Building a LED Task Light Part 1

I stuffed a PC board with 28 white LEDs and resistors, and now I'm
trying to make a gooseneck task light with it.

I bought a couple small C clamps so I can clamp the light onto the
edge of the bench. Then I used a piece of 12 AWG solid electrical
wire as the gooseneck and mounted the wire to the clamp with a couple
wire ties. I folded the end of the wire over on itself a few inches
so the wire wouldn't twist under the wire ties.

I mounted a PCB with 6 LEDs on it as the head for this gooseneck lamp,
and powered it with a wall wart. The 12 gauge wire is okay for this
smaller hear, but it could be a bit stiffer for a head with 20 or more
LEDs.

So I went back to the hardware store and bought a few feet of 6 AWG
solid bare copper wire. I couldn't find any solid wire bigger than 12
gauge, everything was stranded. Instead of wire ties, I used the
small sized hose clamps, the stainless steel ones with the worm screw
tightener. They hold the copper wire very solidly. But I have to
insulate a few inches of the bare wire so I can strap the head to it
with wire ties. I'm not enclosing the PC board because there is so
much buildup of heat from the LEDs that an enclosure would have to be
heatsinked and well ventilated. Each LED takes about 100 mW, so 28
LEDs plus resistive drops takes nearly 4W.

I would like to get some PC boards etched and predrilled with a
circular pattern of LEDs and resistors. I looked around for some on
the web, but I didn't see any. Let me know if there are some
available. Thanks.

I thought that it might be a better heatsink if the LEDs were mounted
on a 1/8" thick aluminum plate, maybe epoxied into the holes. But I
don't have a way to accurately drill a lot of holes into 1/8"
aluminum. Maybe a better PC board would use heavier board with
thicker copper traces. Any added thoughts appreciated.


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