LED Swim Platform

I got these waterproof 6 light pucks from our buddy Mikeski "Thanks Homie". Then I brought them over to Clay. We were trying to decide how to mount them into the platform. We decided to split the platform at the edge(my platform at the edge is 2 peices of teak) and mount the light from the back side so when its finished you wont see any wire's Just the light's. As I was brain storming, Clay came up with this Idea.
He ripped the lights outa my hand and started measuring and drawing on the platform and thinking out loud, I had no Idea how they were to mount or what he was thinking. I asked how he was going to do it he didnt answer and just told me to go to the wood working store for a router bit he needed. When I returned he needed to close shop so that was it for the day. When I came back a few days later this is what I found.
Super clean router job. The lights sit down into the teak and the wires run threw a section keeping everything outa site. These 4 peices mount to the bottom of the swim deck

Thats gonna look sweet....

Like always, very impressed with the work you guys do!! Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Mikeski: Where did you find the pucks? I've made several orders to besthongkong.com and have been pleased. Thanks for suggesting them!

Did you use teak? If yes was it expensive or hard to fimd?

As with all your other projects it looks very good,well planned, and built.Thank you for inspireing me to undertake a similar project.

Brad: The orignal teak that I split away from the swim deck was glued and screwed to the deck. When I tryed to sepperate the 2 peices I broke some off the orignal peices that I was removing. I was able to re use the broken peices for the smaller teak peices that mount near the back side of the deck. I still needed to purchace some new teak for the rest of the lights. I hope that makes sence. Ill explaine. You need 4 peices of teak to do my swim deck. It only has 2 when I started so I needed to but 2 extra peices. I was able to re-use the broken peices as 2 smaller peices I needed. The place where we went to by the extra peices wanted $80 for a plank that was 6 feet tall and 6 inches wide. Teak is super expencieve. I was able to find a peice at my Father-in-laws buddys wood shop for $10.

That's some seriously clean router work...

Beautiful! Where can I get a set and how much!!! Really nice work as we all have become accustomed to.

I’ve been thinking of doing this for awhile. It’s a toss up between mounting them on the platform, (but how are you going to run power to them and are you going to have a disconnect so you take the platform off), or mounting lights right to the transom.

Larry: I plan on mounting them with out a wire.
The power will run threw the swim platform brakets.Positive on one side and Neg on the other. Its nothing new Im not the first one to do it. In fact our friend Neil Felt told me about the trick. This always brings out the Arm chair critic's on how it will or will not work. For all the testing I have done it works so Ill go with it.

Grant: Thanks for the wiring idea. I'm sending a PM to ask a couple of other questions about it.

Here are some pic's after I had wired them all together. I still have to take it apart again and glue the wood with the waterproof wood glue and then screw the deck back together. Just wanted to see what it looked like. Super bright

You are too good! Looks amazing. Like it was from the factory. thank you.

Looks great G, thanks for posting the pix.

The way Grant will be wiring his LEDs will work well in his situation because he doesn't run in salt water. Fresh water has low conductivity and it doesn't present problems in boats that don't live in the water. If you run in salt or if your boat sits in the water I would use a waterproof through hull wiring solution. I have been looking for some hollow mounting bolts for my platform brackets so I can run the wire through them.

I have been buying LEDs from various sources for over a year now. Lots of applications can be solved with the stuff sold by superbrightleds or besthongkong. Unfortunately I had not been able to find anything nice that's waterproof online. So, after a fairly exhaustive search I finally found a source directly from China that has some very high quality product for waterproof applications.

These pucks are have 6 superflux leds each and they are BRIGHT. The pictures really don't do them justice, it's pretty difficult to take pictures of LEDs or lights in general.

I had done some testing running these things through their paces at different voltages in different applications in my garage. After a couple days my neighbor came over and asked if I was setting up a disco in my garage with red and blue lights, LOL.

I am getting ready to place another order from my source. There are a few different options and products that I will be getting in a month or so, including some 20" and 40" waterproof lightbars. I might use the a pair of lightbars under my platform? If you have an LED project and need some shoot me a PM and I will try to hook you up.

Amazing as usually, nice job.

*Amazing as usual, nice job.

That's impressive man. I'm diggin' it. What are you doing for a disconnect for when you need to take that platform off?

first time you get the boat in the water.. dont leave till it gets dark and post pics!!!

i big red glow coming off of the back would look so cool

With colored lights does the light actually penetrate down in the water so you can see fish, etc. or do you just get the glow effect?

Love those pucks. I need a set of those.......do they make them in UV (purple)?

I didn't want to drill through the hull as well. Therefore, I have mine utilizing the platform brackets as a conductor. Sometimes, they won't work and I have to hop on the platform to get them going! (not cool.) Let me know if you experience the same issue, if not, do you have a suggestion for my problem? Maybe grinding of the brackets to get good contact?


(Message edited by jroyal on January 19, 2007)

JRoyal I would think with as much surface aera as your platform brakets have I bet if you cleaned up the brackets your problem would go away

I'm sorry for my ignorance, but you can use the brackets for a conductor?

Sure, they are metal. Attach the leads on the outside to the LED's (pos on one side, neg on the other) repeat with power leads on the inside of the hull and away you go.

Sure, besides leaving dead fish in the water, it works great. Just kidding.

Can you make me a LEAD swim platform?

At this time they are available in Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, and White.

I want to buy some yellow ones. Where do I send the money Mikeski?

Send me a PM, mikeskiw@gmail.com

Jeff no problem: If you want some LED's in your platform get ahold of Clay that who did my'n
650 533 4960

Clay and I finished the swim platform today. Now the underside of the deck is as smooth as on top. Its all finished here are some pic's

I will never catch up...

Wow thats going to look incredible of the water! Great job.

Now "G" you guys are way way to talanted/creative to not go out and buy a plug cutter and cover up the screw holes with the teak wood. We all here love to see and learn from a the stuff ya'll dream up and I Feel that you owe it to the greater WW community to redo those puddy'ed up screw-holes. SLTMS(silently laughing to myself) JK it looks great and would like to duplicate it to my own. Is Clay the source for the LED's

Awsome job, any chance you'll take some pic's of the electrical hook up on the platform mounts.

(Message edited by zacharoo on February 01, 2007)

You can see where the lights connect to the platform via the brackets. Look at the 3 and 4 th pic I posted just above. You can see the wire come out from the platform and connect to the bracket its a black wire and its connected at the end of the bracket. One side is Pos + and the other side is Neg- In the picture you can see the power source is powering the swim platform via the brackets

Oh I see now. Ok so will you now have to wire the boats insides where the bolts come through the hull that attaches the "receiver" part of the platforms brackets? Will the platform lights be controlable like with a switch? That wild the current can flow through the mounting hardware....I 'm I understanding correctly.

so grant what was the total cost?

time invested too.

Eric: Sorry Im not sure?
I still havent payed Mike-Ski for the LED's so I dont know how much they cost? But Im guessing between $50 and $75 for the LED's
Clay did all the router work to the platform and I dont know how much he will charge to do it.
I got the extra peices of Teak for $10 but it should have cost alot more. So to be safe your looking between $300-$500 I guess
Aquaholic: LOL Yea the plugs would have been pimp I didnt even think of them I have the plug cutter and all I just did some plug's for a shelf at the lake house. Tell you what. Why dont you install some lights in your platform and show us how its done with the plugs and all. Thats the best way to get under my skin.LOL
Mike: Get busy remember my boat is over 5 years old I have had quite a bit of time.

Don't you hate a Monday morning quaterback
No harm intended and it really does look great. Not sure I want to be the next Joe on Joe's VS Pros!!!
Before long you'll need to do a gallery of all the projects done to the Bling Machine.

Agua out!

******* man, *******. Looks awesome Grant.

> ******* man, *******. Looks awesome Grant.



The finish work is nothing less than awesome.

If I were in that area I'd consider nothing other than Sound Illusions for professional work. (especially after the Enriched thread)