Stage Designs

DIY Light Bars

James Tucker from Christ’s Church in Jacksonville, Florida brings us these cool light bars. (originally posted October 2015)

They had a middle school camp coming up and they needed a set that they could mostly pre-build beforehand and transport easily to the venue.

James wanted to do something different than their typical LED tape sets. Something that glowed that didn’t look like tape. They turned to rain gutter. They lined one side of some “k” style gutter with led tape—it looked cool but looked like a glowing box. Another trip to Home Depot and they purchased gutter guard. This was a 8’ piece of plastic that has a bunch of tiny little holes. They slid the guard into their test gutter and bam! Gutter lights! It looked great but the guard’s tiny holes prevented most of the light escaping, so they ended up lining both sides of the gutter.

They took 10’ sticks of plastic gutter and gutter guard painted black, then cut into 4’ sections. Once cut, they took a 8’ section of LED tape and lined the inside of the gutter. A hole was drilled in the center to accommodate a 1/4” bolt for a clamp to mount the light to pipe/truss/etc. To make “sides” of the gutter lights, they just used a few strips of gaff tape.

On site at the camp, they took four 10’ sections of 1.5” black gas pipes and rigged them every 8’ with a rigid cheeseboro clamp then rigged the gutter lights at equal spacings.

The team made a total of 16 gutter lights with clamps and 25’ whips made out of 22/4 alarm cable. For control, they wired the gutters in pairs and plugged them into an 8-way, 24-channel DMX decoder. On their console, they patched in 8 “generic RGB” fixtures. This gave them the ability to program chases and looks that matched the on-screen graphics.

They aren’t super bright-looking. If you are wanting the look of an led blinder, these won’t be good for you. The gutter lights look like Color Force LEDs dimmed down to 5%.

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18 responses to “DIY Light Bars”

  1. DANNY S says:

    This looks super cool!
    What movers are you guys using?

  2. David Easter says:

    The good thing is they look very professional, perfect for background lighting and add another dimension to any performance.

  3. James Tucker says:

    Hey sir, the movers are Chauvet Intimidator 350’s.

    Here is a video I uploaded the other day:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU1q8cTEJ68

  4. Mendy Andersen says:

    This is awesome! Thanks for sharing, James!

  5. Tony Hodge says:

    Those are great, James!

  6. Koby Smith says:

    What is the name of you LED strip lights and as to where did you get them from?

  7. luis says:

    those look awesome! how did you run the led strips through the lighting system? I assumed thats what gave you the ability to control the different patterns. What materials would I need to be able to add them in to the lighting system we use for our stage lights? Thank you for your post!

    • luis says:

      nevermind about my question lol. If I learned to read I would already know that you answered the question lol. I just got excited because its a great idea :) Thanks again for sharing it!

  8. Alec Ojeda says:

    When you say controlled on counsel what type ? Was it a computer? Or was it a dmx controller? This would be helpful

  9. Shaun says:

    Are these able to be dimmed through your DMX Controller? Or are they just ON/OFF??

  10. Paul says:

    Is there a way I can get the wiring diagram… my church is using s computer to run lights and I would love to create this…

  11. Ryan says:

    Just made one!! Thanks for the great idea! I also used foil duct tape to add reflection inside with cut out coroplast.

    • Taylor says:

      Hello Ryan, where did you find your LED tape at?? I was looking online and the site I was looking at quoted the amount of LED tape id need at around $400, Im hoping you could point me to somewhere a bit cheaper!

  12. Taylor says:

    As a follow up, there was a spelling error in my email, which has been solved so I Can actually receive notifications of responses now.

  13. Chris says:

    How do you have safety cables hooked up to the movers? Or do you?

  14. Tyler says:

    Lake Swan! I used to light that place up too prior to 2013. I know this is an older set design, but it looks great!

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