I’ve shopped around for light stands…they all come back with the same review, “flimsy but works”. I wanted something that would last longer than flimsy so I decided to do a little DIY.

First stop, hardware store to buy four 8 foot long, 1 inch by 2 inch pieces of red oak. Oak is a hard wood and perfect for this project as it is tough and really beautiful.

My brother Matt graciously let me use his chop saw and I made the major cuts at his place. At home, I made some additional cuts for strength and started piecing it together. Glue here, screw there. Sand, sand, sand!

I then applied an eco friendly finish I made myself out of melted beeswax and turpentine with a tiny bit of stand oil. Beeswax of course comes from flowers, turpentine from pine trees and stand oil from flaxseeds.

I wanted to use mini-pulleys. (hardware geek alert!) I just think they are so neat. But it was a bit more complicated than I would have liked. To attach them to the top beam I would have had to use u-joints bolted to the top. Ugly. So I opted for eyelets. By the way, see how the finish brought out the beauty of the wood?

Now to thread the thing. I made sure and singed the ends of the nylon rope so it didn’t fray. I made sure to use knots that were meant for loads, in this case I opted for the timber hitch.

I was fascinated that each one of the eyelets on the left post carried and equal tension, which surprised me.

And yes all carpenters who look at this design and say, “Oh you shoulda this and that…” I fully realize that there are 6 ways to Sunday to do this.

But hey it works! So what you are looking at is a four foot T5 housing which holds 4 bulbs, in a home made light stand that goes fully up and down depending on plant height. This unit can start 200 plants. Romaine is in and now its time to get on the tomatoes! Woohoo!