Softbox materials needed

M

MagicCat

Well-known member
Hello all

I have several older softboxes, (about 5 lowel) and some others I wish to re-condition. I am seeking help in finding materials. The cloth I can sew myself. The heat resistant paints and coatings are another story. For instance, the lowel softbox lights have a highly reflective silver coating painted/fused on the inside of the cloth shell. What is this coating? I dont know where to find such a coating to coat/re-coat all of them with. I can certainly re-order new shells direct from Lowel. However, with this many to do, It would cost a small fortune. I also wish to modify some of the these fixtures, for other lighting applications not worth going into here.

Some of the boxes that I have are not in that bad of shape. These could perceivably be reconditioned if I knew what to coat them with. Some need to be thrown away before they catch fire during a shoot.

Has anyone had experience with DIY softbox cloth or reflective coatings here?

I know that most manufacturers use common, multi purpose materials to make such Items. Very very few use propriatary materials and when they do, thats what you pay for. ( and by all rights, you should if it is that good!) I can only assume these materials/paints/coatings should be available to the consumer or confident DIY persons somewhere out there. I want to find them. Can anyone help here?

MagicCat
David Walker
Media Magic Productions

mail@mediamagicproductions.com
 
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Well, I assume that the silver lining of the soft-boxes is some sort of mylar bonded cloth, where a layer of mylar is laminated onto the nylon, or whatever the material happens to be. Not sure about sources for this. If I were looking for my own cloth, I would try and go with Kevlar or Nomex fabrics, as they can withstand high temps and do not support a flame. These might be costly, and I would have no idea where to look- a google search could probably produce some results. As for the paint, hight-temparature paint made for painting barbecues should work well- it's made to hold up with high heat, and usually comes in matte-black. This stuff also works great for repainting barndoors and lamp housings. Hope this helps!
 
Softbox materials

Softbox materials

Hello again

I appreciate all the input. Fortunately, I do not need to make anything from scratch. Just replace the cloth shells or re-coat them myself. I believe the model number on these is the Lowel Softlight2, by Lowel lighting.

Lowel makes replacement shells for these for around 80 bucks. with five to do, I was hoping to re-finish them myself to keep it affordable. I know they go for around 2 or 300 each on ebay in good shape. So they are definetly worth fixing up no matter how I do it.

The comment on the Nomex is fairly close. They are most certainly a Fabric, not a nylon or plastic feeling material, it kinda feels like heavy canvas. Similar to what a geniune Chimera box is made out of.

I will continue my quest here. Hopefully, someone on the forum has used these before and knows the answers to my quandry. They are very common lights. I think Lowel replaced them with the RifaLight a few years back.

David
 
If you find a source for these fabrics let us know. I've been searching for the heat resistant mylar for quite some time. Don't bother with paint of any kind. It would flake off any flexible material such as this very quickly. On the other hand, you may be able to pick up softboxes on ebay pretty inexpensively--so much so that it may not make sense to bother trying to find the material.

http://cgi.ebay.com/24-x-36-Softbox-Universal-Speed-Ring-New_W0QQitemZ120104522183QQihZ002QQcategoryZ30082QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-24-x36-LARG...1QQihZ004QQcategoryZ79008QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
Hi Cool Lights

Yes, paint would flake very easily. As a matter of fact, whatever lowel used to coat the insides of these with, has flaked to the point of danger. Hence my quest. I once tried silver reflective roofing patch. The kind used for Trailer homes. It kind of worked but I was too embarraced to use it out in the field.

For what it is worth here, I do have some of the Wescott Apollo Softboxes that were really made for photography lighting, not hot lights. They do handle up to 500 watts without a problem. I have used them for several years. They are really inexpensive and pop up like an umbrella. The Lowel Tota LIght or a bunch of Daylight Flouros can be mounted easily inside. You have to use a little creativity in finding a way to mount the whole rig on a C-Stand but they work and I can testify they take the heat quite well. DO NOT GO BEYOND 500 WATTS. They do get hot as is, I would not press my luck.

David
 
With the heat issue.. another great case for CFL-powered softboxes. Cool Lights (posted above) has great threads on this, and even though he runs an instructional business on making these, has been incredibly sharing with us on the forum.

Thanks, Cool Lights!

J
 
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