Sounds like we are in the same boat. My brain melted around post 300
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You’re halfway through I’m still only at post 107 taking a break but gonna try and read it all tonight.
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Flat angle aluminum would be better for a frame than an old road sign at least for a 2x4 my small light work well with an old sign, but the angle bar makes it a heck of alot lighter, and you can pick that stuff up at cndtire typically.
@fishdude I missed it but are you also looking for a 2x4 setup if so go the same as Rob, those Seoul strips are pricer for what you get vs the bridgelux but I just mentioned them cause the no stock of them at the time, otherwise you get the EB2’s or EB3’s regulars from other sources if you need packs of 20
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Angle aluminum was cheap, and is easily cut to length. My 2x4 bridgelux light weighs absolutely nothing. And you get airflow through the top, and around the lights.
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with the potentiometer, yes you can dim them to no light at all.
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A word of caution in regards to pricing.
If you can get the item at a box store - the pricing is usually better at the box store…
Cheers
G
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Something weird happened with my browser that made me think future electronics was a lot cheaper. Pretty much the same price, and it looks like the driver is backordered at future electronics
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I’m totally sold on this project. Time to start saving up my pennies
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WELP - I am having one hell of a time wiring these strips out, No matter what I do the boards are shorting through my aluminum frame. I thought that having the PCB boards directly up against the metal was causing it so I placed a 4.5mm strip of plastic in between the boards and created a standoff of sorts and remounted and rewired the strips. They still short now seemingly through my hardware?!?!? WTF? I have seen nearly every strip build use metal fasteners and metal supports, no one reports shorting, I don’t know if I am really that inept or I have a bunch of faulty/shorted and destroyed boards now 
Edit: Picture Showing a 4.5mm Standoff with faster running through
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Think I’m also gonna angle aluminum i am seeing you can make some nice looking lights.
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@TerpSneeze this is my biggest fear going this route.
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Mine look great too! Just aren’t working ATM. Paging through you DIY guide you posted, I have built mine identically but it is full of shorts and seemingly cooking shit now so I am on the hunt for plastic fasteners until someone else pipes in and says that they have had no issue with metal fasteners ( I know Mr.S used rivets, I see soooo many builds with bolts, hext nuts you name it) I am going to assume that the boards I have are faulty… It’s not looking good currently
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I think I’m going to get nylon or plastic nuts and bolts just to be safe. Hopefully you make out ok.
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those screws look big, can you get a picture of the top of it
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It’s definitely the screws… Whether it is bridging the gap up top or through the back of the frame, the same series will work on the bench but not on the frame (minus the one I bungled apparently 
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@TerpSneeze yeah way too big its the screw head and washer causing the short… eek
if you hold a strip to the light you will be able to see the area around the screw holes that dont have the conductor underneath ill grab a pic shortly
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On the pic above I though I had clearance but I guess not… So smaller heads, rubber washers?
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see where its inset that is where there is no conductor so you want screw heads if your using them to be within that part not up onto the raised bit. Nylon washers and or screw being better for non conductive purposes obviously
edit: back side shot as well
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Yeah the bigger strips are not the same in that regard (you can see above) there is no depression on them but there is a distinct circuit within the board near the attachment point, seems like I would have ample clearance as well as there is a layer of epoxy over the circuitry but this is not providing insulation which seems very strange… Thanks for the help none the less, I will keep pottering away and see what ends up being the fix
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yeah that is odd, as they should be that way, as then there is no way to mount them safely without nylon bolts and washers as metal screws would short them out if they were just touching the edge of the mounting hole
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