***UPDATE*** Photos of the semi-finished rig are in my Flickr Stream. Full write up to come (eventually).
I know I’ve been promising a more detailed write up of my shooting table, but that’ll just have to wait. Currently I’m neck deep in designing a PVC Ring Light. Here’s the design so far…
I’ll be using 1-1/4″ Pipe & Fittings with one length of 1″ pipe to act as a bushing in the mounting sleeve. The reason for using 1-1/4″ material is that the light sockets I found at Home Depot (rubber, weatherproof, 2-wire in the electrical section) fit perfectly into the socket of a 1-1/4″ tee. I’m going to wire it so that it takes two switches… each switch will control 4 bulbs. The mounting bits on the side will allow the whole rig to be flipped over and mounted for right or left-handed use.
The OD of the rig will be about 35″ with 25″ worth of space to shoot through.
The tentative parts list is as follows:
3 ea Cross, 1-1/4″ Sch 40 PVC
3 ea 90 Ell, 1-1/4″ Sch 40 PVC
8 ea Tee, 1-1/4″ Sch 40 PVC
8 ea 45 Ell, 1-1/4″ Sch 40 PVC
8 ea Light Socket (I’ll post the part number once I buy them)
1 ea Two-Switch Light Switch
1 ea 1-1/4″ Sch 40 PVC Pipe (a 5ft piece would probably be more than enough)
1 ea 1″ Sch 40 PVC Pipe (30″ or so)
1 ea Switch box
1 ea Extension cord
Some Romex wire
Crimpable Wire nuts
Right now I’m still spec-ing out the bulbs… I’ll be using daylight balanced CFL’s, but I’m having a hard time finding some with everything I want… 40 to 60 watts in the 5500K to 6500K range with a CRI over 90. If you know of anything that fits the bill leave a note.
I still need to talk to my brother the electrician about the wiring. I’ll post gauge recommendations and a wiring diagram once I have them figured out.
So far that’s what I’ve got… I need to get access to a band saw before proceeding due to all the cuts that have to be made. As soon as I have somethign to show I’ll post pictures.