Texas_Ace BLF Calibrated Lumen tube / Sphere No math skills needed - Several spheres still available

I spent the morning getting quotes for PVC from every place I could find.

Lets just say the price on the larger PVC is stupid expensive, I saw several pieces they wanted $200+ for!

I still need to figure out all the costs, they were higher then expected, I was hoping to get a discount buying in bulk but it seems that is not possible with only ~100 pieces ordered.

The raw material cost for the 4” is about 2.5x the price (including extra costs for the diffuser sheet and centering rings). So the 4” version would most likely end up around $150+.

They don’t have 5” but I did find 6” at the last place I went, it is closer to 7x the price of the 3” and would need some extra pieces to work adding more costs.

It would be AT LEAST $200-225+ for 6” plus MUCH higher shipping costs. Should I even spend the time adding it up more exact?

Another issues is actually getting the PVC in quantity at all, some of these pieces are hard to find and would have to be special ordered. They said it will be between 1-3 weeks at most of the places I went for this quantity. The lowes had only sold 36 of these in the entire last year! I am looking at buying ~100 in a single purchase lol.

I will be busy most of today but I will try to get the final details tomorrow and will most likely start accepting payments this weekend once I confirm everything.

It looks like the 3.5” version will indeed be $100, the only question is if I will have to charge for shipping or partial shipping.

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Spears-P302-030-3-PVC-DWV-Street-90-Elbow

You can order in bulk at all three stores. You should be able to get them for less than 4 bucks apiece.

The 4 inch is about twice as much
https://www.supplyhouse.com/Spears-P302-040-4-PVC-DWV-Street-90-Elbow

Very interesting, when I looked up prices online a few days ago they were all higher then local places.

I will have to check those out for sure. Thanks for the tip!

I’ll take one. Thanks.

DWV are the thin walled ones. Not sch40 like the regular tubes. These are always cheaper. They are made for low low pressure drainage rather than higher pressure like schedule 40.

That said, they may work ok after calibration. They just have a thinner wall and different composition. They are always cheaper though.

Dwv is drain, waste, vent.

Nope, these are all schedule 40. And the dwv is what TA is using in the first pictures. The high pressure elbows are a short bend. These are for drain but they are schedule 40.

Added!

That is a good point, I did see the thinner walled versions when I was shopping this morning but I think it is worth going with the normal stuff for the extra few bucks.

That said it is hard to tell in the pictures what these are, they say SCH 40 in the details on some of them.

I know very little about PVC, the ones I am using now are called a 90 degree street bend that you get at home depot.

Schedule 40 is thinner than Schedule 80. I believe HD sells the Sch 40 pvc pipe. I think they might have some SDR rated pipes too which is also different dimensions but I can’t remember.

For pvc scheduled pipe sizes:

I’m thinking if the pipe wall is too thin, there might be some light leakage for really high lumen flashlights

I haven’t seen schedule 80 pipe fittings very often and when I do they are grey and short radius bends. All those fittings at Lowes and Home Depot are schedule 40 except for the thin drain crap. The schedule 40 is the thickness. Dwv is a cellular core with pvc coating for use with Drain Waste and Vent. TA’s setup in the pictures in the OP says DWV. When ordering make sure you are getting schedule 40 dwv street 90’s cause the high pressure PVC elbows are short radius.

I have no idea where you are seeing the model in the pictures unless you are saying you just know that is what it is. I can’t find a model on the pipe itself lol.

Those look like the right thing in the pictures though and it looks like they are in stock so I would not have to worry about stocking issues.

I am going to do some number crunching with these new sites and see what I can figure out.

Ok, I have been crunching the numbers and they break down like this:

For the normal 3.5” tube like my own the cost of $100 with shipping in the USA is indeed a price I can do and I can get stock for that without an issue.

For a 4” pipe version (should be around 4.5” opening) the cost would be $150 + at least some of the shipping costs since it will not be able to fit in a large flat rate box like the 3.5” and the price could be quite high. I am saying with shipping $160 in the USA.

For a 6” version the cost is extreme, which is why I did not even consider it before. It would be $250 + shipping, which would not be cheap at all, it would be a massive box and take up a ton of space and weigh a lot as well. Although the option is on the table if someone is interested.

I really like the 3.5” version myself, it fits most lights and does not take up a ton of space.

So I will assume everyone on the list wants the normal 3.5” version unless you tell me otherwise.

I will send PM’s to everyone with my paypal address either tonight or tomorrow. If everyone pays by Monday then I will go ahead and order 30 of them and anyone else that signs up and pays before they are finished gets this price as well. This way they will be on the way to minimize the wait time for everyone.

1x 3.5” version for me!

Yes . 3x5

Are you sure 4” pipe has 4.5” opening? Do you mean 4.5” Outside Diameter and 4.026” inside diameter right assuming it is 4” nominal size sch40 pvc?

I just did a quick search at head diameter of the largest flashlights
BLF GT: 5.27”
Thrunite TN42: 3.94”
Acebeam X65: 4.3”

I think if it can accept 4.5” light, it should cover 99.9% of all flashlights. For the extra large ones like the GT, I guess we can always do a ceiling bounce to compare with a light that we measured with the sphere and calculate the lumens.

Maybe… i have x65, tn42, and olight sr95. It would be cool if the pipe can fit.

It has a female opening on the top so you get an extra .5”. Same with the 3”, it has a 3.5” opening.

Yes, the 4” is the largest I see being practical. It just costs a lot more, which is why I didn’t go with it myself.

The 4” is available, the price will just be $160 with shipping if anyone wants it. I am sure it will also take more calibration as well.

I’ll go with the 4”