The 6th Annual BLF / Old Lumens Scratch Made Light Contest

Bump :star:

I’m going to be throwing my hat into the ring soon. I have a number of projects in mind that I’ve been wanting to build for a while though some of them would probably be too complex for this contest’s time frame given my stack of life’s other obligations and basically a total lack of budget right now. So this will have to one of the simpler ideas floating around in my head. That said, it will be one of my more useful lights if I can build it the way I want, with a proper U/I.

Unfortunately, I’m not very knowledgable with electronics or programming still so I will have to use an existing driver with existing firmware.

Light body will be hand made with a minimum of power tools, since both my mill and lathe are non-functional at the moment. Lathe needs a gearbox repair, and mill is 3 phase in a single phase shop and right now I can’t afford the VFD I want to use as a phase converter.

Sketches forthcoming as soon as I solidify some ideas. Right now I want to build a simple proof of concept test mule before I get all fancy with making the body.

Hints:

It will not be cylindrical.
It will be small enough for neck lanyard wear.
It will not be like anything else out there.
Probably mostly copper. But I do have some aluminum, and stainless I could use as well…still waffling on that.

Hmm. Maybe I’ll build 2.

Ahah, another project :wink: Let’em come and show us what you’re thinking about :wink: Take your time and good luck!
Don’t forget to see post #1 for the essential information :+1:

I’m back to rattling around ideas. I ‘was’ planning on making a recoil light but the reflectors that came in were terrible. Please excuse the word in the pics, I wasn’t too happy at the time. Of course I contacted the seller and they said it will wash off, which it didn’t and not amount of buffing or polishing would work either because the problem is on the other side of the glass. Square one for me :person_facepalming:

Maybe I’ll take a slightly different direction. Does anyone know where I can get a decent large aspheric lens?

How large is “large”?

Edmund $cientific, maybe?

Enderman would know. But nice aspherics cost lots of money. :money_mouth_face: :money_mouth_face: :money_mouth_face:

One alternative is to mirror your own glass. Rustoleum has a mirroring spray-paint now. If you’re sure the mirror you have is the right shape, you might be able to clean off all that messed up coating and re-coat it with Rustoleum Mirror Effect paint.

Here’s a video showing how well it works:

Hmmmm… looks like it could be pricey for an aspheric. I might save a few bucks at thorlab instead of Edmunds but a uf-1504 (or is it 1405???) Would still work out cheaper.

That mirror paint is a good idea but will add more time to the build.

I’ll think about it :slight_smile:

Mind blowing David! Thanks for showing that!

Well, maybe it will be useful to somebody! :smiley:

I plan to try it out myself sometime, maybe to make a flashlight reflector or maybe to make an infinity mirror (or both).

New entry in hand made: The 6th Annual BLF / Old Lumens - Handmade Entry - i42dk (FAIL)

Looks like a great idea to me. Go and check the thread! :slight_smile:

A littel bump and inspiration for our builder and modders :wink:
I love to this guy making knives, but now he did this :sunglasses:

I started!!! At last. The link to my project topic is….

Now that I’ve managed to locate Jack, we have another build on our hands… :slight_smile:

Hey, still a month to go!
Then I might still join the contest afterall.
I’ll have a good look tomorrow into what i have laying around to make a light out of.
Could be a triple on a 20700 and sideswitch, maybe USB charging port.

Later…

Yep, there’s still time to have fun & knock something together, especially if you have some old/spare parts lying around :+1:

Yeah, i do, although i’m always short on choice in drivers…

I’ve got plenty of drivers. I don’t know if one of them could get to the Netherlands in time to help you, but hit me up in PM if you want to talk about it. :wink:

Thanks, David. :+1: :beer:

” CRX - Handmade Contest Entry”:CRX Rotary - 6th Annual BLF/ Old Lumens Contest Winner .