See what you think of this (household) lighting project.

[bluegoatwoods]

I’m making some built-in perimeter lighting for my front deck.

One criterion for this project is that all materials must be cheap, cheap, Cheap! I could consider buying something that really looks sharp. But Those things tend to be pricey. And I can’t really justify putting expensive materials plus my time into it. I can put time into a project. But only if Materials are easy on the budget.

I’m going for a ‘vintage’ look. There are a few reasons for that. One is That I do like retro stuff. I also lack the precision to make something That looks stylish or modern. A vintage look has some space for Crudeness and I need that space. (I don’t know why, by the way,This word processor is capitalizing the first word of each line. But You’ll have to bear with this since I don’t have the strength to fight it.)

And I think I’m gonna get there. I can imagine “The Edison Electric Company” installing something like this in some well-to-do
Household in, say, 1905 or so.

Here’s a view of one section that’s pretty well finished off.
drive.google.com/open?id=0B081aVUWXldbdGE0a0JtYzZkRDQ

Plus a couple more views that give some notion of the construction.
drive.google.com/open?id=0B081aVUWXldbS25HOHVsMkxCOU0
drive.google.com/open?id=0B081aVUWXldbLUxlUnVKdGNrdWM

The light sockets themselves are these:
drive.google.com/open?id=0B081aVUWXldbU3Q4dVZGTXlYT3M
They are actually an adaptor. They’re meant to adapt a standard “A” base light bulb to a fixture which accepts those two prongs. A GU24 base, if I remember right.  You’ll note that those two prongs give a pretty convenient electrical connection. A loop of bared conductor tightened with a bit of shrink tube and you’re off and running. You wouldn’t want to subject it to very much mechanical stress, of course. But you don’t want to do that to electrical wiring anyway.

The insulation/weather protection in the transition from bulb base to wiring run is simply a section of bicycle inner tube fastened down with plastic zip ties. I use the same thing to insulate splices and “Y”s in the wiring run itself. In these wiring run splices the zip ties, fastened tight, give some mechanical strength as well.
drive.google.com/open?id=0B081aVUWXldbUlp6blNiazBKY1k

The shades are simply plastic beer cups. Easily available at practically no cost. Raw they don’t work quite as well as one would hope. The light shines through them and they are a bright, bright red. So I’ve been working with spray paint. First a coat of ‘Burgundy’ to deepen the red. Then some Rustoleum “Hammered Texture” paint. “Chestnut” seems to be a good color. On my first few attempts I found that I didn’t get the paint even enough. The light would shine through redly in more places than others.
In fact, it looked like light shining through a poor spray paint job. But today
I had a bright idea. I simply hooked up a light bulb that I could put up inside the cup while painting. Then I could see plainly where more paint was needed and where it was not. The ones I made today were an improvement over yesterday. And I’m sure that very soon I’ll be able to find just the right balance: letting enough light through to give a soothing effect without being glaring.

I’m not too crazy about those ‘wire cages’ I made to hold the shade up to the base and insulator. They’re a bit too crude.

But I also found some thinner wire with a copper-ish finish to it. And I think this one looks a bit more graceful.
drive.google.com/open?id=0B081aVUWXldbekxxMFV6TzNma1U

I can probably make these acceptable. But if anyone has any brainstorms on something the might work well, then I’d welcome suggestions.

Also I have something like a hanging streetlamp over the stairs.
drive.google.com/open?id=0B081aVUWXldbUVdBUm0wblZUa1U

Here’s a view giving some notion of the effect after dark.
drive.google.com/open?id=0B081aVUWXldbbkxyVGtPbDlSMWM

This particular design is an offshoot of some indoor lighting that I’ve been working on. Here’s an example of that.
drive.google.com/open?id=0B081aVUWXldbNjNvX21kWURwWGM
As you can see, they’re similar. The big difference being that the lights don’t hang with the indoor version. They’re mounted on brackets that I made from ½ x ⅛ in. flat steel. Bent, and bolted together in a way that allows the lamp to be pointed at a particular spot. A spot light, in other words. The brackets are painted with black Rustoleum.

I'm posting all of this to, let's be honest, show off a bit. Who'd I think I'm kidding if I said otherwise? But there's another reason too.

Maybe some of you guys are in a similar position to mine. You want something more than one darned light bulb in the middle of the ceiling, but you don't want to spend a fortune. If so, then maybe you can make use of these ideas.

If you improve on my design, then how about sharing that?


Ohhh.......by the way........can anyone tell me where I'm likely to find the voltage regulator on a typical GY6 scooter? The one in question is a 2016 Taotao VIP 150.

[bluegoatwoods]

Here's one more pic giving the effect when fully dark.

[stepthrutuner]

Are the lamps cfl, led or old fashioned incadescent? Won't the plastic cups degrade and get brittle after a year or two. Do you have small kids or friends with small kids? Looks pretty good to me though.

[FrankenMech]

Nice looking! The copper wire gives a nice look and it will turn green and old looking after a while. Run the wires through the posts. Make some replacement cup-shades while you still have the paint setup.

You can buy rubber light bulb sockets with two wires sticking out of them.
www.lowes.com/pd/Project-Source-660-Watt-Black-Lamp-Socket/3958895

[bluegoatwoods]

Sept 4, 2017 23:45:26 GMT -5 stepthrutuner said:

Are the lamps cfl, led or old fashioned incadescent? Won't the plastic cups degrade and get brittle after a year or two. Do you have small kids or friends with small kids? Looks pretty good to me though.

They're LEDs. They're made to have a 'retro' look. Something like Edison's very first light bulbs. A yellowish 'cast' to the glass and the LEDs inside are meant to look like the 'gawky' filament of a very early light bulb. It's almost a shame that they need to be covered. But they're hard on the eyes if not. They might look good uncovered if they were mounted 20 feet or so up in the air.

My kids are grown. I do have a couple of young grandchildren. But I'm not concerned about their safety in particular. A child might expose himself to shock risk by ripping one of these apart. But the risk there is comparable to any commercially available light fixture.

[bluegoatwoods]

Sept 10, 2017 23:34:38 GMT -5 FrankenMech said:

Nice looking! The copper wire gives a nice look and it will turn green and old looking after a while. Run the wires through the posts. Make some replacement cup-shades while you still have the paint setup.

You can buy rubber light bulb sockets with two wires sticking out of them.
www.lowes.com/pd/Project-Source-660-Watt-Black-Lamp-Socket/3958895

Oh! Those are good!

I like it.

Future projects might have those.

[FrankenMech]

They also make long extension cords with light bulb sockets at intervals. I don't remember where I saw them though. Kind of like Xmas lights, but the sockets are for regular bulbs and far apart. Some had bulb protectors kind of like an old trouble light, many different styles.

I like your project. Lights don't have to be boring!