Homelight with stainless steel Ikea bowls

[Der Wichtel]

Hi,
just finished my little "Ikea-hack".

Ikea has some nice cheap stainless steal bowl. I immediatly got the idea of building a light of them when I saw them the first time. That was about one year ago.

I started to build the light yesterday and this is what just came out:

http://daoriginal.da.funpic.de/data/ikeahack/01102008009.jpg
http://daoriginal.da.funpic.de/data/ikeahack/01102008013.jpg
http://daoriginal.da.funpic.de/data/ikeahack/01102008014.jpg
http://daoriginal.da.funpic.de/data/ikeahack/02102008016.jpg
http://daoriginal.da.funpic.de/data/ikeahack/02102008019.jpg

I took the pictures directly after I have finished the work. So the light have to be cleaned

 

[1 what]

Whoever said "A bowl is a bowl is a bowl" ?
My uncle Sven would be proud of you!

 

[allburger]

I'm interested to see the beam that this creates...or if its more of an even flood

 

[TMorita]

I'm interested to see the beam that this creates...or if its more of an even flood

Nah, we want runtime graphs!

Toshi

 

[Der Wichtel]

Here is a beamshot. It isn't that easy do make one because the light is very floody.

 

[Gryloc]

Der Wichtel,

Just out of curiosity, does that bowl have an evident parabolic or elliptical shape? It is hard to tell from the image. Could you find a focal point of some sort that would focus the light to a sort of beam?

The inside of the bowl is very glossy. If this could focus light in any way, then it could make a really interesting reflector.

I really like how you turned the bowl into an overhead lamp fixture. Very clean and modern! ...BTW, it may make a really nice hat/helmet for someone! :tinfoil:

-Tony

EDIT:

SHOOT! I posted this right after you posted that beamshot. That is pretty nice! So would you agree that either of the SS bowls are parabowlic? If so, I may have to make a quick trip to IKEA this weekend (there is one north of Cincinnati). How much are they? Can you take a picture with a darker exposure to see the artifacts and the beam center better?

Finally, even though the heatsinking is not as good (since the heatsink is not in a Mag body) so the current going to the LED is not the highest, how does the beam intensity compare to that of other SSC P7 lights? Thank you thank you!!! :bow:

 

[1 what]

Very nice but some of those artifacts in the beamshot look like dried cake-mix to me..

 

[Der Wichtel]

The bowls are not parabolic just spherical.

The big bowl costs 4-5€ ( can't really remember) and the little bowl 4€ in a pack of 4.

You are right. I have to run the P7 with 1.5A. The LED got very hot when I tried 3A. Stainless steel doesn't conduct heat that good than I thought:thumbsdow

I don't have underexposure settings in my mobilephone camera. There is a little hotspot from where lines come out to the outer ring. A little bit difficult to describe

 

[Essexman]

Nice mod there, maybe you could sell it back to Ikea ?

I see one of your homemade drivers in the pictures, but it appears you are powering the light through your house supply, so what voltage are you running at?

This is the kind of mod that gets me thinking about making more projets around the house, thanks for sharing.

 

[Der Wichtel]

I'm using a small notebook powersupply. They are very efficient and cheap

 

[Al Combs]

You are right. I have to run the P7 with 1.5A. The LED got very hot when I tried 3A. Stainless steel doesn't conduct heat that good than I thought:thumbsdow

It might help if you drilled a few 8mm holes in the back of the small bowl to let the hot air escape. A hand reamer might be less messy than drilling. Flat black the small bowl interior to prevent reflections. I guess that might change the overall aesthetic appearance of the light to have holes in it. But it looks like from the picture that the hot air rises and becomes trapped. Alternately, is there enough room for a 4cm muffin fan inside the small bowl?

 

[saabluster]

It might help if you drilled a few 8mm holes in the back of the small bowl to let the hot air escape. A hand reamer might be less messy than drilling. Flat black the small bowl interior to prevent reflections. I guess that might change the overall aesthetic appearance of the light to have holes in it. But it looks like from the picture that the hot air rises and becomes trapped. Alternately, is there enough room for a 4cm muffin fan inside the small bowl?

I agree with putting holes in the top bowl and painting black but for a slightly different reason. If he paints the outside of the small bowl Krylon Barbecue flat black it would help get rid of more heat through radiation. With that and the holes he should be able to run the SSC a little harder for more light output.

 

[Der Wichtel]

The small bowl is very small ( 4cm diameter or something like that)
So a 8mm hole would be very ugly.

as far as the light runs fine with 1.5A I won't change it unless someone has a clever idea.
The light is enough to do some drilling and so on but a warmer tint would be awsome for the living room or kitchen.

 

[collector]

nice nice nice !