Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “How To Make a Super-Bright Light Fixture w/ Dimmable LEDs”.
Hi, i’m lynn from the german order youtube channel and today i’m going to build this modern lighting fixture using walnut aluminum and 10 watt leds. So here’s the concept of this project, i’m trying to design a really modern high-end lighting fixture using high-powered leds. This is the old light hanging above the counter. Both the high temperature and the warm color were not really appropriate for the space.
These are halogens and they get quite hot, so leds will be much cooler, visually and temperature wise. So, first of all, we need the box, starting with milling up some walnut cutting miters for the corners. So at the bottom of the box, i’m going to use polycarbonate panels. First, i need to cut some grooves in the wood, so the plastic has somewhere to go. Here’S the polycarbonate cutting it on the table saw and here’s the wood and the plastic all cut up now in order to achieve a more diffused surface, i’m first taking off the plastic and then i’m sanding it with fine sandpaper, and this works quite nicely to create That frosty impression now the main structure of this fixture is the aluminum.
So first i need short pieces to connect the wood together and then between those a long, aluminum bar fits which holds the leds. So i’m starting with cutting up some one and a half inch aluminum bars on the bandsaw and then drilling holes in it with the drill press. This unit will hang on two stainless steel rods connected to the aluminum. So i need holes for those as well through the long center piece doing some testing here to make sure everything fits.
So i have brackets on the sides and i’m ready to attach the shorter aluminum pieces. I drill the holes extra wide, which makes it easier to fit everything in since this wood had some tension in it. Then i have the long piece of aluminum and i’ve marked out where the lights are going to go now those holes line up.
So i can attach the long piece to the shorter ones, and then i can slip in the rods in the larger hole in the middle here and they will carry the weight of the whole fixture. Now, for the inside of the box, i’m going to put on lights, heatsinks a booster, a switch wires and an adafruit trinket to operate this whole unit. So let’s lay it out.
First, i got some really big heat sinks to disperse the heat from the leds. I’M also positioning the booster, so i need to drill some holes, so i can attach the booster to the aluminum, with some screws cleaning up the burst, with a file and screwing the booster in place. Next, i need to cut the plexiglass in shorter pieces and that’s because the piece i bought wasn’t long enough to go all across. So with three lights, i decided to have three windows of glass. If you may, then i need to drill a hole in the wood for a switch, so i can turn the device on or off securing that with a nut. Another thing to do here is to glue the leds onto the aluminum, with some thermal adhesive, then adding some wood to provide clamping pressure.
Now, let’s go over the electronics and how this all will connect okay. So we have a 20 volt ac dc adapter branching off to a 10k potentiometer switch that connects to a booster, which brings the 20 volt up to 30 volt, which is required for the leds. Simultaneously.
We have a dc to dc step down board, which brings the power down from 20 volt to 5 volt and that’s to power the adafruit trinket, which is running arduino code for the dimmer. Then we have a tip31 transistor, which does the switching for the trinket, and all of that is connected to the 10 watt leds, and this is the arduino code to control the switching. So i can dim the lights to step down the voltage to 5 volts to power the trinket i actually took apart this usb outlet for automobiles. It has a dc to dc step down board inside which came in handy here, so i soldered the leads to that. I’M using a circuit board to organize all the wires and components, and here i’m just drilling holes in it, so i can attach it to the wood later. So, basically, i’m trying to lay out all the parts very much like diagram. I made i’m connecting the trinket using header pins to the board, and here i’m soldering the wires to the lights. Here you can see the whole setup with the board connected to the booster on the left, the booster and the potentiometer are separately connected because of the design. Now we have everything ready and it’s just a matter of putting everything together. So, let’s start from scratch: screwing in the brackets, putting in the short aluminum pieces, then, let’s screw the board onto the inside of the fixture and i’m putting it right next to where the switch will go. Also, i’m putting brackets on the mitered corners then putting the switch in and securing it with a washer and a nut screwing down the booster, connecting the corners together and i’m doing this as opposed to gluing the corners. So i can have access if i ever need to get in and replace a light or something like that. Attaching the wires to the booster, attaching the aluminum to the shorter pieces and securing with nuts then putting in the plug, and i’m going to hot glue that in finally putting in the polycarbonate pieces just sliding those in the grooves.
Here’S the underside – and you can see this little walnut blocks, i’m going to attach right on those seams. So let’s try it out. Okay looks pretty cool on the inside too, then just attaching the rods and securing those with some nuts. I’Ve got some hollow aluminum tube. That i’m cutting up – and this is to put over the rods just to continue the look.
I also have a solid half inch aluminum rod, which i drilled a hole in that i’m cutting up, and this is going to the switch to act as a knob and that needs to be epoxied in and here you can see the inside to finish the wood. I decided to simply go with tung oil polish that i make, and this is just to bring out the color of the wood. Now to hang the fixture.
I decided to make some metal brackets that you can see here so first, i drill the hole and then i’m making a groove from that on. The band saw then putting the metal in a vise and banging it down on both sides. Then simply screwing one side into the ceiling and securing the fixture with nuts on either side of the rod.
So for this project i wanted to use these high-powered led bulbs, and i’ve used them once before when building my third-hand task lamp, and that has a bit more of an industrial design. But for this i wanted to create more of a higher-end lighting, fixture kind of feel, and then i used my favorite combination, which is walnut and aluminum, and i really like how the walnut kind of provides a nice warmth, whereas the aluminum breaks that off provides. That contrast, so i really like that now. The reason i wanted to use these leds is because, first of all, they are very bright and then they don’t require that much power, but also they’re, so physically small. So you can fit them in places which you wouldn’t be able to fit traditional light bulbs in and thereby creating. You know some unique creative designs, which is really interesting now for the pwm dimmer here, i’m using an adafruit trinket and that’s running arduino based code, and i really think that for these kinds of bulbs, it’s really nice to have a dimmer because they are so bright. So it’s nice to be able to bring that light level down a little bit.
I also kind of like how this almost has more of a craftsman style design from the underneath of these blocks. Um. I like that. So it’s a bit modern, but it has that kind of element to it as well, uh, so yeah. My name is lynn. Don’T forget to check out my youtube channel at dartmouth where you can find woodworking and electronics related projects.
Otherwise, thank you guys so much for watching and i’ll see you soon bye. If you liked this video subscribe to our website or send us a comment on facebook or twitter be sure to check out our other project videos or visit us on makezine.com, you .