears completionI figured it was time to share.
As a light it doesn't break any new ground. It's the standard 2 x XPG R5/Regina/Bflex combo that has been seen many times on these pages. It's the housing that's interesting.
I started from the premise I didn't have a milling machine or lathe, therefore I couldn't really remove metal from a solid block of ali. However with hacksaw, dremmel, drill etc. I could work 2mm sheet metal effectively. It knew my light needed cooling fins and 2mm seemed the right thickness for that. I started to wonder what would happen if I laminated thin pieces of metal together to build a light in layers. I modelled it in Sketchup and it looked OK. I drew up the profile of each piece in CAD and made a mock-up in layered plastic and it looked ok too.
In the end I was too lazy to hand cut each piece as planned and instead a friend of a friend laser cut a couple of sets for me. This is what the bits look like.
The holes in the fins serve several purposes. They shed a few valuable grammes, improve airflow, increase the surface area (a bit) but mainly are for bling. All the parts are clamped together with M3 stainless screws, with copious amounts of thermal paste between layers.
The front bezel was a right royal PITA and I won't make the next one like that, I'll probably laminate that too but that means a bit of a redesign.
The 'wings' on the side look a bit ugly but make for a simple helmet mount using velcro strap. I haven't been out with it yet, but prancing round the house with it on my head I think there's enough up/down adjustment by moving the lamp forwards and backwards round the curve of the helmet.
I planned to make the spare bits into a bar light and bought some extra XPG's and a variety of optics at the same time. However since then XML's have appeared and I'm tempted to try a pair of them with a B2flex. Unfortunately I paid less attention to how I'm going to mount that one; it's not as simple as bolting through the bottom and I might need use of Dremmel, file and saw to fabricate a solution. Ideally I need someone to machine me a nice o-ring clamp thingy.
This one's a bit porky at 78g complete but I'm confident I can take 15g out of that fairly easily. The stainless screw alone weigh 12g so I'll look at using fewer, and maybe aluminium screws, next time. Can't see any way to get down to real weight weenie level but console myself with the knowledge I've probably got more surface area to play with.
Anyway, I hope you like it and that it inspires some new builds. I've got several ideas in mind for when the wife's not looking!
I've been hanging around this forum for some time now and have bodged together a few lights along the way with your help and support. One thing I've noticed is that there are a handful of fantastic engineers out there who mill and turn miniature works of art, plus a shedload of folks like me who haven't touched a machine tool since school.
So, I set out to design a light unit that anyone could make but wouldn't be completely disgraced alongside some of the beauties we see on this site. Hammond boxes are functional, but they don't really float my boat.
This is Version 1. It's not perfect (yet) but as it nears completionI figured it was time to share.
As a light it doesn't break any new ground. It's the standard 2 x XPG R5/Regina/Bflex combo that has been seen many times on these pages. It's the housing that's interesting.
I started from the premise I didn't have a milling machine or lathe, therefore I couldn't really remove metal from a solid block of ali. However with hacksaw, dremmel, drill etc. I could work 2mm sheet metal effectively. It knew my light needed cooling fins and 2mm seemed the right thickness for that. I started to wonder what would happen if I laminated thin pieces of metal together to build a light in layers. I modelled it in Sketchup and it looked OK. I drew up the profile of each piece in CAD and made a mock-up in layered plastic and it looked ok too.
In the end I was too lazy to hand cut each piece as planned and instead a friend of a friend laser cut a couple of sets for me. This is what the bits look like.
The holes in the fins serve several purposes. They shed a few valuable grammes, improve airflow, increase the surface area (a bit) but mainly are for bling. All the parts are clamped together with M3 stainless screws, with copious amounts of thermal paste between layers.
The front bezel was a right royal PITA and I won't make the next one like that, I'll probably laminate that too but that means a bit of a redesign.
The 'wings' on the side look a bit ugly but make for a simple helmet mount using velcro strap. I haven't been out with it yet, but prancing round the house with it on my head I think there's enough up/down adjustment by moving the lamp forwards and backwards round the curve of the helmet.
I planned to make the spare bits into a bar light and bought some extra XPG's and a variety of optics at the same time. However since then XML's have appeared and I'm tempted to try a pair of them with a B2flex. Unfortunately I paid less attention to how I'm going to mount that one; it's not as simple as bolting through the bottom and I might need use of Dremmel, file and saw to fabricate a solution. Ideally I need someone to machine me a nice o-ring clamp thingy.
This one's a bit porky at 78g complete but I'm confident I can take 15g out of that fairly easily. The stainless screw alone weigh 12g so I'll look at using fewer, and maybe aluminium screws, next time. Can't see any way to get down to real weight weenie level but console myself with the knowledge I've probably got more surface area to play with.
Anyway, I hope you like it and that it inspires some new builds. I've got several ideas in mind for when the wife's not looking!