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Mods! We need an animated smilie with lightning bolts shootin' out!!! Let the flamin begin! Maybe can generate some sparks as well as flamez! This one cant help but offending someones electrical sensibilities. Remodeled a little 5x8 master bath [I know, I know, but its a SMALL house!] Ceiling has 3 recessed 50w halogen downlites, a 250w heat lamp, and a 10 solatube. The northwest wall has 3 glass blocks - very cool glitter city between March & October. For some reason, I needed still more decorative lighting! Needless to say, EVERYTHING on the market for vanity lighting is a POS for this design. So ...Pic#1 Finished. Dimmed down, color a little distorted. I thought the lights were a clear blue color.Pic#2 No sheet of 14ga, so chopped mounting "pyramids" out of a purlin.Pic#3 Oops! Miscalculated. Corner lifted 3/8".Pic#4 Re-cut pieces, sits flat, chopped "top" for diag tube.Pic#5 Welded o/s corners & sanded.Next post ... Attached Images
Reply:Pic#6 "Borrowed" a project sign out of the scrap pile - got 2 pcs 1.5"x13ga I think square steel tube 8' long. Used one ... after sanding off the rust on the bottom and paint on top. Drilled pilot holes 8"oc. Check out the high rent "shop" space!Pic#7 Built a maple [!!!] jig to hole saw into the corner of the tube.Pic#8 Welded inside the corners of the pyramids. The o/s corners were cracking where I sanded too much off! Also, mounting brackets kinda like a can opener, with tabs inside the pyramids and tapped holes for setscrews at the upper corners.Pic#9 These are the second welds over the corners - HH140 with .035 flux core seems to like to leave lotsa pinholes. Tried to patch 'em. Seems I didn't post the pics with the nasty splatter all over the place, nor the pic of it sanded out.Pic#10 Start wiring. Doz sockets with a little piece of walnut spacer glued and screwed to bottom. #16 wire, stripped 8"oc, heat shrink tubing.Next post ... Attached Images
Reply:Pic#11 Wired sockets. Then epoxied them into tube. Used the Loctite or whatever $4-5 double hypodermic stuff at HD. Seated the wood spacer tight against the inside back corner of the tube and taped over the socket til the glue dried. Then epoxy filled around the socket to steel tube joint. Then carefully filed it flush. Don't have a good pic.Pic#12 Carefully hand bent the long tube straight, cut cardboard discs to mask the sockets, then rattlecanned it with Kilz primer and Krylon gloss white.Pic#13 Glued in plastic tube caps each end, then filed 'em perfectly smooth.Pic#14 Socket to tube joints came out pretty good, as did the welded / sanded joint to the pyramid bases. The hole is for the setscrew, which is on top when installed so not to be visible. One more ... Attached Images
Reply:Pic#15 Finished, installed, and looking into shower. It's turned all the way up. TWELVE 25watt vanity style bulbs = 300w. Too bright. too hot. Been steamed and splattered for almost three years, but nobody throws buckets of water at it since it is an adult master bath.Pic #16 Looking toward vanity which is below medicine cabinet. The light is on one of those dimmers where you touch it and it slowly brightens, or dims. It looks best about medium brightness. It is connected to the GFCI side of the outlet shown.Was relatively expensive - steel tube and sheet - free. Bulbs about $3 each, sockets about $3 each x 12, dimmer $30, paint $10. A Benjamin even with free steel!Thanks for lookin! Attached Images
Reply:Does that fixture run into the shower? Your bathroom is bigger than mine and I don't have anywhere to expand to.My name's not Jim....
Reply:Nice!!! You have every right to be proud of that!
Reply:Not my personal taste ( don't really care for those globe type bulbs myself), but very nicely done. I had to build a light fixture for one of my architecture classes, so I know how much a PITA it is to get all those little details right. Looks show room quality, so I'd guess retail it would run well over $500 in a high end supply house. Keep in mind even with a new store bought fixture, you'd still need to run out and buy the bulbs. Of the 60 or so lights that got built for my design class, I'd rate yours among the top 5..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Yeah I'm not big on that style of lighting either, but hot damn it looks good in general!JoeMiller 140 Autoset (2010)Miller Syncrowave 250 (1996)
Reply:@Boost ...Yes. Over the top of the shower glass. It's 96" long - just measured it - and stops 1.5" from the wall above the medicine cabinet and 3" from the wall in the shower. The bathroom was originally 5'x8', and it still is below the mirrors. Was able to expand above 4'aff because there were 10" plumbing walls with unused space inside behind the sink and the shower. Thought those recesses with the mirrors would make it look lots bigger - it did! @welds4d...Thanks! I'm pretty happy with how the whole thing turned out.@DSW ...Thanks! I do like that style. The bath is kinda contemporary and crowded! One of my earliest sketches was that design except with round tube and smaller bulbs. Didn't quite like it. But I kept searching thru the magazines and online and anywhere where I might find an idea I that could turn into a light. There were a few that I liked, especially the ones with exotic materials or specialty process cutting or fabricating. And the commercial fixtures are ... well ... everybody has 'em! The bath was finished in Sept 2005 except light. Finally had a chance to build it in Dec '08, so I had to commit to something, and I've always liked that diagonal [square turned 45*] look. I wanted to bright chrome it, but my plating shop wanted $200 for just the tube and no way to plate the phenolic sockets. Slowly devolved to K.I.S.S. since even the simplest project turns into ... well ... a PROJECT! @joebie ...Thanks!
Reply:I was thinking brushed or polished stainless would be nice. Be a PITA to prep and do well though, as well as adding to the costs.I know what you mean about wanting something custom. I made the bath cabinet for the one downstairs bathroom out of maple because I couldn't find any store bought cabinets I liked with the drawers on the left ( pluming exits thru the right side of the cabinet) that I didn't have to pay a fortune for that were semi custom..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:@DSW ...Stainless still didn't solve the problem of the light sockets. First idea was to have them glued into a short tube welded to the bar. A little vanity light - E12 candelabra base - required a 3/4"x16ga round tube. That would proportion okay with a 2" sq long tube. But that would look stoopid with 1.5" diam bulbs. The bulbs in the thread were standard light bulb size E26 base which needed 1.5" tube! Too clunky. If I were Ford or GM, I could just order the sockets chrome plated I was actually very surprised that the 1.25" diam sockets looked good with the 1.5" sq tube.Looks like you and I have the same attitude ... if you can buy it, why bother making it! I love to make things, but not what's available on the market. I hear you on the left vanity! BTDT.@Mick ... Why killya? Lights are always dimmed for "mood" There's 150+250+300=700watts in there, and in the daytime the SolaTube looks like about a kilowatt [but it's free!] I got the power!
Reply:Most of the commercial fixtures have the sockets inside sleeves. You simply use a SS tube with an ID that will fit the sockets to surround them..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Just curious how did you ground it?Miller Challenger 172Miller Thunderbolt AC/DC 225/150Miller Maxstar 150 STLVictor 100CVictor JourneymanOxweld OAHarris O/ASmith O/A little torchNo, that's not my car.
Reply:@DSW ...Kilz and white paint covers a multitude of sins!@bigb ...Inside of the pyramid I drilled a 1" hole for wires and also tapped one of those green ground screws into the long tube. Screwed it to bare wire of 14-2 nomex then back to the gfci outlet. Sockets are phenolic epoxied to steel tube. Somehow I can't get the wording right.
Reply:Not my cup of tea either, but very nicely executed..... I'll bet your wife loves the illumination?mike
Reply:I find that as I get older that much light and a mirror is not good for the ego.Oh yeah looks great and well made. You da manMiller thunderbolt 250Decastar 135ERecovering tool-o-holic ESAB OAI have been interested or involved in Electrical, Fire Alarm, Auto, Marine, Welding, Electronics ETC to name a just a few. So YES you can own too many tools. |
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发表于 2021-8-31 23:30:34