suzyj said:Thanks for the compliments. In response to the questions, the aluminium bits are turned from round stock, so it's kinda difficult to do without a lathe. I made the center piece (where the luxeon mounts) fairly thick for two reasons. Firstly I wanted plenty of contact area between it and the side of the case tube, for good heat conduction, and secondly making it 16mm thick meant that the hole for the mount was exactly in the middle, which suited my sense of aesthetics better than having the front longer than the back.
It's probably a little heavier than it needs to be. I'm toying with the idea of putting the case tube in a lathe and taking a millimetre or two off it's radius. At the moment it's 38mm dia, but it would still work fine if it were only 35 or even 34mm diameter, and would be about 50g lighter.
Alas no steel, and no lugs. Aluminium conducts heat better than steel. I did polish it up a bit though so it wouldn't look completely out of place next to my polished stainless stem lugs though.
Total cost was in the neighborhood of $120. Maybe $20 or $30 for the luxeon, same for the lens, and $50 odd for the Luxdrive thingy, which I highly recommend. The metal was all scrounged, so that doesn't count.
Michael Carden and Poiters lights were what provided the necessary kick to get me to start.
If anyone is interested, I can send them a (mostly accurate) CAD drawing.
Regards,
Suzy
Thats what I want !
What a wonderful piece of work. Printed the pics and put them under my pillow.
Have wanted to do similar but dont have any workshop/lathe and the big put off is that would have to buy all the bits from all over Oz. The Pack n Post total would be more than the electronics. No one stocks anything in Townsville and "on back order" just means not flamin interested.
Where/ how did you source all the internals or was it a chase all over town for you too. Could you do a suppliers list please.
Would it run OK from a 6v, 4 aH SLAB ? Using that and converted Kmart Krypton bike light. Its very bright and since making some reflective anklets and bracelets I find that cars dip their high beam at a reasonable distance, not blind me.
To diverge - if you want to make reflective anklets go to "safety shop" and buy the shiny plastic coated reflecting tape, not the dull silver looking one, the rain ruins it. Can buy 50mm wide tape by the metre for about $6-7 . From Kmart etc get a packet of jeans size press studs and go for it. The moving legs and hansignals can be seen way off even with low incidental light.
Need a retail therapy fix in the BIG smoke.
Hugh
