DIY Chimera Pancake Lantern

O

OldCorpse

Rockin the Boat
OK, I really would like a pancake lantern, but I have so many expenses, and I'd rather not pay almost $400. Am I absolutely insane to think I should be able to make one for about $100 or so? What am I not thinking of?

Now, if it's not completely insane, how do I procede? I suppose I could just wing it, but are there any plans out there, or is there a site that covers DIY lights? TIA!
 
What are you looking for from the pancake lantern? A china ball with the top painted black is similar. They are very inexpensive.

Do you want the skirt?
 
Yes, I want the skirt. The reason I'm looking for the pancake rather than the ball, is because it's more versatile as far as height goes - say, I want it over a table and the ceiling is low/ish I'd rather have something flatter; I was kinda thinking like a softbox hanging, but flatter.
 
If you are handy I wouldn't think that it would be that hard to put together a DIY approach. A variation of the old style "Chicken Coop" could be put together pretty inexpensively I would think.

On Shane Hurlbut's blog he has a DIY guide for a "Cocktail Tray" light, using a round serving tray and a rope light that I think would be very cool as a top light in some instances.

http://www.hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/2011/11/building-the-perfect-key-light/

I have been thinking of putting together something like that together. I have a 30 foot section of rope light, but they are kind of expensive so I think I would use a lot of small Christmas lights, in incandescent and day light balanced LED versions, instead of the rope light. I figure all it would take is a piece of plywood cut into a circle, a staple gun to mount the light strings, clip mounts for a diffusion drape and skirts and a baby pin for mounting the whole thing. I think that would make a pretty interesting and handy light.
 
Making the lantern part seems to be the difficult portion of this. Does it have to collapse? If not you could make something as simple as a covered wagon. It's just 1x3 with Edison sockets screwed onto it, then you put chicken wire over the front with muslin or your diffusion of choice stretched right over it. Then you can put a baby plate on the back, put some 211's in there and you'd be good to go.

Either way, I used a chimera skirt the other day and they had a really great addition to your standard skirt. Run lengths of hard side Velcro down one side and soft side Velcro down the other, this way you can roll your skirt up to any length without having to clip it.
 
Thanks for the answers so far, guys.

@David G. Smith, instead of the Grote light rope, what about something along these lines: LiteRibbon... a bit expensive for me, but you may consider.

@Ryan and hscully, yeah, these are interesting, though I wouldn't mind if this was collapsible for the simple reason that I use an ordinary sedan - and a small one at that (Hyundai Elantra 2004) - so once I pack it with gear, space is at a premium... not to mention storing all that stuff eats up space like crazy. Whenever I can, I always try to go for collapsible stuff. I realize that making it collapsible complicates things by a factor of three or so.
 
You can probably do what I suggested, but then sew a muslin diffusion skirt that velcros onto the 1x3. It would basically be like a 20" lantern without the poles, so you would have to use it in a hanging configuration. A little limiting, but it's simple and would work. If you also built a little lip on the 1x3 it would lay flat as well.

Lite ribbon is also super top notch stuff. If I built any led light that's what I would use as my light source.

Since you're in LA you can also just go to the rag place and ask them to sew something custom for you. They're great, very friendly, and will do custom stuff for good prices.
 
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