YuvalS's Hand Made Class, 7th Annual BLF/OL contest entry topic

Giveaways and Contests
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So I am planning on building a headlamp, hopefully I will finish it by February.

The body will be made of aluminum to double as heat-sink and the battery box will be made of some kind of plastic. both will be build using hand tools.

I want to print my own driver but I have no experience with printing circuits so maybe I will use a commercial driver and modify it.

As a FW I am planing to use my own code that is need some improvements.

Welcome to share your thoughts.
Yuval

EDIT: 29/02/2020
Just before the deadline, I wanted to thanks all BLF members that helped and encouraged me during the build and especially to the annual BLF/OL contest team that pushed me to build the light :)
I made a short video to summarize the process so people don't have to read the entire thread:
www.youtube.com/embed/-Tb3Y11YM-w

And here is pictures of the final result:


Evanualy, I did used some modified commercial driver and didn't print my own, maybe for the next year competition....

2

Sweet! Really looking forward to it.

3

Sounds good, always nice to see a self built headlamp :+1:

4

All the best for the build YuvalS. :+1:

5


Thanks MRsDN, you too.

So today I made the preliminary sketch of the body.
I am planing to built it using 3 pieces of 6mm Aluminum glued together.
6mm Aluminum is easier to buy and easier to work with using the tools I have.
3*6mm = 18mm will give me enough space for a 17mm driver and 14mm optics + 2 mm mpcp (=16 mm)

6

Nice start :+1:

7

subscribed! :+1:

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Subscribed! :beer:

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So my GF travel to Germany for the weekend and I had an opportunity to take over the living room and convert it into a workshop


I started to build the body. Since it it made out of 3 pieces of aluminum I decide to first attach the 3 pieces together using screws. It will enable me to precisely drill the 2 mm drills for the screws around body.
I did not manage to use the drill press before the pieces are screwed together so I had to drill another set of drills by hand

I tapped M4 to the bottom aluminum piece


And now I screwed all pieces together and can continue working on body but I have to wait for the next time I will be able to conquer the living room

10

Good stuff. You may find it easier to tap the holes with a battery drill, it is easier to keep the tap straight. Use WD40 or something similar to lubricate it.

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I have lubricant in this green plastic. I also use it for drullind and sawing but never thought of using a WD40, maight be easier to apply, THX

12

You are in so much trouble when your GF reads this thread YuvalS. Love your style. :+1:

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YuvalS Nice build. subscribed :beer:

Note: If you do not want oil on your projects, dish soap works just fine.

14

Good start :+1:

15

Nice room conversion :laughing: Good to see you make a start :+1:

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:+1:

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After the progress yesterday I wanted to continue working on the body after work. Unfortunately my neighbors are not big fans of me building lights at night (TBH they are also not like it when I build other stuff)

luckily, I have found a 220v outlet next to the road around my neighborhood, far from any building and was able to work there


As you can see I have took CNCman advice about using dish soap as a lubricant since it is easier to use when working outdoors


It was quit challenging to drill 12 2mm holes in a 5mm border but I am quite happy with the result, no drill pierced the side of the body and I only broken one drill bit

18

Perfect combo of will and "do with what you have" spirit !

19

That’s dedication. :+1:

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What they said ^ :+1: