So in the picture above are the actual Lowell EGO lights, that sell for about $240.    Below are the ones i rigged up, using materials from Menards and Michaels.

I started by cutting deckboard into about 16in pieces, and drilling holes near the bottom, which is where i used dowel rods for keeping them upright.   I also drilled two smaller holes near the center of the boards to run coat hanger wire through to secure the base of the light fixture.    For the power supply i picked up two standard extension cords that plug directly into the light fixtures.  If you cant find the fixtures that have plugs in the bottom, its pretty simple to wire the socket yourself.     I then drilled another hole at the bottom of the deck board to run the extension cord through, so it could stand evenly on flat surfaces.  

You can see in the picture above, the coat hanger coming out of the back of the deck board.  They’re slightly bent to keep them in place.    For the meshing(diffusion)  I found some sort of cross stitching plastic mesh material at Michaels.. Im not sure exactly what its used for, but it was the perfect size, and its easy to bend and adjust so that it fits the board.   Its main purpose is to diffuse the light so that you get an even light on the food.   I noticed that it still needed extra diffusion, so i clamped several layers of tissue paper(also from Michaels) over the mesh material.

You can see here the dowel rods i used to keep it upright.. pretty self explanatory.   For the bulbs, i used CFL’s.   I think the ones i chose are a little too bright, and they might not be the right color temp needed for replicating daylight.   Since buying them, ive read that you need to find bulbs that are in the 5000-5500 range. (color temperature)  Not sure if these are in that range or not.   

The above picture was taken around midnight, and you can see how i set the lights up on either side in one of the first pictures i posted.    Ive found that lighting the subject from either side, or from behind, usually looks better than just lighting everything from the front.    Even though the picture turned out pretty good, it still looks a little artificial to me.   I think thats because the bulbs im using are the wrong color temp.   Below is a picture of some scones i shot using natural daylight from a window on the left side, and using both of the homemade ego lights on the right.    For some reason the thumbnails on this post look washed out.. You can view the larger more accurate versions by clicking on them. 

Not too bad for 30 bucks!