Tuesday, July 12, 2011
MAKING NEW LIGHT FIXTURES
I have low ceilings.
I live in a mobile home- part of the deal.
But when you are tall, and then have a light fixture sticking down, it can get distracting.
Thus, for some time, I have been looking at some way of addressing this situation. My first idea was to build a light box that I could set into the ceiling, and I did come up with a fairly simple and workable design, but I could find nothing that even came close to being adaptable to it, and the costs of sheet metal being what it is, I was a bit hesitant.
Low profile light fixtures seemed to all be a lot more expensive than I was willing to pay, multiplied by four or five...
But last night, I was studying the existing fixtures, the "working parts", and since they had been designed for tradictional large and hot running incandecent bulbs, I saw that they extended down from the fixture with a lot of extra space now that they are sporting tiny cool running twisted compact flourescents.
A bulb went off in my head!
I grabbed my duct work crimping tool and went to work!
That allowed me to readily tighten up the space that these bulb holders stuck out from the base.
I then had the idea to replace the base with a $3 pizza pan from Wal-Mart and not only greatly flatten the whole assembly out, but also create more reflective surface above the bulbs!
I am very excited about this! A fairly simple solution and I will not have to face the many added challenges of manufacturing and supporting a metal box inset into the ceiling!
I have an idea for a lens cover, but have not found any material that meets my desires yet, but for the meantime, I will be able to simply use the glass covers that are already in place, ugly though they may be.
