DIY LED Work Light (much better than halogen!)

[kevin_1981]

Dr. Pain,
Sweet setup you have going on there. I noticed that you said that the product is very light (5LBS or so). I would be careful with leaving the light on for extended periods of time. Weighing only 5 pounds, my guess would be that the heatsinks are not necessarily designed for long hours of operation - output of LEDs diminishes faster if they are under high heat loads. Just my $.02.

I have worked with several LED vendors with a major US chain store and have seen many products. With LED products, many times, you get what you pay for - the bad part is that a GOOD name brand fixture is super heavy, and will run several hundred dollars for a 4000-5000 lumen fixture.

Not trying to be a downer - just wanna make sure you dont end up burning out your LEDs prematurely.

[Dr_Pain]

Kevin, this forum is a wealth of information because of people like you that are willing to bring about the "devil's advocate" side to focus. So for that I want to thank you.

Although a little costly (by most standards), the light will be a good "test" for me. If the functionality of the light serves the purpose but the light "life expectancy" sucks, then I am willing to be the guinea pig and help our community. The way I figure, the "warrantied" bulb option that Zach shared was good but in my opinion could be made better, and the cost of my speculation was not that much greater than investing another $80 at Lowes on 2 additional bulb, especially if the benefits are that much greater (at this point still just a speculation). Here is my math, which I use to validate throwing money in the wind (potentially):

Two LED light bulb = $80 = 1400 lumens x2 = 2800 lumens
1 light panel = $120 = 4500 lumens

If the light panel serves its purpose in spades, then it will be confirmation enough for me to warrant spending large $$$ on a name brand with warranties etc..

FYI, I will use the light panel under normal detailing circumstances regardless of it being a cheapy (and without regard that I may end up burning it out prematurely). This should be the only way to test it, for our community.

[irsankao]

I finally got the bulbs. I noticed the bulbs are rather big and quite heavy.

1 bulb is 1200lm and has narrow beam so it looks brighter on smaller area and another one is 1400lm and has wider beam since it has wider beam it doesn't look as bright as the 1200lm one.

I used taller stand because I don't have the shorter one.

Total cost for this set up is only $80, you won't believe it. The bulbs are only about $25 each.





Next time I will post the actual lights on walls to find out the narrow and wider beam and off course on car surface.

So far I am happy with this.

Kudos to zach for bringing this up.

[Pureshine]

I finally got the bulbs. I noticed the bulbs are rather big and quite heavy.

1 bulb is 1200lm and has narrow beam so it looks brighter on smaller area and another one is 1400lm and has wider beam since it has wider beam it doesn't look as bright as the 1200lm one.

I used taller stand because I don't have the shorter one.

Total cost for this set up is only $80, you won't believe it. The bulbs are only about $25 each.





Next time I will post the actual lights on walls to find out the narrow and wider beam and off course on car surface.

So far I am happy with this.

Kudos to zach for bringing this up.

Why did you buy 2 different lights?

[Setec Astronomy]

Ok, in the interest of bulb diversity....

I went to Home Depot with the intent of buying the Philips 5000K 1300 lumen floodlight....except they didn't have it anymore or I imagined it last time or something. Even the lower-priced 2700K bulb turned out to be a smaller bulb. So what they had (in stock) was a 3000K 1200 lumen bulb for $33. I walked a little further down the aisle and (since maybe I don't want to see the swirls as well as you guys and because last daylight bulb I had seemed so blue) got this for $17:



And it has the lens giving it the "single diode" appearance you folks seem to like:



I'll let you guys know how it works out when I get the courage to open it.

[blkSRT]

Can you post the HD item number?

[Setec Astronomy]

Can you post the HD item number?

887437012673

I tried it, put that in the search window at their site and it will bring it up.

[Setec Astronomy]

Ok...1200 lumens seems to be enough....to blind me...

One problem I was worrying about with these PAR 38 bulbs is that the diameter seems to be larger than the distance between the bulbs...of course I temporarily forgot about that when I bought this one. It seems that two of these won't fit exactly side-by-side and indeed if you look at Zach's first photographs, he seems to have them slightly offset to clear.

Beyond that, for the little repair I was just doing the 3000K was fine at showing up swirls, I would post pics but my before came out blurry.

[ski2]

[QUOTE=Setec Astronomy;1117205] last daylight bulb I had seemed so blue QUOTE]

Usually if a bulb says "Daylight" and it is too blue it has a color temp of 6500K. 5000K bulbs are sometimes also refered to as "Daylight" but are more like noon time sunlight.

[mike02vr6]

might be to late into this thread but, you can get leds from Costco usually $9-12 for each bulb (sorry in Connecticut they have a deal going on where the local utility company gives instant rebates.) I will have to try making a stand like this thanks for the good advice!