How to Make a Cheap Spotlight With Telescoping Stand From a Curtain Rod

I made this spotlight so that I could make my YouTube videos using a single light source. When I film I like to isolate the subject as much as I can so that the viewer has no choice but to focus on what is in frame. When I first started making YouTube videos I would just film in my garage with the garage lights on which was fine but you could see all the miscellaneous items in the background. I felt this was distracting so I started trying to film with just one light source. This worked okay but there was still a lot of light bleed in the background. The miscellaneous junk in the background could still be seen just in dimmer light. So I came up with this idea to make a spot light that could be moved around that wouldn't take up a large foot print like a tripod. This is a fairly inexpensive build since I used an old curtain rod that I had in my attic and the rest of the materials aren't very expensive.

Round Curtain Rod

3 inch screws

Drill w/drill bits and drivers

1/4"-20 Tap and Drill

1/4"-20 Screw with Knob

1/2" screws

Scrap Wood 12"x12"

5 gallon Bucket

9 quart Bucket

Garden Trowel

1 60lb. Bag Cement

Spring Clamps

Level

Gloves

Clamped Work Light

Vise

Work Bench

Hammer

Aluminum Flashing

Blue Tape

Black Spray Paint

Yellow Spray Paint

Sharpie Marker

Ruler or Straight Edge

Pliers

Light Bulb

PPE

For the stand I used an old curtain rod that I had in my attic that could be expanded in length, one rod fits inside of the other making adjustable by sliding it in and out. I first drilled several pilot holes in the bottom of the largest of the two rods we will call this the "lower rod" of the stand. Then I partially screwed in the screws. These are just randomly spaced around the bottom these will help the cement attach securely to the rod. Basically you want to create something for the cement to grab on too. The screw length isn't super important as long as its at least an inch long. Screw type doesn't matter either as you can see in the last pic there are a couple of types of screws that I used for this part.

On the same lower I drilled and tapped a 1/4"-20 hole. This will be for the adjustment knob. This did eventually fail after a lot of usage. The thin wall of the curtain rod just isn't strong enough to take repeated use. Eventually I ended up welding a small 1/4"-20 nut over the hole that could take the abuse. If you don't have a welder you can probably get away with using some 2 part Metal Epoxy like JB Weld to secure a nut to the rod. I also bought a better knob as the small one I had originally used was difficult to tighten due to its small size, I couldn't get much leverage resulting in loose rods, this actual knob works much better.

In order for the rod to sit straight up and down I took a piece of 1/4" scrap plywood and drilled a hole the same diameter as the rod. This scrap piece will help make sure the rod sits vertically while the cement dries this will make more sense in a later step.

Next I mixed up some cement in a 5 gallon bucket and filled the 9 quart bucket with the lower rod held in place.

Next I slid my scrap piece of plywood over the lower rod and let it sit on the top of the 9 qt. bucket. I checked it for square with my level and used some spring clamps to secure the plywood in place. This took a little bit of adjustment but eventually I was able to get it pretty close to vertical. I let cement cure overnight.

On the smaller rod, the upper rod, I taped off a 3-4 inch section and painted it yellow. This will serve as a height indicator of sorts. When I am raising the upper rod and see the yellow part I will know to stop so that I don't pull the upper rod completely out of the lower rod. Its basically my max height adjustment indicator.

The first pic shows my setup. In the second and third pics you can see the up and down adjustment of the stand. The stand worked great and was easy to adjust. The bucket was not very large so it didn't take up a large footprint and couldn't be kicked over by accident either. Overall I was happy with the stand. The light on the other hand was a whole other story.

In order to create a more focused beam of light I used some poster board and clamps to make a shroud and attached it to the light using hand clamps. It worked but clamps constantly fill off and the poster board got pretty tattered after a short time.

I decided to make a more permanent shroud that could take the abuse. The first thing I did was take the work light apart. The metal shroud just unscrews from the light bulb base.

Next I used a pair of pliers to bend the outer rim up creating a 90 degree angle. I used a small hammer and the back of my vice to clean up the plier marks and smooth out the edge. The metal shroud is aluminum and very soft so you could probably do this step using a piece of scrap wood instead of the vice.

I bought some thin gauge aluminum roof flashing that I would use to make the new shroud. I wrapped the aluminum around the edge of the work light and marked the length. Then I used some kitchen shears to cut the aluminum flashing. Its pretty soft stuff you might even be able to cut it using regular scissors or even by scoring it with a razor blade. I added two inches to the overall length to give me some space to overlap the flashing. It wants to spring open so I used a clamp and some painters tape to prevent that from happening. The painters tape goes over the seam.

Wear gloves this stuff can be sharp!

To secure the shroud to the work light I used some 1/2" screws. I first predrilled the pilot holes around the edge and attached it with screws. I did the same for the seam.

I re-assembled the work light and tested it. It worked okay, as you can see from the pic but I figured I could improve it if I painted the inside and outside of the shroud flat black.

In order to do this I took apart the shroud then lightly sanded it with some 220 grit and spray painted the inside black.

Once the paint dried I reassembled the light and tested it again. There was a decent improvement as you can see from the before and after. The light is more concentrated. I was pleased with this for awhile but at some point the bulb I was using burned out. I went bulb shopping and decided to venture out and try a different bulb to see if it would improve the lighting even more.

I ended up buying a PAR 20 bulb, the one that looks like a funnel in pic 5. This really concentrated the light and gave me a nice clean edge all around the lit area. The pics show the evolution of the lighting. The first pic is no shroud around the work light using an LED bulb, you can the see how much light spread there is. The second pic shows the lighting with the shroud and a CFL bulb, its better but there is still a some light spread. The third pic shows the lighting with the shroud and the PAR 20 LED bulb, which to me looks way better than the other two. You can see a nice circle of light with a lot less light spreading to the background.

All of these pics were taken with a light on in the background so you could see the actual light stand and light.

With all the lights turned off you can get a really nice focused area of light which was exactly what I was after. I have been using this light stand for several years and used it in most of my videos as my only light source and it still works great. It made setting up shots a whole lot easier and gave me the look I was after. I hope you find this helpful. Thanks for checking out my Instructables.