I am trying to figure out how they wired these puck lights into what seems to be a single piece of 3/4″ ply. I would love to do this in my own kitchen which I’m currently building.
If anybody has the answer I would gladly sing your praises in exchange for the secret.
kh
Replies
It's not a single sheet. It's probably two 1/2" or one 1/2" and one 1/4". Route out the wire runs on the thick sheet, prewire and then cover with the other sheet.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
I'm gonna have to agree.. without seeing the inside of the cabinet, building a sandwich of plywood would allow the lights to be set and wiring done. Routing out the recesses for the lights and a wire 'chase' would make sense.Tom Iovino
http://tomsworkbench.com
Mike's right. The wire's are run in a dado in the middle, hidden by the sandwich.
Make sure if you do this, not to do it with halogens. Low voltage lighting only. Halogens will get too hot, and will be a fire hazard. Don't ask why I know.
Jeff
Edited 2/10/2008 9:25 pm ET by JeffHeath
Makes sense, but what kind of low voltage lights? And do you know of a source?
12v halogens are "low voltage", but I agree, they sure do get hot!
I ask because I've been looking for a safe low voltage light to put into a display cabinet.
Mike D
It's not so much halogen per se, it's wattage: Don't use high-wattage lamps (and, of course, most halogens are high wattage, since the whole point of them is to put out a lot of light). Some low-power alternatives are fluorescent (good, but can be bulky) and LED (very good, but can be hard to find and expensive).
I think LED lights are the wave of the future, so to speak, but at this time they're still somewhat in the developmental stage.
-Steve
Steve,
LED lights are beginning to show up in big box home centers, in the form of under-cabinet "panel" type lights - and strings of LEDs as well. I saw some just the other day at a Menard's near where I live.
It's interesting to see how they're configured. Depending on what you buy, the under-cabinet panels are strung with a series of 12 or 24 or 36 tiny LED bulbs mounted onto a metal panel with a clear plastic cover. Prices range from about 18 bucks for the small panel up to about 30 for the largest.
The light is very bluish (to my eyes at least, and it was also hard to tell in the bright light of the store). And they panels, even the largest one, aren't very bright compared to the fluorescent tubes displayed alongside the LEDs.
Still, they are beginning to make inroads in this type of application. Compared to even the fluorescents, they ran much cooler, and the current draw was ridiculously low. You could almost leave these things on for nightlights. I think they are rated to burn 100,000 hours.
I agree with your assessment that LED's are the wave of the future in home lighting. The energy savings are simply huge. Municipalities are starting to replace traffic and pedestrian signal lighting with LEDs. Way lower ongoing energy costs, plus they last many times longer than the old bulbs they replaced. The only difficulty they're finding with LEDs for traffic signals is that heat from the old bulbs used to melt the snow and ice that collected. LEDs burn so cool that they don't generate that much heat, and some signals have been obscured because of that...
LED flashlights are also beginning to find their way to market. I got one as a give-away on a 400 mile bike tour I did two years ago, and while not very bright, I haven't changed the batteries since I received it. The three LEDs seem to burn forever and consume very little power. A real revolution..
Zolton* Some people say I have a problem because I drink hydraulic brake fluid. But I can stop any time I want.
Cant tell who made them or what they are made from in the photo, but I have seen this same idea used with the laminate on the bottom covering the slot.
As for the Halogen recessed issue, if you get the ones designed for this they have a built in air gap that is covered by the cover plate.
Doug Meyer
Hi Doug,
Do you know of a source for halogen's with the built-in air gap?
Mike D
Off hand Not anylonger. I would expect that someplace 1000bulbs.com (I think that is their name) should have them. I know that years ago (say 10 or so) my local big box store (I think it was HD) used to have them. They sold them in a style that could be surface mounted (puck light style) but if you pulled them out of the round cylinder they came in you could mount them in a hole in the wood. The cover was used (same for both application) and it covered the air gap and thus kept everything cool. I have them in a soffit in my condo and I run them for hours with no issue.
IF I was looking today I would start at 1000bulbs. I would also look at the big box stores and at Ikea (yea I know but they do have some interesting stuff hidden in all the junk, you just have to dig for it).
I would be interested in this as I need some of these myself. I may state looking also. (I am finishing a kitchen that I want some of these for task/accent lights) and I need to mount them in a shelf (I am doing the torsion box shelf bit). So If I find them I will let you know and if you find them please keep me in the loop.
Doug
Cool, and thanks.
I looked at both Lowes and HD, and while the puck lights that each has shows sinking the light into a recess in pictures, but as I read the accompanying directions, they advise not to do it as a fire hazard. Go figure!
Mike D
Yeah well that is most likely one of two reasons. 1st reason is that they used to sell lights that could be sunk into something (Like what I have) so the new ones need to look like the same light so they show this then tell you not to do it. Or reason two. They really can be set into wood but if you do it wrong it could be a danger so the lawyers make them say not to do it. Take you pick.
I have not found any yet but will try to spend some time looking this evening. By the way what color are you looking for. I need either Chrome / Silver / Puter or I need black (either will work in the kitchen) But I can keep my eye open for other colors.
Doug
I need white, of course.
Thanks,
Mike D
I've had a couple of LED flashlights for several years now. The rule of thumb is 10-to-1: A 1W LED is about as bright as a 10W incandescent bulb. The light is bluish, because of the way they work: A white LED is actually a fluorescent lamp; the LED itself is blue, and is coated with a phosphor which is excited by the blue light from the LED. A fair amount of that blue light leaks out through the phosphor. I've seen an LED desk lamp that mixes in a few amber LEDs along with the white ones to help "balance" the color. I expect that we'll start to see cool white, warm white, full spectrum, etc. LEDs within the next couple of years.
I was reading an article recently in the local paper. Our town has just about finished changing over all of the traffic lights to LEDs. Although the new lights are quite expensive, the operating costs are so low that they get payback within a year.
-Steve
In the boating world, LED lamps of many configurations to replace most sizes of incandescent lamps have been available for several years. When the number of days you can hang on the hook without firing up an engine to recharge is limited by electrical consumption, the ability to cut the amps on your lighting by a factor of at least 10 is a huge win.
Regarding brightness, some of these lamps are bright enough to use legally as navigation lights.
The cost seems high, but not when you divide by the life of the bulb. Personally, I think their time has come.
I'm guessing the whole thing will become a lot cheaper when you design it into the home from the start, so your house lighting circuits are 12-24v DC circuits and you can use the LEDs directly without the built-in transformers. Then again, I'm not an electrical engineer, so there's probably some reason house lighting circuits aren't already low voltage (wire size maybe).
Back to the subject of the thread, sorta, there are 12v LED lamps of exactly the sort shown in the original post available at pretty much any boating supply store.To the man with a hammer, all the world is a nail.
Maybe they bored a hole on edge with a tall drill press and a good bit. From the picture you really can't tell what's going on from the top. Dado on top then skimmed that with an 1/8 ply.
fourquarter,
Sorry to say, all the responses so far are completely wrong.
Those are obviously battery operated closet lights, applied with double stick tape. The reason there is no visible on/off switch, is because they are "clappers". Just clap on, and clap off.
Problem solved. Anyone else?
Lee
The other issue to worry about in a display case is UV light. INcandescent lights don't throw off an appreciable amount. Fluorescents and halogens do. You can get shielded fluorencent tubes and shielded halogens, but to my knowledge you can't get shielded compact fluorencents. In any case, you have to ask for them. The off-the-shelf tubes and bulbs are NOT shielded.
Why does this matter? Because the UV acts like sunlight and will fade things badly.
Joe
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