Home Depot Lights

crabdance

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May 14, 2008
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Alamo, TN
Hi everyone, I don't know if you have seen this page before but I found it while doing some searching today and thought some people might enjoy taking a look at it. It shows a real cheap way of putting lights together for your bike with stuff from Home Depot. The url is:
http://bike-recumbent.com/headlight.shtml

I'm going tomorrow and check it out!

enjoy
 
I've built a pair of these before, bit cheaper and simpler but let me tell ya, you can blind cars with these headlights. Search instructables for "Ultimate 18V Bike Light".

(instructables.com)
 
I've built a pair of these before, bit cheaper and simpler but let me tell ya, you can blind cars with these headlights. Search instructables for "Ultimate 18V Bike Light".

(instructables.com)

Yea, these are great little headlights. I'm going to Home Depot today and buy the parts to make some. I'm not going to use the 50 watt bulb just 2 20 watt bulbs. The 50 watt gets too hot for the casing and melts everything after being on for about 10 minutes. Sooooo not good. But two 20's will look nice! Will post some pics when I get back from HD. Have a great morning everyone!
 
Well, I'm not going to be able to go to Home Depot today. I'm having to wait until tomorrow. So I will let everyone know how my trip turned out tomorrow. I will take pictures then. Thanks all...
 
Well, I just made me a big score on eBay. I got a 12v 7ah rechargeable battery for $3.13 plus $8.00 shipping. That's about the lowest I have been able to find one. So today I'm going to Home Depot and get setup for some lights. Can't decide if I'm going to use one or two 20 watt bulbs for the headlight setup. Obviously one will be less of a drain on the battery but two just looks cooler :cool: My engine kit should be here tomorrow and I can finally start working on all of this. I can't tell you all how bad I want to get on the road. I seems like it's taking forever for my kit to get here (but I know it isn't). Once I get going the only thing that's going to bring me back home from my first ride will be to get more gas, lol.
 
Cool lights. When thinking about the dual headlights and runtime concerns why dont you just use a couple of separate switches so you can run with just one light or both depending on how much available light there is and whether you just want to see or be seen.
 
That sounds great but I don't know how to put a switch like that in. I guess it would not be too hard but I'm just so un-mechanical (and electrical) that I really don't don't know that much about it. Can you give me a few pointers about doing it? That was going to be the hardest part for me was putting in a switch. There's instructions for everything else.

Never mind... there will probably be instructions with the switch that I buy. Sorry, but I have to ask for help for everything, duh.

I will put me a switch on there. That's the way it should be and I will let you know how it turns out.
 
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i'm going with the PVC units for my bike, i just don't like those metal couplers.

if you use a 35w for each unit and use one for low beam and both for high you won't have the melting problem.

or, you could use a 35w for low and a 50w for high on it's own and just vent the under and back side of the housing.

i'm going to use this setup with red bulbs for brake lights and 2 more 25w lower on the fork legs in yellow for fog lights.

thanks,
steve
 
i'm going with the PVC units for my bike, i just don't like those metal couplers.

if you use a 35w for each unit and use one for low beam and both for high you won't have the melting problem.

or, you could use a 35w for low and a 50w for high on it's own and just vent the under and back side of the housing.

i'm going to use this setup with red bulbs for brake lights and 2 more 25w lower on the fork legs in yellow for fog lights.

thanks,
steve

I think the PVC ones would be good too. I just haven't seen any plans for those so I don't know anything about them. I'm not too swift on making things and need plans or instructions. The only problem that I worry about with the 35 watt is running the battery down. I don't know what the run-time would be for those.

When you get yours done take some pics, I would love to see them. I bet they will turn out nice. I will have to think about the 35 watt bulbs some. I would like more watts, just don't know how the battery will like them. Someone had a formula for figuring out the runtime for bulbs. I can try and use that. I will let you know how things work out. Let me know about yours too!
 
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