Wills.WindowsAndWheels
New member
- Oct 31, 2009
- 1,682
- 0
Whats up everyone. Im kind of excited about this so i had to post about it.
I read a write up a few weeks back on detailingworld about a home made sun gun. Basically you take a cordless 3/8" 14.4 volt cordless drill...pop it open, remove the chuck/gears/motor...implant an extremely bright light, like the one found on the sun gun. Wire it up...close it back up and bingo, sun gun.
Well it looked so easy, and effective...i went on the hunt to find the right bulb and bulb holder...as well as a cheap drill. Well...i got the bulb, about $11 shipped, and the bulb holder/wiring harness for $3 shipped. Then found someone with a stockpile of used drills. I ended up getting 6 batteries, two drills and and a couple of chargers for the price of shipping. The motors were shot and these were all in his "I can't get rid of these" box lol...but the batteries hold a charge and the trigger worked on them so they were perfect for what i needed....
except one hitch in this, they were 1/2" chuck drills...bigger opening, which meant the bulb wouldn't fit as well. But for $16 for all those drills/batteries, i had to try it...so here's how it went
This is what i started with after my package finally arrived. I had the bulb and teh connector, and the drills finally made it here
Im the MAN
Wont be sort on power thats for sure!
And the bulb and holder:
First things first...gotta crack this baby open, let the surgery begin:
You'll need some Allen wrenches...well really just one, mine was 2.5 mm i believe for these guys. Just be careful if you end up with an old drill like i did...these screw rust...one was stripped cause it was so rusted....and to drill it straight through...but the other screws were enough to hold it tight when i reassembled it.
Here is what you see when you pop it open:
So basically, you have your trigger assembly...you'll want that to stay...the motor (silver piece) and the chuck and gears (two pieces infront of the silver piece)
All the stuff up top, from the motor moving forward have gotta go!
The gears and chuck just come right out, but the motor is wired in:
The red wire on this one was a bit frayed so i made sure to cut below it to get to all good wire. If you buy the bulb holder, you wont need much wire because the holder comes with about 4" or 5" of wire...if you're going to wire this directly to the bulb however you'll want to cut the wires as close to the motor as possible so you make sure you have enough wire.
I really suggest just getting the holder, its cheap and holds the bulb to make life easier when you're trying to position it in the drill. So now, time for snip snip.
Motor removed.
Now at this point...take note of two things on your drill...first...how the trigger set up sets into the casing. Secondly, the drive/reverse button that all drills have...is a separate piece...Obviously it lines up with the hole in the drill casing so that the button is sticking out the side so the user can push it, but it also has a very small tab that sets in the top of the trigger. This is something you want to make sure stays in place if you're going to keep the reverse/drive button still. It connects to a slot that swivels (you'll see it, sorry no picture up close of it). It isn't NEEDED if you keep your drill in 'drive' and then reassemble it....but id keep it there just incase something happens and your drill changes back to 'reverse'...then you have to take it all apart again because the trigger only turns the light on when its in "Drive".
Not a big thing, just a note is all.
So, since this thing originally was a drill with GEARS it of course had its fair share of grease in it (as im sure you see). So i removed the trigger assembly and did a little scrubbing with toothbrush, soap and wiped it with some shop towels.
Nice and clean now:
Plus i kinda figured, hot bulb...grease...not a good combo...don't know if it would ignite anything but my sis said this was going to be a fire hazard lmao...so i thought id take every precaution...plus i just like things clean.
Next, the bulb. It just has 2 prongs kinda like a fluorescent light...the pop into the holder...and then you strip the casing away from the wires coming from the trigger in the drill...put the black wire to one wire coming from the light...and the red wire coming from the other wire from the light...twist them and use some electrical tap to hold them together.
The other option is to just get one of those butt connectors i think they're called. You put one wire in one end and another wire in the other end and just squeeze them closed with pliers, but i couldn't find any..electrical tape works perfect though.
Thats our bulb :dblthumb2:
Now here is where i had to get creative. You see because i was messing with a 1/2 chuck drill...the hole was much too big for the bulb to set into it snugly. SO i had to make something that would hold it.
I tried a couple things at first, thought i had it when i cut some foam weather stripping...and made it into a circle to fit into the drill opening. Then i was just going to push the bulb into the stripping, which was nice and snug...rig something to hold it in place (hot glue a couple holders) and bam im done. Well..this bulb gets HOT, FAST. Especially the back part near the connection. Soooo, in short..it started smoking (fire hazard like my sis said hahaha) because it was melting the weather stripping.
Just wanted to throw that out there to show my situation wasn't a 1,2,3 you're done. But if you had a 3/8 inch drill, it shoulda been a 30 minute job as long as you dont get a messed up screw you have to drill out!
BUT, i had come this far...i was not about to give up! So i started looking around thinking, what would make a good holder? Something that will keep this thing sung in the opening of the drill, but wont melt.
And then i saw the perfect piece for t he job, it was with me all along. The switch on the top of the drill that changes the clutch in the drill from low gear to high gear. Wellll i surely didn't need it anymore! So, out came the tin snips and i cut it into about 3 smaller pieces. Hot glued them onto the opening of the drill (this took a few times...having to adjust where the pieces were and how the bulb set onto them, had to make sure it was tight enough to hold it but wouldn't hurt the bulb either).
If you look closely, there are two black pieces around the rim of the bulb...they actually had little groves, almost like they were made for what i was trying to do lol. So the lip of the bulb set right into them. It was still a bit loose when i put the other half of the casing on...so i hot glued another piece of to the other part of the casing (not shown in the pic above) to give it a little more snugness. Then put my screws back in to hold it in place.
You can see the third piece of plastic (black) at about 5 o'clock if you will...just to the right of the other piece of plastic shown in the previous picture. It held the bulb snug and the reason i didn't need one up to is because the drill case itself had little 'grooves' and the lip of the top of the bulb sat right into one of the grooves. It was snug...but not so tight it would hurt the bulb. This bulb was pretty tough too so that helped with letting me add a little extra tightness to it.
Now its time to test it out...this thing is BRIGHT.
Admittedly this one doesn't look as cool as the 3M one, but for $400+ bucks saved, i say its a good trade. The drill was kinda beat up, though i cleaned it as best i could...and it looks a little funny with the top clutch switch gone, but i guess that just helps keep the bulb cooler...thats what i say anyway!
In the above photo this is with ALL lights off and no flash. The beam was actually about 2x as wide as shown here but i wanted to get the light itself in the photo too.
Now, the real test..how well does it show swirls?!?
Well, you tell me
Again this was in a pitch black garage..it was the only light i was using...worked pretty good dont ya think? Plus if a helicopter is doing a search and rescue and its light goes out, it can borrow mine hahaha!
So, it took more work than i anticipated due to the 1/2" drill size, but with a little thinking outside the box, i got it to work. The nice part is the battery pack serves as a great stand when im not using the light..it has a good weight to it but not TOO heavy to where you'd wear yourself out from using it (note again its a 14.4 Volt NOT 18 or higher, that would be too much power and burn your bulb out prematurely).
All in all, cost me just shy of $30...and i have 5 back up batteries (way more than i need) and a drill set to make a SECOND one for Dani (my sis). I feel kinda silly just dropping $30 on a 150 lumen Craftsman flashlight and another $20 on rechargeable AAA batteries, but its still a very good flashlight and much more compact than this guy...great for tight spots or under a car. But for swirls...or for situations where i need BIG light...this is my new baby
I read a write up a few weeks back on detailingworld about a home made sun gun. Basically you take a cordless 3/8" 14.4 volt cordless drill...pop it open, remove the chuck/gears/motor...implant an extremely bright light, like the one found on the sun gun. Wire it up...close it back up and bingo, sun gun.
Well it looked so easy, and effective...i went on the hunt to find the right bulb and bulb holder...as well as a cheap drill. Well...i got the bulb, about $11 shipped, and the bulb holder/wiring harness for $3 shipped. Then found someone with a stockpile of used drills. I ended up getting 6 batteries, two drills and and a couple of chargers for the price of shipping. The motors were shot and these were all in his "I can't get rid of these" box lol...but the batteries hold a charge and the trigger worked on them so they were perfect for what i needed....
except one hitch in this, they were 1/2" chuck drills...bigger opening, which meant the bulb wouldn't fit as well. But for $16 for all those drills/batteries, i had to try it...so here's how it went
This is what i started with after my package finally arrived. I had the bulb and teh connector, and the drills finally made it here
Im the MAN
Wont be sort on power thats for sure!
And the bulb and holder:
First things first...gotta crack this baby open, let the surgery begin:
You'll need some Allen wrenches...well really just one, mine was 2.5 mm i believe for these guys. Just be careful if you end up with an old drill like i did...these screw rust...one was stripped cause it was so rusted....and to drill it straight through...but the other screws were enough to hold it tight when i reassembled it.
Here is what you see when you pop it open:
So basically, you have your trigger assembly...you'll want that to stay...the motor (silver piece) and the chuck and gears (two pieces infront of the silver piece)
All the stuff up top, from the motor moving forward have gotta go!
The gears and chuck just come right out, but the motor is wired in:
The red wire on this one was a bit frayed so i made sure to cut below it to get to all good wire. If you buy the bulb holder, you wont need much wire because the holder comes with about 4" or 5" of wire...if you're going to wire this directly to the bulb however you'll want to cut the wires as close to the motor as possible so you make sure you have enough wire.
I really suggest just getting the holder, its cheap and holds the bulb to make life easier when you're trying to position it in the drill. So now, time for snip snip.
Motor removed.
Now at this point...take note of two things on your drill...first...how the trigger set up sets into the casing. Secondly, the drive/reverse button that all drills have...is a separate piece...Obviously it lines up with the hole in the drill casing so that the button is sticking out the side so the user can push it, but it also has a very small tab that sets in the top of the trigger. This is something you want to make sure stays in place if you're going to keep the reverse/drive button still. It connects to a slot that swivels (you'll see it, sorry no picture up close of it). It isn't NEEDED if you keep your drill in 'drive' and then reassemble it....but id keep it there just incase something happens and your drill changes back to 'reverse'...then you have to take it all apart again because the trigger only turns the light on when its in "Drive".
Not a big thing, just a note is all.
So, since this thing originally was a drill with GEARS it of course had its fair share of grease in it (as im sure you see). So i removed the trigger assembly and did a little scrubbing with toothbrush, soap and wiped it with some shop towels.
Nice and clean now:
Plus i kinda figured, hot bulb...grease...not a good combo...don't know if it would ignite anything but my sis said this was going to be a fire hazard lmao...so i thought id take every precaution...plus i just like things clean.
Next, the bulb. It just has 2 prongs kinda like a fluorescent light...the pop into the holder...and then you strip the casing away from the wires coming from the trigger in the drill...put the black wire to one wire coming from the light...and the red wire coming from the other wire from the light...twist them and use some electrical tap to hold them together.
The other option is to just get one of those butt connectors i think they're called. You put one wire in one end and another wire in the other end and just squeeze them closed with pliers, but i couldn't find any..electrical tape works perfect though.
Thats our bulb :dblthumb2:
Now here is where i had to get creative. You see because i was messing with a 1/2 chuck drill...the hole was much too big for the bulb to set into it snugly. SO i had to make something that would hold it.
I tried a couple things at first, thought i had it when i cut some foam weather stripping...and made it into a circle to fit into the drill opening. Then i was just going to push the bulb into the stripping, which was nice and snug...rig something to hold it in place (hot glue a couple holders) and bam im done. Well..this bulb gets HOT, FAST. Especially the back part near the connection. Soooo, in short..it started smoking (fire hazard like my sis said hahaha) because it was melting the weather stripping.
Just wanted to throw that out there to show my situation wasn't a 1,2,3 you're done. But if you had a 3/8 inch drill, it shoulda been a 30 minute job as long as you dont get a messed up screw you have to drill out!
BUT, i had come this far...i was not about to give up! So i started looking around thinking, what would make a good holder? Something that will keep this thing sung in the opening of the drill, but wont melt.
And then i saw the perfect piece for t he job, it was with me all along. The switch on the top of the drill that changes the clutch in the drill from low gear to high gear. Wellll i surely didn't need it anymore! So, out came the tin snips and i cut it into about 3 smaller pieces. Hot glued them onto the opening of the drill (this took a few times...having to adjust where the pieces were and how the bulb set onto them, had to make sure it was tight enough to hold it but wouldn't hurt the bulb either).
If you look closely, there are two black pieces around the rim of the bulb...they actually had little groves, almost like they were made for what i was trying to do lol. So the lip of the bulb set right into them. It was still a bit loose when i put the other half of the casing on...so i hot glued another piece of to the other part of the casing (not shown in the pic above) to give it a little more snugness. Then put my screws back in to hold it in place.
You can see the third piece of plastic (black) at about 5 o'clock if you will...just to the right of the other piece of plastic shown in the previous picture. It held the bulb snug and the reason i didn't need one up to is because the drill case itself had little 'grooves' and the lip of the top of the bulb sat right into one of the grooves. It was snug...but not so tight it would hurt the bulb. This bulb was pretty tough too so that helped with letting me add a little extra tightness to it.
Now its time to test it out...this thing is BRIGHT.
Admittedly this one doesn't look as cool as the 3M one, but for $400+ bucks saved, i say its a good trade. The drill was kinda beat up, though i cleaned it as best i could...and it looks a little funny with the top clutch switch gone, but i guess that just helps keep the bulb cooler...thats what i say anyway!
In the above photo this is with ALL lights off and no flash. The beam was actually about 2x as wide as shown here but i wanted to get the light itself in the photo too.
Now, the real test..how well does it show swirls?!?
Well, you tell me
Again this was in a pitch black garage..it was the only light i was using...worked pretty good dont ya think? Plus if a helicopter is doing a search and rescue and its light goes out, it can borrow mine hahaha!
So, it took more work than i anticipated due to the 1/2" drill size, but with a little thinking outside the box, i got it to work. The nice part is the battery pack serves as a great stand when im not using the light..it has a good weight to it but not TOO heavy to where you'd wear yourself out from using it (note again its a 14.4 Volt NOT 18 or higher, that would be too much power and burn your bulb out prematurely).
All in all, cost me just shy of $30...and i have 5 back up batteries (way more than i need) and a drill set to make a SECOND one for Dani (my sis). I feel kinda silly just dropping $30 on a 150 lumen Craftsman flashlight and another $20 on rechargeable AAA batteries, but its still a very good flashlight and much more compact than this guy...great for tight spots or under a car. But for swirls...or for situations where i need BIG light...this is my new baby
