They will be heavy but they are not really designed to carry around. These were made from off cuts thats why they are 6mm and 4mm plate. I think next time I will build them in stainless steel.
3-4 weeks ago I ordered another reflector from edmunds optics. When I got home it was at my backdoor. 600mm edmundsoptic parabolic reflector they are not optic grade but reasonably priced and still throw a good beam.
My house is like a shed so I call it a shouse. Haha I have the welder setup in the kitchen. My lathe was too big and heavy to put in the dinning room so it had to go in the shed.
Check:
As far as I understand the lowest steady flight levels are different across the world and go as low as 300m above terrain.
A 10 Mcd light (that huge reflector should exceed that by a huge margin) would give 111 lux at that distance, assuming that 300m is enough to get full focus.
Wow ” grin ” Great idea on the wheel selection ! , I never thought to look for a parabolic reflector. There are several irons in the fire now !!
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Nice welding on the big light. I can see that you enjoy a challenge.
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Thanks for keeping us up to date with pics
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No worries, here is a link to them parabolic reflectors after playing with them they are the best of both reflector and lens lights specially the glass optic grade mirrors. Enderman posted a link from ebay for glass ones they are expensive but top quality. I want a 9 1/4” for the smaller light. glass parabolic reflectors
And sunlight is 111000 lux.
The brightness isn’t the problem.
The problem is the speckle and refraction of a laser hitting a piece of glass, which makes it near impossible for a pilot to see through.
Helicopters have flown over the Luxor beam which is a few billion candela and it’s fine because it’s normal white light.
It takes far less than direct sunlight to blind night-adapter eyes.
Luxor is an interesting example though - and they do take precautions not to blind air traffic - they first do a mild strobe and then turn their 39 lights one by one.
Yeah see this is a misconception, a laser doesn’t “blind” pilots by making their eyes hurt like a regular bright light does, it “blinds” them by making it hard to see out of the glass windows.
Have you ever been out during a sunny day and tried to look through a window into a dark shop?
Think I might have a problem spiders the first one I made from a vee belt pulley it has no copper block. The others a made from plate water. It will be interesting to see how the passive copper spider works. The glass one has a 6inch focal length. So I plan on having a collar around the led on all off them eventually with the aperture matched to the reflector that will stop any spill hitting the side of the drum.
Thanks
I have been working on getting meter readings right so I can do some comparisons with collars. I have the same size round nose router bit as the genuine collar. So I will make one from aluminium and polish it. I will also make one from brass then tin it with pure silver. The tests so far prove I can get it to focus as good as the genuine one. Have a hunch the silver coating will be as good as you will get for home built.
Sssh can be a little controversial. Research suggests silver may be as good as as as … I can make. Cutting it by hand is very accurate if i can find the appropriate diamond cutter I will try glass.
Likevvii I cant wait to see it.
I have the platform to build a monster hopefully a LEP recoil. It has been sitting in the paddock for at least 20yrs. I started it about 10yr ago so it should run just need to give it a service, flush the fuel tank and bleed the fuel lines. I have the diff but It will need an alternator mounted on it so maybe an electric motor and the diesel engine will be a battery charger.
Cheers GOOSE, sometimes I get half way through something and then realise it wont work or could be done a better way I found the 900mm mirror when I did a random ebay search and couldnt resist buying it, it was cheap for what it is and a great addition to my collection of parts and lights.
It has been a steep learning curve and this thread made me realise how little I actually know so I have gone back over things and reassessed what I am doing. Now I have a better understanding of why I decided to build the lens lights like I did. They are based on elipsodial reflector spot lights, telescopes and camera lenses.
A bit of an update I have been sorting things out the last week or 2 and havent done much on the lights. Im also wait for parts from china and that could be a while.
One of the things i did get was a 68mm parabolic mirror from aliexpress with the aim of building a smallish recoil.
The focal point appears to be down in the mirror which makes it hard to use it for what I brought it for. but when I turn it upside down on an LED I get this result.
It looks promising for a shuttering collar to keep light of the internal lens barrel I think a bigger one of these will cut the aperture i just need to do some calculations to work out aperture size. Then destroy one to see if it works.