Well, I haven't managed to increase my shaving frequency much, despite the ongoing loveliness of the waterfall tap. But I have kind of completed a project that's been lurking ever since we had the extension built - which was getting on for two years ago. Here's the blog post celebrating that event, which actually mentions the project in question: "the multi-coloured LED recessed uplighting around the inside of the lantern".
The idea of making this thing out of edge-lit perspex rather died following the experience of making the wall lights, because the effect we'd originally imagined getting from the perspex doesn't really happen in practice; and with that, my enthusiasm to experiment with different ideas declined to a level below that associated with some scrambled eggs on toast, or a nice cup of tea. Obviously, that meant it never rose to the top of the priority pile for very long at all. I did go so far as to order some bits - a nice radio controlled LED controller and 5m of LED light strip, and a sheet of 6mm MDF, but then when I thought about it a bit harder I concluded that one sheet wouldn't actually be enough, so that was a dampener. Then I discovered aluminium alloy angle section (up to 5m x 101mm x 101mm x 3mm) which seemed like a better idea anyway, but then again, it's pretty expensive, especially when you include the cost of shipping; so I went back to the scrambled eggs for a while.
Then I bought a nice super-fine 80 tooth blade for my table saw (they usually come with a rather rugged 40 tooth blade for quick cutting). Obviously this made it necessary to saw something up, by way of a test, so I decided to have a go with the MDF, and make a prototype to test out the light idea. Maybe just make one end, since I didn't have enough MDF for the whole thing.
However... When I though about it even harder, I found that I could get all the pieces out of one sheet if I moderated the size just a smidgen, so I set up the saw, donned my dust mask and cut it up. And this went so well, with lovely straight cuts and such nice edges that I was inspired to cut all the bevels (on the rough old chop saw with a coarse blade), just to see what happened. And this went so well that I was inspired to stick it all together with glue (and some bits of metal to reinforce the corners). The bench isn't really big enough to accommodate the thing, but fortunately some of the bed slats from the bed I built for the spare room at the old house were on hand to extend it (surprisingly straight, too), so no problem really.
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| surprisingly straight |
By this time I was firing on quite a few cylinders, so putting a few coats of primer and paint on it just followed on fairly naturally. Then a big fillet of builder's caulk all the way round in the inside corner, for the LED strip to sit on, and it's almost done. Shock and dismay when, after a whole night in the garage, the caulk still had the consistency of soft ice-cream, but a day in the nice warm house facing the sun sorted it out, and it went off as if nothing had happened.
The electrician had provided a handy space for the 12V power supply behind a light switch in in the dining room wall, but he'd only installed a bit of three-core mains wire from there up to the ceiling lantern (where it has been sticking out of the plaster for 18 months like a sad, partially exposed archaeological find). Since the LED strip needs five wires to connect it to the controller, I couldn't hide the controller down with the power supply - it would have to be hidden somewhere up in the lantern. No problem, because I know that all the way round the lantern there are triple joists behind the plasterboard. So I simply drilled a big hole using a 62mm hole saw I happen to have already - except that the saw isn't as deep as a joist is thick, so I had to stop and violently chisel the waste away a few times to get deep enough. And, rather unexpectedly, I hit a nail at one point, so I had to grind that out of the way. Overall, it wasn't anything like as simple as I had anticipated, and there was a lot of bashing and graunching to go with the expected squeaking, whining and squealing; but no matter - I got there in the end. And it can be quite a rewarding experience to overcome adversity by the use of noisy power tools; especially up a ladder.
Although the hole now accommodates the controller quite happily, it's still just a hole in the wall, which isn't really a good look. So I fabricated a circular cover out of a bit of sheet aluminium with some perspex glued on the back (actually one of the waste pieces from cutting 62mm holes in perspex for the wall lights). The original idea was to hold this in place using a large flat washer and a screw, out of sight behind the MDF - but I realised that I wouldn't be able to assemble it, because I couldn't hide all the bits away without the MDF covering the screw. So I had to add a spring between the screw head and the washer - now the screw can be done up with the cover off, and the cover itself sneaked into place after everything else has been fitted. Pleasingly, this actually works!
And so it came to pass - light comes out in all directions, in a variety of colours and intensities. The radio controller (rather than the more common infra-red sort) doesn't mind where you are or what you're pointing at, which is good. There's a lighting effect that we didn't anticipate, too, which occurs in the corners of the lantern - the upward washes of light from each vertical face meet to give a sort of art deco wedge-shaped column of brightness, which is rather cool IMHO. Here it is in a groovy lilac mood:
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| groovy lilac |
and here in funky blue (complete with wall lights):
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| funky blue |
Overall, I'm very pleased with it. And so, I am delighted to say, is the lovely Jackie.
And (one must remember) it's only a prototype.