LEADBELLY, ***BEAM SHOTS***, built by southland, 2014 scratch made light contest, handmade

Just getting started, hope I have time to finish.
Cutting the 1/4 aluminum plate for the heat sink.

Smoothing the edges.

Cutting the panel that will hold the reflectors. Hole to be cut for each reflector.

Copper and aluminum plates that will be the heat sink. Think I will also cut another piece of aluminum so the heat sink will be 1/2 inch aluminum and 1/4 inch copper, total thickness 3/4 inch.

Heat sink and reflector holder.

I waited to start and now I’m paying, spent about 20 hours this weekend working on my light.

Cutting another piece of 5in. x 5in. aluminum for the heat sink. Used a jigsaw to cut the first one, used a table saw with a carbide tipped woodcutting blade to cut this one. My father told me about this trick, worked like a charm. Used an older damaged blade that had a few missing teeth. Wouldn’t want to use a good blade to do this as good blades are well over a bill.

Clamping up the 3 pieces of the heat sink so I can drill and bolt them together.

Drilling the heat sink, broke 2 drill bits in the process.

Heat sink all bolted together.


Using a hole saw to drill out the holes that will hold the reflectors. This single piece took me about 10 hours to get right, where all the reflectors were properly centered.

Ended up making two pieces and neither was right, both had a stray reflector not properly centered. Both pieces had 2 good centered reflectors on one side so I cut the two pieces in half and glued them together. If you look at the photo, one half has the wood grain going horizontal and the other half vertical. In the end, it makes a stronger piece and all the reflectors are properly centered.

Reflectors sitting in their holes.

Used Kitty Hair to glue them in place. Kitty Hair is an epoxy with fiberglass strands that is used for repairing cars with body damage, used for filling in big holes caused by rust, super strong.

Reflectors all mounted. I painted the front of the wood with silver crinkle paint.

Drilling out the battery holder.

Cutting battery holder to size.

Had no idea what I was going to use to make the contacts for the battery holder. Ended up using some copper gas line tubing. Pushed stripped wire into tubing and smashed with a hammer. Sanded to length so that the tubing was a tight fit in the battery holder. Used a punch to push the tubing to the bottom of the hole. It’s in tight and will never come loose.


Haven’t finished the bottom contacts yet.

I’m tired, have a GOOD DAY.

Made the spacer that will fit between the heat sink and the reflectors, will be shortened to size once the leds are mounted and soldered.


Switches and handle.

All the pieces for the case have been cut, nothing is screwed or glued together yet. Used hickory wood because of the strength and the contrast between the heart(dark) and sap(light) wood. All the wood used was cut down, saw milled, and planed by me and my father around 15 years ago. Still waiting on the lens and springs for the battery holder, both are holding up progress.



Used a hole saw to cut out a hole on each side and then mounted a file in a vise to smooth down the area between the two holes. The switches will be mounted on the silver plate and then the plate will be mounted to the inside of the wood piece so the switches will be recessed.


Cut a hole into the middle of the heat sink for the wires.

Switches mounted on their plate.

Leds mounted on the heat sink.

Glass arrived. Grooved the wood with a dado blade on a table saw to accept the glass, everything fits perfect.

Glued the two side pieces to the bottom.

Glued on the back piece that will hold the switches.

Used brass inserts in the wood so fine threaded bolts could be used to allow easy removal of the top and battery holder door.

Rounded over all the sharp edges on the wood with a 1/2 inch round over router bit.

Sanded box first with a 5 inch random orbit sander then by hand.

The box is ready to be shellacked.



Worked on the battery holder. Same procedure on this end except springs are added.



Used a Craftsman rotary tool with abrasive disc to notch the reflectors. The reflectors have such large openings they would have been in contact with the contact points on the Noctigons.


Contact points covered with Koptan tape.

The light is complete.


























There is a tree near the middle of the shot(a little to the left). Two smaller trees to the right of that one, the pond and far bank, another smaller tree. The black you see between the 3rd and 4th trees is water and behind that the far bank of the pond. Keep your eye on the far bank. Leadbelly has a much more intense light on the far bank. At least 150 yards to the pond.

Edit: Used Samsung protected cells in Leadbelly, not sure how much the protection circuit limited output, will do more beam shots this weekend with unprotected Panasonics.

Fenix TK70

BTU Shocker(model with XM-L2 on copper, cool white)

Leadbelly

Replaced the broken glass lens with Lexan.





Beam shots, 165 yards to white board to the left of the bus.

BTU Shocker XM-L2 on copper

Leadbelly

reserved

note to self, never go to a restaurant that southland wants to go to…

Are there any pictures on your original post? I can’t see them.

Well southland, the nice thing is that you can always delete all those extra posts if you want to and don't need 'em.Wink

Those reflectors are massive.

Tried to find some HD2010 reflectors to no avail, those are about the same diameter but deeper.

Woah! That 1/4" copper plate and large reflectors are things of beauty. You must have something serious and big planned. Best wishes.

That’s an impressive set of components to start with. I am excited to see what you have planned.

Good Luck!!

How much did that slab of copper run you? Daggum!