# Cheap light cans



## pagan (Sep 9, 2009)

Since I have already gone a little (WAY.. Don't tell my wife) over budget this year I can't buy the par cans I wanted to use.. I plan on using metal paint cans and flood light fixtures with color gels on them to tide me over.. Anyone have any other ideas for scene lighting?


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## tot13 (Jul 25, 2007)

I probably don't pay as much attention to lighting as I should, but I use tiki torches, smelt pots, and floods for the majority of my lighting. I picked up some colored floods today at WM on clearance for $5 each. The smelt pots are pretty cool if you like using actual fire. My recipe: one metal coffee can, 2" of kitty litter, 1/3 of a firelog (like Duraflame), and fill to within 1-2" from the top with diesel. I get about 5-6 hours of burn-time out of these. I extinguish them by smothering them with a board, which takes about 5 seconds and the flame is gone.


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## Hallowennie315 (Sep 5, 2007)

Definitely try out LED spot lights! They're relatively cheep and you can find tons of tutorials all over on how to make them. I would definitely recommend them!


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## Bone Dancer (Oct 7, 2005)

And if you don't have time to make LED spots you generally can find cheap LED flashlights in the $3 to $5 range.


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## stagehand1975 (Feb 22, 2010)

I prefer led lights becuase of the rich color that they give off. A local theater group that I used to work with made there entire lighting system from spare parts large coffee can with gel frames soldered to the end of them. Smaller flood bulbs in a single can for short throw and bigger flood bulbs in double cans that were soldered together for long throw. Even a dimmer system that was built from scratch in old computer cases. But it worked and served it's purpose and was still in use when I moved away.


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