How To's

Potting a Light
This was my a attempt at Potting a Light, in theory I thought it would be an easy way to make a light that I would never have to worry about leaking. It didn't really work out and I wasn't even going to post it but figured it might be worth a shot to try again. If not me maybe someone else would try it.
This is what a started with, a Sealed Bulb, a piece of Wire, a Plastic Cup, and EnviroTex Lite Epoxy.
The Plastic Cup is actually from a plastic Easter egg candy, you could use anything that will hold the bulb and epoxy. I started by drilling two holes for the Wire.
Next I fed the Wires through the holes.
After that I soldered the Wires directly to the bulb. (Sometimes there's a coating on the post that has to be sanded off before solder will stick to them)
Then I just pulled the wires back until the bulb was in the position I wanted.
To keep the bulb in the right position before I poured the EnviroTex Epoxy in I put a small amount of 5 minute epoxy in the bottom and held the bulb in the center with toothpicks until that dried.
Next I mixed up the EnviroTex Epoxy per the instructions and filled in the Plastic Cup until the entire bulb was covered. I also removed any bulbs I could (per the instructions) and left it to dry overnight.
The next day I noticed things didn't go so well. First there were a lot of little bubbles the next morning which I could live with, but an even bigger problem, epoxy somehow leaked into my supposed sealed bulb. (The arrow points to where it ran down inside the bulb.)
I figured as long as everything was hard it would still be ok. I left the bulb in the kitchen sink for what must have been 2 hours and everything seemed to be good.
After a closer inspection the epoxy inside the bulb actually liquefied and turned brown and ran all over the place. Maybe it was a bad bulb, maybe they really aren't that sealed after all. I will probably try this again but it won't be for awhile, so maybe this is more of a "what Not to do" than a "How To."

Next Time I will probably just seal the light to a piece of Plexiglas first like on the Camera Potting Tutorial
If you have any other questions I didn't cover feel free to E-mail me.
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