Does anyone have a method for making inexpensive street lights. I would like to use some LED’s I purchased, but I need a scratchbuilt solution.
No one has any ideas on scratch built street lights?
I’m not sure how inexpensive they are but - - -
What I did was buy one LGB #5050 street light and took it apart.
Then I made silicone rubber molds of the base and a mold of the cap and one of the globe.
Next, I bought brass tubing for the pole. I now have ten street lights that i lit with LEd’S
LGB 5050’s sell for about $15.00 each on evilbay so I guess what I made is inexpensive.
It cost me $20. for the silicone rubber and $20. for the clear casting resin and $5 for the brass tubing.
and $7.00 for spray paint.
add in your labor cost It still doesn’t get to $150.00
Bill
@Bill Z. Copying a copyrighted item, even a portion of it, and making molds for your own private use is illegal, and a violation of the copyright laws.
You should not encourage others to do illegal things, even if you think that it is OK to do so.
How about 3D printing the fixtures? At one point you could get one of those small Makerbot printers from HD for about 400 bucks and the plastic resin roles were about 50 each in a variety of colors. You can get quite a bit out of each roll. Initial investment is a bit steep, but as mentioned if you come up with your own design, you could sell them on the side. Once you get the CAD drawing down, you just press a button and let the machine crank them out by the hundreds.
My company bought one for us to play with and its pretty cool. There are lots of pre-made projects you can download from the web, or use a freeware CAD tool and design your own parts.
Or if you are thinking like a simple gooseneck style street light or freestanding pole ones, maybe some small diameter (1/4 in) ridged PVC from the plumbing department, a torch to heat and bend and a can of spray-paint and you would be good to go 
Dave T
Thanks for the heads up - I didn’t know that.
I thought it was OK to make them for my own use.
Bill
Ron Hill said:
Does anyone have a method for making inexpensive street lights. I would like to use some LED’s I purchased, but I need a scratchbuilt solution.
Rubber suction cups available in craft stores make good shades for street lights. They are available in a couple of different diameters. Drill holes through their centers and attach to a piece of formed brass or aluminum tubing. Insert tubing into a slightly larger (telescope in) tubing for the base. Paint entire assembly the desired color (green looks good) with white or silver on the shade’s inside to reflect the light. Insert bulb and wire through the tubing from the shade side. You may have to knot the wire so the bulb won’t pull through.
Interesting…
While I agree with the statements below, I do not think that there is a copyright on the LGB lamp poles. This is more of the area of a patent, the decorative type.
Greg
Dave Taylor said:
@Bill Z. Copying a copyrighted item, even a portion of it, and making molds for your own private use is illegal, and a violation of the copyright laws.
You should not encourage others to do illegal things, even if you think that it is OK to do so.
Beer bottle caps make good lamp shades also.
Ben H.
3D offers some possibilties, especially for the lamp fixture (not the pole, which could be a simple brass or plastic tube). Look of “streetlight” on Thingiverse.com or Tinkercad.com for ideas. I found this one on Tinkercad.com, and put a glass globe on it, in place of the older looking one. It’s got a hole to put wires in all the way from the top to the bottom.
I designed and printed signal heads, here’s one.
Ron,
This isn’t a scratchbuilt solution, but it does fit in with “inexpensive.” At least in a relative sense. I found these this morning at Lowe’s in the Christmas ornaments section. The set of six street lights was $9.95. I’m sure they will be cheaper after the holidays, if any are left. Requires 2 AA batteries. The little Christmas wreath on each pole can be easily removed. Each street light is 4.125" tall. This works out to about 7 feet in 1:20.3 and 10 feet in 1:29.
Bob
Thanks for the pic of the street lights at Lowes
Online found http://www.lowes.com/pd_672920-30810-88B0166J___?Ntt=672920&UserSearch=672920&productId=999916783
AND available in my preferred store!
Oh gee, I guess I need to go to Lowe’s again. That place is dangerous. I go in there to buy 2 or 3 items, and I leave with 2 or 3 bags of items.
They are a little short. Most lamp posts around here are at least 10+ feet tall.
Dick, some plastic or brass tubing could fix that.
We been making all of our lamps and thinking round 60 or so out on the layout on a few Transformer.
Here are two of the some of the ones we make.
Just a cheap industrial pole lamp ( But missing the washer on the base on this one.) Some have two lamp on one pole. Bu using Xmas Flat head Warm whites, 1/4 inch copper tubing and washers.
We run most of lights off of Mabu Yard Transformer. They put out around 12V. D/C. Our LED’s lights called for a 470 Resis. but we been using 620 or 680 Ohm Resis. so not so bright.
Building Light by use Xmas flat head LED’s and washers.
Another note is you can put cap on the LED’s and make old time pole lights with wires down four sides. Paint them Black and look similar to the one like Lowes has showing.
Just checked out on one area and I forgot we used some Cool Whites LED’s. Makes them look like the old Mercury lights.
There very easy to change styles so not sure what you are looking for.
Really nice, Noel! You need LOTS of lights, I see. I’ve made a few signal heads from plastic, like this one. Maybe they can be modified slightly to look like light shades.
Looks good… Try to get the Bullet type Xmas Light that are really bright … Mine can be seen in Sun light for a long long way. I justed used finder washers with shink tubing for the shade cut like yours.
Richard…Can you make the heads with the 3 -D printer that you been working with and add a small make up box for the LED wires out the back?
These signal heads have a square hole in them because I’ve got a bunch of LEDs with a square plastic piece surrounding the LED. The power leads make a 90º turn in the plastic and then go out the bottom. I’ve made a cover to go over the back of the LED into which you plug a plastic or metal tube.
Do you have a sketch or photo of what you want? I can probably figure out what you want.
Thanks for the ideas.