QuarterTang
Member
It's coming shortly I promise. I have a little bit of equipment to show first then I will get into the 180, I am trying to stay in order as best I can.
180 Gallon Frankenstein
- Thread starter QuarterTang
- Start date
It's coming shortly I promise. I have a little bit of equipment to show first then I will get into the 180, I am trying to stay in order as best I can.
QuarterTang
Member
Ahh, nothing like the sound of the MH ballast firing up. Sorry had to share. My tank is in my small "Man Cave" and the lights just fired up. Good morning tank!
Ok sorry back on track.
Ok sorry back on track.
QuarterTang
Member
Speaking of lights, that is where I was going next anyway.
So the 55 had that big old hood lined with aluminum ducting. The reflector was simply that and it didn't do so great. I consider myself pretty good at building stuff, and I thought why not build my own expensive relfectors? Seems easy enough. So I started with this:
Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't really make out all of the dimensions on that, but it was all I had to go by. After about 4 hours of math and scaling. I figured out all of the dimensions on it and get to work. Here is what I came up with:
I wanted it all to be fromone solid piece. It requires a pretty large sheet of aluminum to make, but that is what a solid pattern looks like.
So the 55 had that big old hood lined with aluminum ducting. The reflector was simply that and it didn't do so great. I consider myself pretty good at building stuff, and I thought why not build my own expensive relfectors? Seems easy enough. So I started with this:
Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't really make out all of the dimensions on that, but it was all I had to go by. After about 4 hours of math and scaling. I figured out all of the dimensions on it and get to work. Here is what I came up with:
I wanted it all to be fromone solid piece. It requires a pretty large sheet of aluminum to make, but that is what a solid pattern looks like.
QuarterTang
Member
Folded up here is the inside of the reflector:
and from an outside view:
So I made my lights out of paper. Kidding.
Then I had to find some aluminum to make them out of. Now that should be easy enough. I found some pretty quick online that I wanted to use. 98% reflectivity and great looking stuff. Can't afford it yet.
Back to the Aluminum duct work. That will give me some practice and it is better than the no shape hood I had before. Later next year when I upgrade my lights, I will cough up the $ to buy the stuff to make the final relfectors, which by the way really only works to be about $35 per relfector, but Still more than I wanted to spend right now.
There is other stuff more important for now. I gathered up a few tools:
and my duct work from Lowes, at $2.75 each three pieces is enough to make one relfector.
Cut off the kinked end and the locking edges to get this:
Now take the pattern, Oh yeah, scatterbrained. These pieces are not big enough to lay out my solid patter, so I had to cut it apart into three pieces for now. When I make the final, it will be one solid piece.
and from an outside view:
So I made my lights out of paper. Kidding.
Then I had to find some aluminum to make them out of. Now that should be easy enough. I found some pretty quick online that I wanted to use. 98% reflectivity and great looking stuff. Can't afford it yet.
Back to the Aluminum duct work. That will give me some practice and it is better than the no shape hood I had before. Later next year when I upgrade my lights, I will cough up the $ to buy the stuff to make the final relfectors, which by the way really only works to be about $35 per relfector, but Still more than I wanted to spend right now.
There is other stuff more important for now. I gathered up a few tools:
and my duct work from Lowes, at $2.75 each three pieces is enough to make one relfector.
Cut off the kinked end and the locking edges to get this:
Now take the pattern, Oh yeah, scatterbrained. These pieces are not big enough to lay out my solid patter, so I had to cut it apart into three pieces for now. When I make the final, it will be one solid piece.
QuarterTang
Member
Now it's easy, just cuss and cut for about an hour.
4 of these:
4 of these:
and 1 of these.....umm. Sorry didn't take a picture of just that part. The center shown to the left.
Now it's time to cuss and bend for about a half hour.
Then these ones too:
4 of these:
4 of these:
and 1 of these.....umm. Sorry didn't take a picture of just that part. The center shown to the left.
Now it's time to cuss and bend for about a half hour.
Then these ones too:
QuarterTang
Member
Ugly so far isn't it?
I know there is a better way, but again I am cheap, so I cut the hole for the socket with a dremel with a cutoff wheel.
Note: Make sure you cut this while the aluminum is still flat, much easier and saves an extra half hour of that cussing I'v been talking about.
Now to put it all together... easy as drill and rivot.
Then cuss because you put the rivot on the wrong side. and dremel it out.
I only did that once, but it is part of the process.
The rivots go in from the inside of the reflector:
Do a few more:
and you get to here:
I know there is a better way, but again I am cheap, so I cut the hole for the socket with a dremel with a cutoff wheel.
Note: Make sure you cut this while the aluminum is still flat, much easier and saves an extra half hour of that cussing I'v been talking about.
Now to put it all together... easy as drill and rivot.
Then cuss because you put the rivot on the wrong side. and dremel it out.
I only did that once, but it is part of the process.
The rivots go in from the inside of the reflector:
Do a few more:
and you get to here:
QuarterTang
Member
Add one of these to start the next round of drill, cuss, rivot, drill, cuss, rivot....
Then after a while, you get to here:
One big floppy piece of aluminum. This is important. Rivot from the center piece out if you try to rivot all edges of one piece then go to the next piece, you end up with a bunch of bunching and it won't come out square.
So drill, cuss, and rivot some more.
Then after a while, you get to here:
One big floppy piece of aluminum. This is important. Rivot from the center piece out if you try to rivot all edges of one piece then go to the next piece, you end up with a bunch of bunching and it won't come out square.
So drill, cuss, and rivot some more.
QuarterTang
Member
Now if you are like me and second guessing your work check it out with a light:
QuarterTang
Member
Now is the fun part, Take it out side and admire what you just made. If you build one of these consider cooking a hot dog in one. Don't skip this this admiring step or you might not try to build the other two.
QuarterTang
Member
The light that comes out of these things is intense and I didn't try cooking a hotdog in it, but it was pretty hot if you put your hand over it in the sun.
Moving on.
This stuff is pretty thin and doesn't hold it's own shape real well, so I built a frame for it.
and added the socket:
and what the heck, throw a bulb in there.
Moving on.
This stuff is pretty thin and doesn't hold it's own shape real well, so I built a frame for it.
and added the socket:
and what the heck, throw a bulb in there.
QuarterTang
Member
Now fire them up and see how it looks while you get a tan:
QuarterTang
Member
That's how I got to these:
Now I didn't make those for the 55, I was building these because I was going to need them for the 180 so they don't fit over the 55 so good, but it was temporary.
Time to go to work, I will start into the 180 stand build next.
Thank you for taking the time to look.
Now I didn't make those for the 55, I was building these because I was going to need them for the 180 so they don't fit over the 55 so good, but it was temporary.
Time to go to work, I will start into the 180 stand build next.
Thank you for taking the time to look.
theyammieguy
Active member
Subscribed
QuarterTang
Member
The thought corssed my mind once or twice. But after the first one it was really just time consuming.
The first one is the one on the left where it is out in the sunlight. I used more rivots than needed and some of the metal was cut funny. The second (the one on the right) really was just time, it actually wasn't bad, I put some music on the computer and zoned out. The first took me about 7 hours to complete and the second I had down to an easy 2.5 hours. I think if I was really trying hard, I could probably pump one out in about an hour.
But just in case, I do have a rubber mallet close by.
QuarterTang
Member
I will keep it as informative (entertaining) as possible.
QuarterTang
Member
No skills, patience maybe. Anyone can do it with at least half of the tools. I guess I should have put something about that in here. I did make a few, let me see if I can find....
Tools:
The very small bock was for bending small parts, the middle block was for standing up the reflector while rivoting, and the long piece was for bending the large pieces.
That doesn't make much sense does it?
I cut a slit in a 2x4 all most all the way through the center then clamped it in the vise to hold it in place. That gives a nice edge to bend the aluminum on. It's a homemade break. Ok not really, but close enough. With it pinched in the board just bend the metal over and use a small wooded block to sharpen the bend edge. It worked pretty good.
For the Center bend, I just bent it accross the board:
Here is the board with nothing in it clamped in the vise. The tighter you clamp down the more it pinches the metal.
As for cutting it, kitchen shears worked just fine.
QuarterTang
Member
That's a great point. I really was concerned about that too. I thought about using angled aluminum from lowes. They have some that isn't too expensive. But I tried it and it is cold. The wood is only contacting the metal along that outer flanged edge and it is not even remotely hot. Even the very top closest to the bulb is hot but you can touch it and there is no sizzle. Point is, it isn't hot enough at all to even think twice about it. Wood is cheap and I wasn't going to dump a bunch of money into these yet. When I remake them with the fancy reflective grade stuff I might go ahead and use the agled aluminum, but it won't be because of heat.
Not counting the Rivoter I bought to make these with or the socket and bulb, I had about 11.75 in each reflector.
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