I finished my enclosures for my moving heads

[bhays]

I tackled one of my last remaining building projects today; the enclosures for my dmx moving heads. There is a reason that this project has been put off till near the end..I have honestly been stumped on how to make these. I am sure there are better ways to do this, but this was the only idea that really popped into my head and time is running out..so here goes.



Both the tops and bottoms of the enclosures are made of circles cut from 3/4" MDF and sheet metal rings. The rings were drilled and screwed every 2 inches to the MDF disc then riveted together. The edges have beads of silicone inside and out. The base has a duct made of 2" pvc and 2 90's that serve as a a means of getting the power and dmx cables inside and also as an air intake for the cooling system.



The tops are constructed the same way and have two holes with cooling fans s***ing outward. The two fans amount to 100 cfm combined and seem to work pretty well. I ran the lights on a test pattern for a couple of hours and the temperature inside the enclosure only raised 17 degrees over room temperature. The little arches of plexi protect from rain/snow getting in. I will probably cover the outside openings of the arches when I put the units out for the season.



The centers are made from 1/16" lexan (aka polycarbonate/tuffak/etc.) bent into a circle and glued with approximately 1" overlap. An arch is then cut in to the bottom to fit over the 2" pvc duct in the base. I paid about $50 for a 4x8 sheet of lexan and have a 3x4 piece left over that I am going to use for covers on my led par cans. It is very important that you use lexan as 1/16" plex is too brittle and will snap on either side of the glue joint (learned the hard way)...also, make certain that you do not get the non-glare stuff as it will diffuse the spotlight from the dmx fixture. (learned that the hard way too. 1/8" won't roll into a cylinder this small (at least not by myself and there would have been no way to clamp it). I just rolled the lexan into shape and used two pieces of 1x2 clamped on each end to hold the seams until the glue bonded. Wherever you buy the lexan, they will have glue for bonding it. I paid $8 for a large tube of it and only used a small portion of the tube.




Here's a shot of the enclosure assembled.



Sitting out in front of each enclosure will be one of these mirrored ball rotators I threw together. That way I can shine the various snowflake gobos, etc. on the mirrored balls and do the light flurries thing.



The enclosures sit inside mini z-trees with one side left out. I am using eight of these trees in the display this year and two are modified to hold the dmx lights. Of course, there will be garland and lights on the outside of the tree.




Here are both units assembled. I only got one dmx light out to test fit and function with..there are two matched.




The lexan cylinder doesn't seem to distort the light beam at all, nice crisp spot.



Here's a not-very-good shot of the mirrored ball effect.

Like I said, I was stumped on how to build this. I am eager to see how others have built enclosures for their dmx lights. I am sure someone has done something better.

[bhays]

I wasn't really happy with the little plexi arches over the cooling fans, and someone suggested using 3" pvc elbows...



So, here's my solution. Closet flange and 2" P-Trap. I moved the fans to the inside (still blowing out) then ran a bead of silicone around the bottom of the closet flange before screwing it down. Then I stuck the P-Trap's into the flange...tight fit but you could see a tiny bit of daylight from underneath. So, I just pressed them far enough down into the closet flange to run about a 1/2" bead of silicone around the edge and presto - water tight. The light has been running for about 45 minutes now and it seems like it is cooling just about as well as before. Less than 10 degrees above room temperature last I checked.

[WayneKremer]

Very nice! I'm impressed!

[ChaseH]

Great Design!! I know that took some time to create.

BTW What company makes those lights? They look great, and I'd like to look into something like that.

[bhays]

ChaseH wrote:

BTW What company makes those lights? They look great, and I'd like to look into something like that.

Mine are Elation Focus Spot 250's.

http://www.elationlighting.com/product.asp?ProductIDNumber=1233&cat=Moving%20Head

There are a lot of companies making similar items, however; Martin, High End Studios, American DJ, Chauvet, etc.

[stanward]

bhays, I LOVE your garage! Awesome workbenches and work spaces.

Also, I love with what you did with your enclosures as well!



Stan

[pokietech34331]

stanward wrote:

bhays, I LOVE your garage! Awesome workbenches and work spaces.

Also, I love with what you did with your enclosures as well!



Stan

I was going to say I want a work area like that TOO!!!

very cool

Cheers

David

Australia

[TravisP]

bhays

 

do you by chance still have these photos of your enclosures for your DMX moving yoke lights ?

They are not showing up in this thread.

 

Thank you

Travis

[KR light show]

On 8/13/2007 at 1:19 PM, bhays said:

 

bhays:

I know this has been a long time however I am trying to make my own DMX moving head covers and I cannot open your files.

Would love to see these files if possible.

Thoughts?

 

Thanks xmasman22.

 

 

[ItsMeBobO]

Bhays post counts by year from history          2012-0     2013-2    2014-0   2015-1    2016-0   2017-0   2018-0 

Did not reply to posts in 2009 or for the files in 2013.    Chances are not so good.

[ItsMeBobO]

This may help.