10W LED light with Delrin canister
- Thread starter ToddK
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Packhorse
Contributor
Because it costs lots of money, you cant service it your self and has shocking resale value. Oh and its made in Germany.
OP
ToddK
Contributor
I was pretty worried about the heat transfer, but it seems to work just fine with the 10W LED, and 0.30" of Delrin surrounding the aluminum heat sink, as long as the lighthead is surrounded by water. I wanted to machine my own light head to have a fully put together look, and to know it was quite sturdy built. I didn't want to go down the path of annodization if I didn't have to, so this was the best alternative for me.
OP
ToddK
Contributor
I just got back from diving this light, plus an earlier light that I had built. Both lights did well during three 40 min dives to 80'. The first light that I had made used a very small reflector, and the beam is crap- the light just goes everywhere. However, the light described in this post was surprisingly good! The spot was nice and tight, looked great for signaling, and we were able to see the hot spot 15 to 20' away when the bottom was in full sunlight. I need to build another lighthead using this 35mm reflector. I think this is the same reflector that Packhorse used in an earlier post.
CuNanoTube
Contributor
This is why I need a lathe. As far as I know my university has student run shops, but I need to learn on something first. (Maybe I can access a CNC, that would make thing easy...)
lucca brassi
Contributor
Originally Posted by Packhorse
Because it costs lots of money, you cant service it your self and has shocking resale value. Oh and its made in Germany.
Well ,we have quite opposite aproach to DIY. Normaly I made some calculations , material research , check situation on others experiances and depends on time make good torch - few but good .
and ... hmmm.... why europeans still won't to buy american cars ?!- because they are expensive ...and still crap to !!!
cant service it your self ... from maglite to marcedes ... ever heard for EVOLUTION ?
BTW : a lot of parts in european cars is from my country ..... and also in many other brands..... but now we go on electrical car ! Not car fun but .......
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hi
I hawe a mini lathe myself, and i would like to try to make some delrin canisters, was it not weary unstable when you had a rod with this length in the lathe? and what tool did you use to bore as deep in the rod, and to make the inside groove for the retainer ring in the light head?
I hawe a mini lathe myself, and i would like to try to make some delrin canisters, was it not weary unstable when you had a rod with this length in the lathe? and what tool did you use to bore as deep in the rod, and to make the inside groove for the retainer ring in the light head?
OP
ToddK
Contributor
Hi edw,
What is the size of your lathe? Mine is a Harbor Freight 8x12" (equivalent of 200x450mm, ~100 kilos). There are a lot of 7" mini-lathes here in the US, and I would think that it would be fairly tricky to make a canister on one of those lathes. On my lathe, I swapped out the 3-jaw 3" chuck, and replaced it with a 4-jaw 4" chuck, which securely holds the canster, with no problems.
The boring bar is a 3/4" diameter, 12" long bar, that is really nice and rigid. In order to use a bar this big, I purchased the Quick Change tool post holder from Lathemaster (QUICK CHANGE TOOL POST SET), which is signifcantly larger than the old A2Z quick change tool post that i had. Here's a photo of the boring bar, mounted in its quick change holder, with a 6" scale for reference:
The grooving tool for cutting the groove for the retaining ring I purchased. It's a 0.062" width grooving tool that has a shank of 0.375", made by International tool. Here's a photo, with the same 6" scale:
What is the size of your lathe? Mine is a Harbor Freight 8x12" (equivalent of 200x450mm, ~100 kilos). There are a lot of 7" mini-lathes here in the US, and I would think that it would be fairly tricky to make a canister on one of those lathes. On my lathe, I swapped out the 3-jaw 3" chuck, and replaced it with a 4-jaw 4" chuck, which securely holds the canster, with no problems.
The boring bar is a 3/4" diameter, 12" long bar, that is really nice and rigid. In order to use a bar this big, I purchased the Quick Change tool post holder from Lathemaster (QUICK CHANGE TOOL POST SET), which is signifcantly larger than the old A2Z quick change tool post that i had. Here's a photo of the boring bar, mounted in its quick change holder, with a 6" scale for reference:
The grooving tool for cutting the groove for the retaining ring I purchased. It's a 0.062" width grooving tool that has a shank of 0.375", made by International tool. Here's a photo, with the same 6" scale:
I found that on my 8x that I had, I needed to do the inside boring first. Then do the outside. The way I did the outside was to turn the canister over and put a small hole on the end and use my live center on the end for support.
You are right that a piece that long is very unstable... You will have to take light cuts and be careful.
Other way would be to use a steady rest!
You are right that a piece that long is very unstable... You will have to take light cuts and be careful.
Other way would be to use a steady rest!
