Glow powder - how do I...?

......get a nice smooth epoxy glow powder ring around an emitter????

When you find out let me know! I just goop it on there.

Most of my work involves an emitter on a heatsink. So I just wrap tape around the pedestal to make a round form to hold the epoxy/glow powder mix. I use a piece of heat shrink around the LED dome itself to prevent getting the epoxy on it. Then I try to carefully put the epoxy in the "form" so it fills from the bottom up. That way it often doesn't even need any trimming. But most times, it runs down the side of the tape form or the heatshrink covering the LED. When that happens, there is usually a little ridge left in the finished epoxy. After the epoxy sets, I remove the tape and heatshrink. Small ridges can usually be removed with a sharp blade. But if they are larger or I poured the epoxy too high, I have to sand or file down the whole thing. I try to do the sanding close to the LED before I remove the heatshrink if I can see it needs it. That little bit of shrink does wonders when the Dremel tool slips.

I use a magnifier so I can see very well and a toothpick to place a drop at a time till I get the desired "donut" of glow epoxy in place.

Thurmond

Chuck the light in the lathe (wrap paper around it so you don't scar the anodize) and face-cut the hardened epoxy.

mikus said:

Chuck the light in the lathe (wrap paper around it so you don't scar the anodize) and face-cut the hardened epoxy.

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Scary!

I read on here that cutting glow-powder infused epoxy harms the efficiency of the powder somehow?

Coffee hasn't kicked in. I'm not sure how this:

mikus said:

Chuck the light in the lathe (wrap paper around it so you don't scar the anodize) and face-cut the hardened epoxy.

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answer the OP question:

plasmaman said:

......get a nice smooth epoxy glow powder ring around an emitter????

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Don's got it. However, I'll add that that solution depends on how much of a gap you have between the emitter and the reflector's opening. I've done mods where adding a ring of GID/epoxy was not feasible, but I could still dab some paint onto the emitter slug and get some glow that way.

Rob M said:

I read on here that cutting glow-powder infused epoxy harms the efficiency of the powder somehow?

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Yes, it destroys the particle structure. I don't know by how much, but I've seen it in a couple of my mods. Plus, if there are bubbles remaining in your epoxy mix, they'll get all gunky and stuff.