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.
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!
Kind of wishing I hadn’t started this thing only because of the cost, $50 for the plate. Just hope I can finish and have a working light in the end. The reason for the name “Leadbelly” is because of the weight of the light, it won’t be an EDC.
I'm guesstimating the size of that piece of copper. I would have to say $50 is a very good price. I hear you on the kind of wishing you hadn't started. The reasonable, thrifty side of me is saying, "What are you doing, Man!". The other side is saying "Yeah Man, lets go!". I'm trying to not let the reasonable side win. Even though, that side is usually right. I'll just be happy if I complete my build.
EDIT: Reworded to make more sense.
It’s not that big but it’s heavy, 4’ x 12’ x 1/4’, an aluminum plate is going behind the copper plate, will probably only use half or less of the copper.
Hey, nothing exceeds like excess! Looking forward to the excitement.