Homemade Pool Table Lights

schitzngigglz

schitzngigglz

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
It looks like it would be easy enough to do. I am just looking for ideas. I am thinking an 8' flourescent fixture with a wooden frame around it.

What have you guys done? Show me your homemade lights!

Thanks!
Rick
 
my light

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=1606825#post1606825

Thats the thread that shows the light i made for my table. It was made for an 8' table, so i used 2x 36" double flourescent fixtures housed in a 7' enclosure. I wanted a cross brace in there to hold up the eggcrate diffuser so i had to go with the smaller bulbs. It was alot easier than i thought it would be, cost mabye around $125 to put it all together. The exterior matches the finish on the table, and the inside of the light has 3 coats of super white kitchen and bath paint.

It still needs the holes to be filled in with blue plexiglass lenses to match the LED rail sights, but as is i'm really happy with it.

~Will.
 
I don't have them any longer but there are some very solid plans floating around here that a friend of mine used to build his light. If you can get your hands on those plans you'll be satisfied.
 
Bishop said:
I don't have them any longer but there are some very solid plans floating around here that a friend of mine used to build his light. If you can get your hands on those plans you'll be satisfied.
Click to expand...


Plans would be great. Can you tell me something to search for to find them?

Rick
 
schitzngigglz said:
It looks like it would be easy enough to do. I am just looking for ideas. I am thinking an 8' flourescent fixture with a wooden frame around it.

What have you guys done? Show me your homemade lights!

Thanks!
Rick
Click to expand...

Rick,

This is easy and I think it looks good. You can finish it more if you want, but it's not necessary. Buy two lights like this

http://www.re-mailhosting.com/images/light.jpg

and mount them end to end over your table, so that you have an 8-foot long fixture about 18" wide. They are relatively inexpensive and they come in different colors and styles. This wood grain finish is what I used. I found some on sale and I think I paid about $135 for lights and chains.

I used four chains, two on each light, and connected them to three points in the ceiling with the two chains in the middle attached to the same hook and secured together near the fixture. This pulls the fixtures together tightly. Here's what I ended up with

http://www.re-mailhosting.com/images/tablelight4.jpg

Each of the fixtures has four 4' tubes, so you end up with eight tubes giving out enough light for any table size, from a 7' bar table up to at least a 9' table and probably a 10' snooker table.

I used mine on a 7', 8', and 9' table in the same location, and it worked great on all of them. You can replace the stock diffuser to a flat or an egg crate type to make the light shine more straight down, but I never found the need to.
 
schitzngigglz said:
Plans would be great. Can you tell me something to search for to find them?

Rick
Click to expand...
Its been over two years since I've seen those plans but they came from a member here on the forum and they were solid plans. For the life of me I can't remember the members name who was nice enough to email me the plans. Hopefully someone chims in.
 
Just a humble reference here...

One thing I see, that some folks do wrong in building a light, is to forget the Pool Table is a rectangle. Long fluorescent lights do well in lighting up the center of the Pool table, but can possibly be dimmer at the long rails. Just a pet peeve.

A long lite with Round Pendant Lights disburse the light radially along the center of the table.

My new Lights will be outstanding...
 

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I prefer(2) 3 tube T8 cool white fluorescent lights
install the lights in tandem
mount in a rectangular wood frame box of your finish chose
I think 1X 1 white egg crate light lenses are a good Idea
hang with aircraft style 1/8" steel cable located in 4 corners
about 30"(home) to 48'(poolroom) to bottom of light

good idea I saw was to install a rack holder on frame of light box locate at foot of table !
this can be made of a wood triangle or metal hook depending on finish
 
I made the one in my avatar myself. Made of poplar. 4 X 8 ft, with 8 4-ft flourescents.
 
I looked on the brunswick site and they recommend 8 T8 daylight quality flourescent lights. The one on their site costs about $1,900. I bought two sets of T8 lamp holders and tubes from Home Depot. They were fastened together with sheet metal screws and then attached to two 2 X4s nailed together and hung from the ceiling (see photo below). Later I used 1/4" oak paneling to enclose the 2 X 4s and got the same results as Brunswick recommends for $100.00. Be sure to get the right Ballast for the tubes. I think they are 45 watt.

CB3.jpg
[/IMG]

The other lights shown in this photo are from a different project. Jay Helfert suggested putting duct tape on the outside of the lamps holders to stop the glare (its a guy thing) and they are suspended about 32" above the table. It may not look like that because I have a low ceiling in this room.

These are cheap, easy to make, and the equivelent of the recommended lights.
 
ceebee said:
Just a humble reference here...

One thing I see, that some folks do wrong in building a light, is to forget the Pool Table is a rectangle. Long fluorescent lights do well in lighting up the center of the Pool table, but can possibly be dimmer at the long rails. Just a pet peeve.
Click to expand...

You might think so, but in practice I found it's not true. The diffuser takes care of that. Just start low and raise the lights. Stop when the table is lighted evenly to the edges The other benefit is that you have to really work at it to bang your head. Much more likely to do so with a light box that's the same size as the table.

Ron
 
Mine houses 6 8ft bulbs with electronic ballasts.. Dina no hum :D (it's a Zappa thing)
 
I'm also Looking to put new lighting up . I got this just for now and i really liked them at first but noticed after that here are alot of shadows on the bed of the table and doesn't really throw light on the table in alot of spots .
GEDC0080.jpg

GEDC0079.jpg
 
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Does anyone know where to find these plans?

Rick

Bishop said:
Its been over two years since I've seen those plans but they came from a member here on the forum and they were solid plans. For the life of me I can't remember the members name who was nice enough to email me the plans. Hopefully someone chims in.
Click to expand...
 
JoeW said:
I looked on the brunswick site and they recommend 8 T8 daylight quality flourescent lights. The one on their site costs about $1,900. I bought two sets of T8 lamp holders and tubes from Home Depot. They were fastened together with sheet metal screws and then attached to two 2 X4s nailed together and hung from the ceiling (see photo below). Later I used 1/4" oak paneling to enclose the 2 X 4s and got the same results as Brunswick recommends for $100.00. Be sure to get the right Ballast for the tubes. I think they are 45 watt.

CB3.jpg
[/IMG]

The other lights shown in this photo are from a different project. Jay Helfert suggested putting duct tape on the outside of the lamps holders to stop the glare (its a guy thing) and they are suspended about 32" above the table. It may not look like that because I have a low ceiling in this room.

These are cheap, easy to make, and the equivelent of the recommended lights.
Click to expand...

Ain't nothing wrong with this. If you are on a budget, go to Home Depot. One of their long low profile fixtures that holds two (or four!) florescent tubes will do just fine. If you can find the slimline tubes, even better.

Either two 8' tubes or four 4' tubes will light any pool table quite adequately. If you can find a fixture that holds four 8' tubes, it's the nuts.

Much better than any set up with three or four hanging bulb type fixtures.
 
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