I've gotten completely sick and tired of the salt spray all over my T5s and reflectors... What a wonderful idea - no glass shield to soak up light and get all coated with salt and dust... Except now it's on the lights which are that much harder to clean... Idiot.
So I'm going to build a full enclosure for my lights which I'll sit inside my canopy. My plan is to build a sealed (mostly) box and have my lamps and parabolic reflectors mounted sturdily, with a layer of glass or acrylic on the bottom to keep the salt out (a sheet like they have on the Coralife PC hoods).
I'm just a little torn on what the build it out of. I'd like something cheap (it's just a housing, after all) and easy to work with. I was thinking acrylic, but even a piece that's 36X12 has some heft to it. I was also thinking using veneer and then fiberglassing it (just the resin, not the actual glass cloth).
The bottom I'm definitely looking to use acrylic for.. What's a practical minimum thickness of acrylic to use before it becomes dangerously thin? I've seen it available as small as 0.005" but I'd be terrified of even bending that.
So I'm going to build a full enclosure for my lights which I'll sit inside my canopy. My plan is to build a sealed (mostly) box and have my lamps and parabolic reflectors mounted sturdily, with a layer of glass or acrylic on the bottom to keep the salt out (a sheet like they have on the Coralife PC hoods).
I'm just a little torn on what the build it out of. I'd like something cheap (it's just a housing, after all) and easy to work with. I was thinking acrylic, but even a piece that's 36X12 has some heft to it. I was also thinking using veneer and then fiberglassing it (just the resin, not the actual glass cloth).
The bottom I'm definitely looking to use acrylic for.. What's a practical minimum thickness of acrylic to use before it becomes dangerously thin? I've seen it available as small as 0.005" but I'd be terrified of even bending that.
