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lighting LED Shop Light 135 Watts (Ghetto Build)

Walchit

Walchit

I had a hard time deciding what to do for my other 3 grow areas, found some 6 bulb T5 on Craigslist for 50 a piece, but the dude was kind of a butthead, and that would be 924 more watts. So I decided to see what 6 bulbs of LED would do first.

Grabbed 3 of these from Wal-Mart($21.85 each) and some pvc pieces from the hardware store(39 cents) and a tube of epoxy($3) that was supposed to be set up in 10 minutes(it wasn't)

Need to go grab some more epoxy or something. My only beef is that there are 3 power cords, so I might try to wire those together or get an extension cord possibly.

Hopefully this works out for me

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Will post progress if/when the epoxy dries
 
Yeah I should have tried to use some short self tapping screws and a piece of angle iron or something. The pvc is really just holding the lights apart from each other, but I am having trouble with one side of one light. Maybe I need a full 24 hour cure.
 
I have no experience with wago connectors. I actually wouldn't have known what you were talking about, but I saw them with these Samsung strips I was looking at.

I thought about just soldering them and putting heat shrink on them. But Idk if I need to use a heavier gauge wire that they all run to.

If not I will just get a heavy duty extension cord with three female hookups
 
Its plenty bright though, I cut the pull chains down to 9 dingleberries, it was kinda hard to get the piece back on, I measured 8 and left 1 extra. I thought about just cutting them really short but I like the idea of being able to cut off 1/3 or 2/3 of the light.

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Epoxy is holding for now, but I'm gonna keep it up a little higher jic it breaks loose again.

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Looks great but I would not be able to sleep at nite knowing that epoxy bond is the only thing holding my lights up.....It may hold forever but for me it does kneed some kind of mechanical bond.I could not go to work for 12 hrs thinking one of my lights may come crashing down at any time.....being over dramatic.....but thats just me. :dance:  :dance: 
 
The epoxy and pvc are only holding the lights apart from each other, they can't come crashing down, but the outside ones can drop and inch or so and they will be hanging next to the center light. I didn't want to screw down into any electrical, and epoxy will hold like 3000 psi so I'm sure its not going anywhere. I might screw the next ones I build, cause there is about 1/4 inch gap I could screw into.
 
WAGOs FTW!!!!! But for this I wouldn't cut the ends off, just get a power strip or splitter. Wagos can be pretty fussy trying to get fine stranded wire like what those power cords are to seat and not have shiners. Also need to pay attention to line/neutral indicators.


If you have some more Jack chain, cut pieces about 8 inches long, use 2 pieces per light, slightly open one link and clamp it onto one lip of the reflector, run the chain up and over the tube and clamp it on the lip of the reflector on the other side. Mechanical safety, I wouldnt rely on epoxy....use a small screw thru the chain into the tube to hold in place.
Edit...if you dont have chain the same thing could be done with wire (picture hanger, bailing,) or even twine looped around a screw in the tube.

Looks like a nice setup and those led strips should do you good.
 
You guys are really hatin on my epoxy! Lol.

I'm gonna use it on the other two lights cause I'm that confident haha. Have you guys ever epoxied anything? Its some really mean stuff. The first tube was supposed to set up in 1 minute, the 5 minute stuff is way better.

I only have a few links of chain that I took from the center lights.

The chains are hooked into the lights not the pvc, so there isnt even any real weight on the epoxy.

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I love epoxy...lol....until your explanation and other pics...I did not realize that the chains were holding the lights with hooks....I thought your epoxy was picking up all the weight......it all looks better now :party: :party:
 
Yea, me too. Didn't see the weight on the chains. Ok...I'll lighten up on the poxy. Lol.
 
I definitely made a note of those 5000 lumen lights for $22. Shoot, could of used them on a couple recent jobs.
 
My buddy bought some for his building when he was working on it, but I think they were the 3200 lumen ones. 4 of them lit up a 50x75 with them just laying on the floor in the center.
 
T5 Led? I was looking at these linkable T5 led things on Amazon. 20 watts, 2200 lumens
8 of them for 58 bucks.

I would have more even light distribution, but would have to design a better frame for them. I will probably just buy more of these if they seem to work good. I might try one with 4 fixtures butted up(180watts)
 
Walchit said:
T5 Led? I was looking at these linkable T5 led things on Amazon. 20 watts, 2200 lumens
8 of them for 58 bucks.

I would have more even light distribution, but would have to design a better frame for them. I will probably just buy more of these if they seem to work good. I might try one with 4 fixtures butted up(180watts)
Click to expand...
 
T5HO fluorescent, 12 lamp fixture.
 
6500K, ~60,000 lumens.
 
 

 
 
Nice! T5 is probably the way to go. I was just trying to save a little on the power bill. I will have 6 different 3x5 areas going this year, and I didnt want to go broke on the power bill.

A 3 bulb T5 would probably work just fine, maybe I should grab one of these 6 bulbs and modify it.
 
There is no heat produced throughout the whole light, except the scalding hot end where the driver is. I'm wondering if these are 12 volt, if so I could run them off one of these Xbox 360 psu

Got a picture of the driver when I had it pulled apart, could definitely use a cooling fan or something.

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I guess I could get the multimeter out and figure out the voltage
 
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