January 8, 2010

Steam valves O' light






While waiting for what I believe will be a no-show satellite dish repairman I fiddled in the room a bit and actually got most of the track lighting project done today.

The track lighting cord has been hidden under this coppery colored cord run. Hopefully it looks a bit like steam piping but it don't look like white power cord which is the point I'm trying to make.

The track lighting just plugs into a wall socket but I wanted a way to turn it on and off, well a COOL way, and decided to use a dimmer switch with what appears to be a steam valve or something on it. Once I figured out where to plug it in making the switch box came next. I just built up around a standard fixture to try to get it looking a little more squarish. Made a lid to match it, lined up the screw holes, and bada-bing, instant steam box thingy. Painting this and the cord runs outside was troublesome in the current arctic conditions but we got there.

The dimmer switch instructions were in every language but Merican so I had to set up a test board and try out different configurations of wires till the light came on. Eureka! After that installation was straightforward and now the overhead floods and the hanging chandelier are both working off these dimmers.

Next up. Probably the chair. Scary scary chair...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely incredible. I tip my hat and truly bow to your amazing creativity, resourcefulness and tenacity. I really mean it. Not that I didn't know you had it in you all along, but still, this project is just so stunning. Wow. *sigh*

Jeffty