Cheap & easy DIY lights

[Redeye]

need to add some mylar to the inside for a reflector or something

[vinny73]

I was just thinking the same thing Scott! Cell Phone pics or not..... That was a DIY that I think alot of broke beginners could use! Hell, I think I am gonna make one now!

[iVgOnMaD]

got me thinking bout making some reflectors for my T5's out of pvc/mylar now

[iVgOnMaD]

you should get some end caps and cut them the same way you cut the PVC pipe to cover the ends

[Diver Dan]

Your guitars are going to ruuuuust.
Cool DIY!

[Fish n' Frags]

Your guitars are going to ruuuuust.
Cool DIY!

Why? If anything i would think it would act as a humidifier and keep the wood nice and moist!!

[Sam Maghsoodloo]

[QUOTE=Adding some simple reflectors around each bulb would help the total light output some. .[/QUOTE]

i agree totally. we all think alike the reflector is the first thing i think of when i see it too. When i built it i decided to skip this step for simplicity. Putting in a metal reflector (foil's just too ghetto) would be a little hard, but painting the inside white wouldn't be. White flat paint reflects almost as much light as a mirror (it's weird but true). I actually put a piece of foil over one of the bulbs as a reflector to see if it helped much, and it looked like it wasn't worth the hassle. The shiny black on the inside helps a bit, but white would be better.

[Sam Maghsoodloo]

got me thinking bout making some reflectors for my T5's out of pvc/mylar now

yes, you could make a cool reflector for lotsa flourescent tubes. The problem is, it's circular, not parabolic, so if you don't put the light deep in the tube, you'll get too much strikethrough.

oh and also, use abs, not pvc. Pvc bends around 150 degrees F under load. Abs goes almost to 200. Even though it's white, pvc sucks for this job. Even with these low power bulbs, the inside of the pipe actally gets pretty hot cuz it's so close to the bulbs and ballasts.

[Sam Maghsoodloo]

you should get some end caps and cut them the same way you cut the PVC pipe to cover the ends

I bought the endcaps for this when i built it, and planed on cutting them the same way I like how we all have identical ideas, haha.
Looked too bulky, and i lost the sleek shiny black look.
I then figured i'd use sheet pvc (available at hobby shops), and cut semicircles to go in the ends. But again, when i turned on the lights withouth the endcaps, it actually looked pretty slick with open ends, and the light leak was really minimal. So i stopped building to keep it as minimalist as possible since it already worked well (no reflector, no endcaps, no acrylic cover).

[Sam Maghsoodloo]

Even aluminum foil would work decently.

Aluminum foil, when it's absolutely straight with no creases at all will reflect 88% of light on its shiny side, and 80% on its dull side. (i just looked this up online to confirm, and it looks like some people give foil a 55% reflectivity ideal, and 35% creased. I dunno though, that's a bit low). Flat white paint reflects 80% of light, and diffuses it perfectly. When you work with foil, it will get creased a lot, making it as ugly as any DIY gets, and also no better than flat white paint.
A special note to remember is that only flat white can perform like that, gloss white is horrible at reflection. Even semigloss only reflects about 50% of the light. In a legitimate build, i'd use mylar that's 95% reflective.
But think about that, flat white paint, is almost as good as mylar! crazy huh?