Protecting lights from bbs

[Transition]

Looking for ideas to help protect lights from getting shot out in a warehouse space. I know they make those tubes that go over the actual bulb. Looking for alternative ideas that may be more price effective for a entire warehouse space.

[Orwell]

Pictures of the lights in question would be helpful. Perhaps a hard plastic shroud?

[Transition]

8ft fluorescent tube lighting like what you see in any warehouse nothing fancy your standard shop light.

[Orwell]

Do they have any protection as they stand? That is to say, are there cages or thin plastic over them as is?

[Transition]

none, just open bulbs, hence the need for some sort of cover, im leaning towards a wire mesh, gotta think fire as well.

[Orwell]

Mesh would have to be awfully tight to prevent pellet damage. Perhaps a (fairly) thinly spaced mesh with a layer of hard plastic between the glass and the mesh?

[ogrejager]

Every thing that comes to mind to me would be expensive and/or dim the lights a lot.

[Switchback]

Some plastic shrouds don't protect from impact (trust me). I think a wire mesh with tight spacing would protect your lights, but as previously mentioned it would dim your lights.

[Sir Stubby Eyre]

http://nationalsupplyonline.com/Plastic_Fluorescent_Tube_Protectors.html

I have seen these before, they work pretty well for protecting the tubes. different colors as well as clear.

[Reeko]

remove all lights from the warehouse and play in the dark. ...... or you can dangle some sheets of acrylic underneath the lights

[pulsipher]

Cut lexan boxes around the lights

[Jewish Ninja]

Lexan would get spendy really fast. Some chicken wire (the small 1/4th In grid stuff) would probably do the trick as well.

[Transition]

yeah I am gonna try go pick up some wire at the hardware store and take some shots at it. It would be 20ft up, really needs to just deflect bbs from bouncing at the lights, hopefully not direct shots. The only other concern besides price would be weight on the fixtures.

[Sir Stubby Eyre]

Being that high up you can cut Lexon into strips and then attach to the fixture. 1/8 x 4'-0 x 8'-0 goes for about $80.00 a piece.

Hardware cloth is the other stuff that would work, you should be able to get it 1/4 x 1/4 squares.

[Reaver]

I would suggest trying bird netting from Lowes or home depot. At 23 ft 1/8 acrylic sheets tend to crack from direct fire. What you want is a material that will give under direct fire instead of being a solid surface for the pellet to impact on.. hang a bed sheet and shoot at it from 20-30 feet and compare to a solid surface like Plexiglas or lexan. The pellets will loose there impact force considerably. If you are ever at Lowes in Salem, look at the roof under the awning in the outdoor garden center. Paintball uses a similar concept for speed ball protective barriers.