EL34's CNC Stuff

Making a new light ring for my CNC machine

Click on the images to see a larger image

The old LED light ring with 3 sheared off LED's
I had previously made an external LED ring and liked it, but I kept shearing off the LED's one by one.
Tool changes with wrenches and work piece clamps were able to shear off the external LED's on my first ring
Time to make a new and improved model

Click on the images to see a larger image

This is the metal piece that clamps down the business end of my Rotozip tool.

I drilled 8 holes into it so I could install the LED's into the metal
If the top end was not flattened off, I could have installed one or two more LED's
I did not want to drill holes in the thinner flat area and risk weakening it.
If I make another one of these metal pieces for my CNC, I will design into it the LED holes and a wiring groove.

I used 14000mcd LED's for this project
You can get 20 of these LED's for cheap at this web site with free shipping
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1106

After I installed the LED's, the rounded tips of the LED's stuck out past the metal.
One problem is that the rounded ends of the LED's tend to focus the beam into a spot beam pattern.
It looked like 8 round circles when they were lit up.

I laid the metal piece on my bench belt sander and flattened the tips of the LED's flush with the metal surface.
The beam pattern is now much broader and less of a spot beam
The beam shape turned out great.

Click on the images to see a larger image

Here's the back side showing the LED wiring.

I made the bare LED Negative wires touch the metal so I could use the machine frame for the LED negative
The RED wire is the LED positive wire
I run the LED's on 5 volts DC at around 30ma each using a 5 volt wall wart
I installed a 2 ohm current limiting resistor to get the current set at 30ma each
All the LED's are wired in parallel.

I mixed up some two part epoxy and gooped it into the back of the LED holes and all around the wiring to keep everything in place

I wish I could have machined a groove and recessed the wiring down into the groove.
I could not do that because this is the piece that clamps down the Rotozip
Can't do any machining without this piece attached
I would have to make a new one from scratch.

Click on the images to see a larger image

Here's the LED's lit up on the work bench
Doesn't look like much at this point

Click on the images to see a larger image

Here's it is installed on my CNC machine
Still doesn't look too impressive

Click on the images to see a larger image

Ok, now it looks like something is happening
All 8 LED's beam shape are spread out and overlap nicely
The only lights that were on in my shop were some florescent shop lights at the back of the shop

All in all, I like how the CNC light project turned out
I won't be shearing off the LED's anymore

Enter My Tube Amp Parts Store Here

Mobile users Enter My Tube Amp Parts Store Here

The Tube amp Library of information
Click the link above for Tube amp info, Schematics, Board building information, Projects, Mods, Transformer diagrams, Photo's, Sound clips.
There are hundreds of pages of Tube amp information on my library page.

Please visit my Tube Amplifier Forum
Here's the place you can go to ask tube amplifier questions.
You will find a large community of friendly amp builders at the link above.

Check the huge library of Schematics here

Design your own custom Turret Board or Eyelet board

DIY Layout Creator file analyzer program

DIY Layout Creator file library

How to email me

MEMBER OF PROJECT HONEY POT
Spam Harvester Protection Network
provided by Unspam