You know you have it bad when...

Don Kondra

you start having lighting parts cast in metal :wink

Long story, short.

I bought a 18" x 18" softbox for one of my strobes, didn't read the description carefully enough, it's made for a smaller head, sigh...

It dawned on me I could use the plastic flash bulb protective cover to mount the softbox speedring.

This is the head with the cover on...



I cut the end of the cover off and drilled holes for the speedring mounting bolts.

Worked like a charm, only problem is the smell from HOT plastic after a dozen shots :rolleyes

So I sent the cover out to be cast in aluminum, no more smell, he, he...

From the left, this is the original cover, the cover with the top cut off and drilled to fit the speedring bolts and the aluminum casting marked and ready to be drilled. I filed the mounting bolts to a blunt point and only drilled half way through the wall of the casting. This allows for a firm mounting without having the bolts protrude into the interior..



Speedring attached...



And the softbox attached minus the diffusers...



Cheers, Don

Don Kondra

To continue with the "making stuff work" theme

My first lighting purchase was a ebay Cowboy Studio (CS) kit, two 200 w/s heads, stands and 2' x 3' softboxes for ~ $270 US.

Next was 2 Alien Bees (AB) B1600 640 w/s.

The CS softboxs have a POS mounting bracket, very awkward to attach to the head and I hated using them so I turned a wood bracket to use the softboxes on the Alien Bees heads..

From the left, CS ring, wood bracket and original CS mounting bracket.



Blank mounted on the lathe...



Test fit on the AB head...



And ready to reassemble the softbox...



Softbox assembled minus diffusers and showing original CS mounting bracket..



Cheers, Don

ian408

Pretty good idea!