Thread: Home Made Can Lights

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Allright, found all my pics when I made these for my band's practice room, so I'll share with you guys as well.

First of all, the parts list!


6" clamp light
6" ducting (or a few 6" couplers if you only need one or two and don't wanna buy a whole length of ducting)
Aluminum foil tape (NOT duck tape!)
Masking tape
Tin snips
Duct crimping tool (or two needlenose pliers, heh heh)
Pencil or pen
Light bulbs (use whatever you want, I found these on the clearance table at Lowe's)
Paper clips
Colored lighting gels (DJ supply stores have these in all kinds of colors)






Now some bulbs are bigger than others. I've seen people just paper clip the gels to the face of the clamp light shrouds, and that was good enuff for them. However, a larger bulb would touch the gel and melt it. As you can see here:


And especially here:


This is why I got the idea of extending the shroud to make a real can light. Gets the gel away from the bulb, helps make the light more directional.

So! Here's the battle plan. However long you want the extension to be, mark that and add an inch. The extra inch is for tabs to paperclip the gels to.


You'll cut the profile as if you're making crenelations at the top of a castle wall. Four tabs will work for a square gel.


A test fit will show that the ducting is actually larger than the shroud. So we need to shrink the ducting a bit.


We use the duct crimping tool, to reduce the diameter where we'll tape it to the shroud.


Another test fit, and we're good to go.

Start taping! The foil tape will not get ruined by age or heat or cold or weather. Do it once, do it right.


Get it all nice and tight, push down the wrinkles...


And we're looking good! Quite simple, really. Now you must decide if you want a general flood light, or a spot light. The aluminum will reflect the light all around inside this thing, making it hard to direct the light, but you'll get a great flood of any color you need.

If you want a spot light, you blacken the inside. This contains the side-aimed photons from reflecting around and bouncing everywhere. Only the forward-aimed light will escape through the gel, giving you a much narrower beam. And a longer extension will help give you a narrower tighter beam. At this point, you can spray paint the insides with flat black paint. Barbecue grill paint works well, and will handle the heat. A little pricey, but a can will do four or six of these lights. So worth the investment.




Now you can paperclip the gels in place. DO NOT ATTACH PERMANENTLY! If you tape these in place, you can't replace a burned out bulb!



I attached a crimson gel for ya.



And in my mid-renovated bathroom, you can see just how much crimson a single 50-watt bulb can make things!



Don't have one painted black to show the tighter beam. Sorry. I wanted floods, not spots. heh heh.

The nature of the clamp light is the collar tightens against a nub on the spring clamp. You don't need to use a clamp! You can buy some 1/8" or 3/16" steel rods, hammer em into the ground, bend an L at the top, and attach the collar to that. Blammo, instant ground lights.

Remember, these things are NOT waterproof! The shrouds have holes to vent hot air. So if you're expecting rain, work a plan to hide these under props. A hollowed out tombstone works well. Plastic tubs turned over and partially spraypainted also help for weatherproofing.

Man, I knew I came to the right place for detailed lighting info! These instructions are great, Bryan316. We've already got a bazillion clamp lights- off to Lowe's later for some ducting & foil tape. Think my Dad has some of that bbq paint.

This looks like a great solution to our directional problem with the outdoor blacklighting.

You did a FANTASTIC job on this how-to!
Thanks so much!
.

Looks like a great way to get wide-spread color in one area. Thanks for sharing this one!

Real good detail instructions!

How are they for heating up after a few hours being on?

Great instructions- very thorough! Thanx for posting it!

Excellent! Many thanks for posting; being a noob at lighting techniques this looks like a great project to start with.

Originally Posted by alucard

Looks like a great way to get wide-spread color in one area. Thanks for sharing this one!

Remember, make the extension deeper and paint it black, and you get a very directional, pinpoint-style spotlight instead of a full-flood light. Plan your layout well, buy appropriate bulbs. And if wattage and electrical bills are a concern, don't forget to try some CFL bulbs!!!!!! I just haven't had time to! Heh heh. Gotta spend that time to build cemetery fences instead!!