I have made a lot more progress than my album would show, and I hope to have more pictures soon.
I had been thinking about lighting. I like the ideas of LEDs, but anything that I liked the look of was very expensive. I like the idea of puck style under counter lights, and rope lighting behind shelves just as accent lighting. I have been working on the puck lights, and here is what I have done so far. I got the LEDs w/ resistors on ebay. I found help with wiring LEDs here. http://www.instructables.com/group/LED's!/
I started with 3 1/2" X 3/4" oak stock.
I turned that on a lathe to have a rounded edge, and be a perfect circle. I also used the lathe to take out the center circle.
I used a router with a rabbet bit with a bearing to route the area for the lens, and the disc that would hold the LEDs.
I used a plexiglass disc and 5.3 mm bit to drill holes for the LEDs. Right now there are 5. I will end up doing 6, since that will work better for wiring. I used photoshop to lay out a template for the LEDs.
I then glued a layer of foil to the disc to reflect the light. One LED is removed to show the hole.
I will neaten that up for the final product, I just wanted to test how it would work.
I made a lens out of Plexiglass that I sanded with a random orbital sander. I liked it, but would like it to be a little more opaque. I tried a few layers of wax paper, and that helped. They are not in the picture. If anyone has a suggestion on how to get the lenses more frosted, that would be appreciated.
Then I put it all together.
When I figure out the lens, and smooth out the foil when I glue it, I think that will improve the look, but overall I am happy. They are what I wanted.
I wired it up to a 9v battery to test how bright it would be. They are very bright. I will wire them for 12v.
I wanted more lights with less LEDs in each so they do not seem like spotlights. A lot of the under counter lights I looked at had 20 or 30 LEDs in them. That will probably be nice for the Galley, but too bright for inside.
Here is one with 12 LEDs lit up.
I have made 10 of these.
I plan to do six like this and one with Red LEDs inside to avoid disrupting night vision (over my nav table
), and three in the galley on the hatch. I will stain and varnish them, too.
So, now that I know where wires are going, I can start getting this teardrop put together!!!
More on the rope lighting and the entire teardrop later.
Don
