My Diamond light upgrade project

[elvicash]

I have a large Diamond light that I bought out of an auction when Chalkies closed here in Indy. I have had this for a while and it has been a great light. Magnetic ballasts 2 fixtures each having two 8' T12 bulbs. This light is basically a Cadillac nice trimwork and four grids. I had a bulb go out and I thought I would upgrade it with some leftover lights from when I closed down my shop.

Here is what I did along with a few picts. First I dropped the light and removed the old lights. Added 3 stringer boards and sheet of 1/2 inch plywood. I added 4 fixture with electronic ballasts each with reflectors and 6 T8 bulbs 48" long. I ran wires 2 a small box and reused the original power cords. I now have 96' of T8 bulbs. This is a massive upgrade from 32' of T12 bulbs. The new light is probably twice as heavy and at least 4 times as bright and the outside portion of the table near the rails is very consistent. Good project now back to working on my game.

 

[Tony_in_MD]

Nice upgrade. Are you going to attach it to the ceiling now with threaded rods now also?

 

[Chi2dxa]

Sweeeeeet!!!

My biggest concern with what you did is the weight. I am all for seeing better but man the weight would pray on my mind. What do think it weighs in at?

 

[elvicash]

I took a couple more pictures of my light. I am not sure about the weight but I believe it is less that 100 lb and more than 50 lbs. It is noticeably heavier than it was before the project. I expect I added less than 30 lb to the original light.

I use the same mounts I had before which is a 2 poplar boards screwed into the wood I-beams in the ceiling. These boards are firmly screwed in with 6 wood screws, each has 2 large eye-bolts threaded into the poplar board. Then there are 4 chains each with 2 S hooks. I have had a lot of stuff stored on the light so I do not expect the weight to be a problem. It was a pain to hang it back up but no problem other than the weight felt bulky due to the width and length of the light. My brother and I each held up one end of the light while the S hooks were attached to the low end of the chain.

This was a bit of work to accomplish as the box was just barely large enough to contain the 4 light fixtures. Was it worth the effort - for sure this light is the absolute bomb. Having the equally spaced bulbs and each bulb being backed up with a highly reflective surface makes for a much more efficient and and even light. I think it was well worth the effort, I have no way to measure the improvement but I guarantee it that this light is a factor or more better than it was with just the 4 long bulbs. I will get Williebetmore over or perhaps Mark Wilson for a lesson and see what sort of feedback I get from them. I have not seen a light as consistent as this across the playing surface short of the TV lights at the Derby.

 

[elvicash]

Sorry Redundant post

 

[MoonshineMattK]

You're going to need sunscreen

We have two lights like that in the shop and they are BRIGHT!

Looks nice

 

[elvicash]

You're going to need sunscreen

We have two lights like that in the shop and they are BRIGHT!

Looks nice

I turned it on upside down without the grids after wiring them all together. It was so bright it was almost deadly it was bright halfway up stairs and I thought what have I done and the same thing when I hung it up and had only 2 grids in it bled light everywhere. However when I put in the last two grids it really moved all of the light to playing surface. Now I just have a really well lit pool table. I will have others to give it a try and will post the feedback I get on the light. Currently I like it and I am making a ton of balls. I need to play some 14.1 and see if my runs go up a little. Back to the table I will let you know.

 

[MitchAlsup]

Interesting, My diamond light was delivered a couple weeks ago. I got it wired up and installed, as shown in the following:

 

[Chi2dxa]

The finsihed product picture looks really, really nice!!!!
I am really interested in the light fixture that you used, do you have a close up picture of one? Where did you buy the fixture?

 

[Williebetmore]

All I can say is...WOW!!!!

It is a tremendous pleasure to play on good equipment; and yours is going to be WAY better than the average tournament conditions. Can't wait to play there!!!!!

 

[Bigtruck]

You also want to make sure your bulbs are 5000-5500 Kelvin. This is the neutral range for the color spectrum and will depict the true colors of the balls and cloth.

Good stuff. Great job!!! :thumbup:

Ray

 

[macguy]

I have a large Diamond light that I bought out of an auction when Chalkies closed here in Indy. I have had this for a while and it has been a great light. Magnetic ballasts 2 fixtures each having two 8' T12 bulbs. This light is basically a Cadillac nice trimwork and four grids. I had a bulb go out and I thought I would upgrade it with some leftover lights from when I closed down my shop.

Here is what I did along with a few picts. First I dropped the light and removed the old lights. Added 3 stringer boards and sheet of 1/2 inch plywood. I added 4 fixture with electronic ballasts each with reflectors and 6 T8 bulbs 48" long. I ran wires 2 a small box and reused the original power cords. I now have 96' of T8 bulbs. This is a massive upgrade from 32' of T12 bulbs. The new light is probably twice as heavy and at least 4 times as bright and the outside portion of the table near the rails is very consistent. Good project now back to working on my game.

Cool project but isn't that kind of a lot of light?

 

[macguy]

Interesting, My diamond light was delivered a couple weeks ago. I got it wired up and installed, as shown in the following:

delete----------

 

[elvicash]

The finsihed product picture looks really, really nice!!!!
I am really interested in the light fixture that you used, do you have a close up picture of one? Where did you buy the fixture?

I bought them at a local light store. Here is a link to something similiar online. These are less than what I paid but I bet they are similiar in quality. I did not buy these lights to rebuild my pool light, I had them leftover over after shutting down a shop I had in a high bay space.


http://www.warehouse-lighting.com/h...cent-light-120-volt--mirrored-reflector-.aspx Price is $132 retail price is $200.

All I can say is...WOW!!!!

It is a tremendous pleasure to play on good equipment; and yours is going to be WAY better than the average tournament conditions. Can't wait to play there!!!!!

WBM I think you will really like this light. I thought it would be to bright from initial testing but when finally installed and grids were put in it was just really really nice. I can see everything quite a bit better. I want to play you some 14.1 soon but I am going out of town this week. If you want to play you are welcome to use the equipment while i am gone. Let me know call or text.

You also want to make sure your bulbs are 5000-5500 Kelvin. This is the neutral range for the color spectrum and will depict the true colors of the balls and cloth.

Good stuff. Great job!!! :thumbup:

Ray

I agree totally bigtruck my bulbs are all 4100k which is OK as they are what I had in stock but I will probably freshen them up with new 5500 k this fall. This has 24 4' T8 bulbs in the Diamond light. My plans are that I will be shooting some high speed footage so the results of that will potentially hasten my bulb upgrade. I did this upgrade using recycled lights/bulbs and wire, I bought the wood and wireniuts and wiring box to do this along with a couple of tools.