Garage Light – #5 Installing Switches, Cutting Lenses & Final Assembly

The two electrical switches that make this setup possible have finally arrived and can be installed.  One is a smart switch that is hardwired in the wall and the other is a remote that’s wirelessly connected to the hardwired wall switch.  The left photo shows the new hardwired switch wired up and hanging out of the wall with all its color-coded wiring connections explained below:

• The white wire is the neutral.
• The black wire is the hot feed to the switch.
• The red wire feeds the light fixture.
• The green wire is a ground.
• The blue wire is not used in this application so it gets capped.

The right photo is the remote powered by a battery that has an estimated 10-year life.  Its height and width fit into a regular switch plate cover and is very thin so it can be mounted on rather than in a wall.  More on that in a bit.

Here are a couple of photos showing how the hardwired switch looks when installed.  Also, the light’s back has been temporarily attached to its permanent location on the wall.

Here the top photo is looking from the back of the new remote switch set in the new wall switch plate.  In the red ellipse, while a little hard to see, there is a gap between the back of the switch and the bottom of the ruler which is set on the switch plate edges that will go against the wall.  The bottom photo is a closer view.

Installing the remote switch next to the existing switch that controls the existing garage lights is next and there are a few steps to add the remote switch.  The photo on the left is the existing switch and the photo on the right has its switch plate removed.

The left photo shows the remote switch set in the cover plate and the cover plate's screw holes (red arrows) marked with a pencil on the drywall.  The right photo shows the remote switch aligned with the just marked cover plate screw holes (red arrows).  The mounting slots that will be used to mount the remote switch to the wall now get marked (blue arrows).

Next in the left photo the pilot holes have been drilled for the screws (blue arrows) that will go into the mounting slots then the remote switch gets screwed to the wall.  In this case the switch’s mounting screws hit a stud otherwise I would have used a drywall anchor for mounting.  The right photo shows the cover plate  attached to the switches with its four, color matched screws.  I may change out the existing ivory light switch later to match the new white switch so both match.

To paint the back panel, it’s set on painter’s triangles that are on a lazy susan.  This allows me to spin it around making it easy to get all the edges.  It took three coats with some sanding after the first and second coats to smooth and flatten them.  Here is the completed back panel after the third coat.  Getting a nice flat, smooth surface with a little sheen ended up being harder than I thought.  The first test was to take a sample and give it a spray coat of shellac to act as a sealer.  That's followed by spraying on a white paint top coat using a rattle-can spray from one of the big box stores.  The result was not good in that the pores in the oak veneer were not painted so they showed up as the natural oak color.  Multiple coats did little to improve the coverage.  It was as if the surface tension of the paint would not allow the paint to flow into the pores leaving them unpainted.  Trying a second test without the base coat of shellac gave the same unsatisfactory results.  What ended up working required three coats of a white eggshell water-based paint and primer enamel.  The first coat sealed the surface and filled the pores but required sanding since it had raised the grain and left a rough surface.  The second coat only required a light sanding and the third coat gave me what I wanted.

I debated between using glass or acrylic for the front, side and top panels, as each have their advantages.  When I checked my supply of stained glass there was nothing that I wanted to use.  Checking local suppliers, the obscure type of glass was very expensive and not quite what I had in mind.  Stained glass surprisingly was cheaper but still could not find what I wanted.  What I did find at Home Depot were several different styles of 2’ x 4’ acrylic florescent light diffusers.  One of them with an embossed “crackle” finish gave just the effect I wanted, highly translucent but not transparent enough to clearly see the light bulbs inside the fixture.  An added bonus was that the panel had some chips and cracks along one edge so I got 40% off.  When cutting thin sheets of plastic like this there are some precautions, I take to prevent the sheet from chipping or breaking.  The main one being my choice of blade.  I use an 80 tooth High Alternate Top Bevel (Hi-ATB) with a 2-degree hook angle that’s designed for cutting plastic laminate and hardwood veneered plywood.  The second thing is to use a piece of heavy corrugated cardboard under the plastic to back the cut up.  The main photo shows the first rough sizing cut and the inset is the setup for cutting the pieces to final size.

After the paint has cured for a couple days the blue tape on the back panel is removed to reveal the bare wood below that matches the back side of the framework (left photo).  The plan was to glue and screw these two pieces together.  However, by using acrylic for the lens in lieu of glass the completed framework/lens assembly is very light so I am going to attach them together using the four screws without glue.  A plus is if any of the lenses are damaged, I can take the back panel off to make repairs.  After cutting the acrylic pieces to size the sides and front get attached with super glue.  The top will just set in place since it needs to be removed to change the top light bulb.  The frame can now be attached to the back panel completing the fixture (right photo).

Last is to wire the fixture to the junction box and attach it to the wall with a couple of expansion anchors.  The left photo below is the installed light turned on.  Both the switches worked exactly as planned.  The right photo shows how the light provides enough illumination to be able to walk through the messy garage without banging into cars or other stuff.

After using the new light and switches for a bit I am really happy and wish I had done this earlier.

Garage Light – #4 Framing Back Panel, Installing Light Socket & Dry Fitting Framework to Back

Next up is making the back that the framework (greyed out) will get attached to.  The center panel is made from ½” thick MDF with an oak veneer that was a shelf from a salvaged wine display rack.  The veneer is thick enough that I could run it through the thickness sander to remove the finish and most of the stains.  The stains that remain won’t be a problem since it’s going to be painted.  Once that’s done it’s cut to size on the tablesaw.  To cover the raw MDF edges I will add an 3/8” thick oak frame cut tall enough to stand about 1/8” proud of the panel to make a nice shadow line.  This is a change from the original plan where I was going to use veneer tape on the edges.  This tape has hot melt glue already on its back and uses an iron to heat and attach it.  The photo on the right is my jig for cutting the 45-degree miters at the corners.  The jig gets clamped to the chop saw holding it in place.  To set the 45-degree angle I used a clear drafting triangle (leaning up against the saw’s fence) from when I was a draftsman 50+ years ago.  No CADD then as everything was hand drawn.  Once the adjustable pivot arm is set in place it gets clamped to the jig’s base.  The red arrow points to a sample cut piece.

There are quite a few ways to get the frame pieces to fit perfectly around a panel but this is the one I use.  It’s probably not the fastest but I get really good tight corner joints using it.  The top photo has one scrap mitered piece clamped in place which was located by using another scrap, also shown, to get the desired tight-fitting joint.  The bottom photo is a closer view.

Next another mitered scrap is clamped at the opposite end using the same locating process as the first one.  That’s shown in the top photo.  With that done the first actual piece gets its right end mitered and set in place up against a spacer that’s the same thickness as the frame and up against a stop block to set the start point.  The lower right photo shows a close view of that.  The left lower photo shows the marks for the cut length made using a small square and a 45-degree line made with a layout square.

The left-hand miter can now be cut a tiny bit long on the chop saw using the 45-degree jig.  By taking small passes it’s easy to sneak up to get a prefect gap free fit.  The two lower photos show the end result.  Once fitted glue is applied to the center panel then the just cut frame piece is set into place and pin nailed tight.  The same process is repeated for the remaining three sides.

The left photo shows what the framed panel looks like.  The top right photo is a close edge on view with the red arrow pointing to the driven in pin nail and the bottom right photo is of it filled with putty then sanded smooth.

In preparation for painting the back panel it gets two strips of blue tape applied that match up with the set put on the framework.  If you look closely at the left photo, you can see where I traced the framework on the panel to guide putting the tape on.  The tape’s purpose is to keep the wood free of any type of finish so when the two are glued together the result is a good strong glue joint.

Mounting the double headed light bulb fixture to the back panel is next.  There was a small problem because the fixture’s threaded mounting stud is too short to center the fixture in the light so an extension has to be added.  Pulling a coupler and appropriate length threaded tube along with a couple of nuts out of my lamp parts supply fixed that.

Drilling a hole in the back panel where the new extension to the bulb fixture will go is made using the drill press to make sure the hole is square.  The threaded tube is 3/8” in diameter and one would think that drilling a 3/8” hole would work just fine but that’s not the case.  The 3/8” tube is really .381” not .375” or about .006” oversize.  Also, a 3/8” bit does not really make a 3/8” hole when drilling in wood due to the fiber compression during drilling and spring-back after drilling.  The hole made is actually .008” undersized.  End result is the threaded tube won’t fit.  What does work is to use a 10mm bit that makes a 9.8mm or .386 hole which is about .005” oversize.

The frame will be glued and screwed to the back panel and the process to locate and drill the screw holes takes a few steps.  It starts by drilling four small holes from the face of the back panel centered on the blue tape.  The red arrows point to their locations.

Next is to set the framework on the back panel and align it in its final location then clamp the two parts tightly together.  The clamped assembly is then flipped over so the back side of the back panel is up exposing the just drilled four holes (red arrows).  That’s been done in the top photo.  Next using those four holes as guides a pilot hole is drilled into the back of the framework’s post.   The tape on the drill is used as a depth gauge for the hole depth.

Last is to add a countersink to the holes so the screws set flush with the back side of the back panel.  The bottom photo is a closer view of the counter sink drill and what the resulting hole looks like.  As an aside the panel looks a little rough but that’s because it’s been primed and sanded smooth getting ready for the top coat.

Doing a test assembly where the bulb fixture is installed and the framework is attached to the back panel with screws that are installed using the just drilled and counter sunk holes looks like this. 

Next Up – Installing Switches, Cutting Lenses & Final Assembly

Garage Light – #3 Gluing All Sorts of Pieces Together

The main framework assembly starts by gluing the center “U” shaped sub-assembly to the posts.  This is because they fit into a dado and can’t slide side to side which locks the four posts into alignment.  That’s followed by shooting a pin nail from the inside through the post into the “U” shaped piece.  The same process is used for the second and third “U” shaped pieces.  The photo shows the process with the first two “U” shaped pieces glued and nailed in place.   The clamps on the third “U” shaped piece are there to help keep the pieces aligned during assembly.

Here the third piece is ready to be glued and nailed.  The inset shows a pencil line that’s the limit of the joint overlap when assembled.  The enlarged inset shows a closer view of the pencil mark.  It’s used as a guide so I know where to limit the glue application so there won’t be any glue on the part of the post that’s exposed or if glue is squeezed out when the "U" shaped piece is slid up inside the joint next to the post.  It only takes a small drop of glue on each of the six contact points which is spread with a toothpick. 

Once the glue has cured the clamps are removed and the three spacers at the back fill in the "U" shape are glued in place to make a box of the assembly adding quite a bit of rigidity.  They are shown highlighted in the drawing and noted with the red arrows.  Because the light structure gets applied to a larger plywood backer it needs to have a flat mounting surface.  This precluded the use of the overlapping corners used on the front face.  Doing this drove the assembly installed "U" shaped sub-assemblies because there was no good place to glue these last three spacers to at that point.  With the framework assembled there is now a place where the spacers can be added.  Unfortunately, it’s glue only as the two pieces are too thin to pin nail together.   That’s why all the clamps are needed.

Here are a couple of photos of what the light fixture framework looks like to this point.  For reference the framework is about 15” tall.

Installation of a filler strip provides a surface flush with the inside of the posts and a 1/8” decorative top reveal on the exterior is next.  The top drawing shows these pieces highlighted.  In the bottom photo the red arrow points to the highlighted first filler piece glued and nailed in place.  The other eleven pieces, four per layer get glued and pin nailed in place.

This photo shows the two top layers with the filler strips installed.  The red arrow points to the reveal mentioned above.

Next is to glue and pin nail the front and back supports for the top and side lens material.  To make sure the supports are in the right place a spacer is used for consistent locating.  The drawing below shows the back horizontal support and two of the vertical columns highlighted. With one horizontal support in place two of the vertical columns could be fitted and glued in place.  I would have liked to have pin nailed them into place but could not get the nail gun to fit inside the frame’s latticework so I had to glue and clamp them in.  Unfortunately, there was only room to glue and clamp in two of them at a time.  The top photo shows the first two installed and clamped in place.  The red arrows in the bottom photo point to one of the top supports and one of the columns.  

Adding the other columns by gluing and clamping them the same way as the first set is next.  Last is to add the remaining supports for the lens material.  The red arrows show the ones visible in the two photos at the top, middle and bottom of the fixture.

Here, on the left is the completely assembled light frame ready for final sanding.  The rendering on the right shows the lens panels in place with the panels translucent enough so the light frame and electrical parts are visible.  In reality I plan on using panels that are translucent enough to not block much of the light but opaque enough to hide the light bulbs and fixture.  Not sure if they will be glass or plastic. 

After final sanding I stained the frame a light golden oak to enhance the grain and so it would stand out from the white wall of the garage.  It did take a while to apply the stain because while the piece is not very big there are a lot of inside corners, nooks and crannies both on the inside and on the outside to do.  Using a small cotton swab helped make sure these places were fully stained.  For the finish I had two options either a wipe-on polyurethane or sprayed on lacquer.  In the beginning I was leaning toward the wipe-on poly as it has given me good results for small projects with complex shapes that are hard to get good even coverage when spraying lacquer.  However, while applying the stain it looked like there will be enough room inside and in the open spaces between the corner posts that spraying is an option.

After getting the airbrush out and doing some practice dry runs to check spraying clearances and angles I decided to go ahead and spray the frame with lacquer.  The photo shows the frame upside down because the light will be mounted high on the wall centered at about 7’-2” above the floor.  As a result, the primary view of the light will be from below rather than from above or straight on.  The little bit of the frame that did not get sprayed with this setup will be done later by flipping the light.  If things don’t match perfectly at the top, it won’t be seen.  I don’t anticipate a problem but it’s better to be safe.  If you are interested in getting a more detailed discussion on the lacquer spraying setup this link will take you to my Greene & Greene End Table project.  If you are wondering about the blue tape, it’s to prevent those areas from getting sprayed with lacquer because that’s the area where the frame will get glued onto the backer which I haven’t made yet.

Next Up – Framing Back Panel, Installing Light Socket & Dry Fitting Framework to Back

Garage Light – #2 Corner Posts, Rough Blanks, Main Horizontal Pieces & Glue-up

Next is to cut the rabbit at the top and bottom of the post so the cross bars can be inset.  The left drawing shows the top part of the post with the highlighted area showing what needs to be cut.  The right drawing shows how the highlighted cross bars will fit into the rabbit in the post.

Using a similar setup on the table saw I made a cut on the left side of a test piece in the top photo below and it’s not quite what I wanted.  The three red arrows point toward where the scoring blades cut just a little deeper leaving a little groove that would be fine if the rabbit was filled with the cross bar but as you can see in the right drawing above the cut face extends above the cross bar so the scoring cut would be visible.  There are a couple of ways to solve that but I choose to make the cut using the router table. The bottom photo shows the test finished routed rabbit on both the face and edges.

Cutting the dado highlighted in the drawing on the left is next.  It’s done with the dado blade since if some scoring lines show up it’s not a problem since the bottom of the dado will not be visible.  In the right photo the test piece is on edge after the first pass has been made.  From here the fence will be moved to the left or right so the final cut width is correct and is aligned with the pencil marks (red arrows).  This completes the work on the blank and it is ready to have the final cuts made to make the posts.

Cutting the posts out of the finished blank is a two-step process.  First, the fence is set to cut the blank down the center then the blank is set face down on the saw and ripped into two pieces.  The photo shows one blank cut in half (left) and the other (right) ready to be cut.

Just a word on safety here.  When working with power equipment and small pieces where my fingers could get at all close to the cutting tool I use something that will keep them at a safe distance.  When ripping the blanks in half this push block is what was used.  It’s not just fingers; eyes, ears and lungs need to be protected with the appropriate gear.  Anyway, once the blanks are ripped in half the fence is set to the post’s final width and both pieces are run through the saw once more.

Here the left drawing shows most of the remaining parts to be cut, their size and quantity.  While working on the posts I also spent some time deciding how to cut up the material to make best use of the many odds and ends.  I decided to take some of the pieces and rough cut them down into the various thicknesses needed.  There may not be enough to do everything but it’s sure going to take care of a lot of them.  The photo shows the various thicknesses needed separated into groups ranging from 9/16” thick on the left down to ¼” on the far right.

The next set of pieces to be made are the Side and Front pieces shown highlighted in the left rendering.  The right shows the dimensions of the individual pieces along with the quantity needed.

The first step is to take the ½” rough cut pieces and bring them down to exactly ½” tall so they fit in the dados cut into the posts.  That’s done by running them through the thickness sander followed by ripping them down with the table saw to the required 3/8” thick.  These pieces are cut into blanks about ¼” longer than needed.  That’s so if I run into a small problem making the rabbits there is a little room to trim the piece down.  Cutting the rabbits is next and because the tips of the rabbit cut will be exposed, I wanted a really smooth surface so used the router to cut them. 

After routing the rabbit on one end of the pieces they get cut to finish length on the chop using a stop block so they are all the same.

Once cut to length it’s back to router table to cut the second rabbit in the Front pieces, the side pieces are only cut on one end.  Here are all the Side and Front pieces plus one extra of each finished and ready to be used.

Gluing the Side and Front pieces together, highlighted in the drawing, and indicated with the red arrows is next.  The back piece is a temporary spacer and not part of this glue-up but a piece gets attached later.  Shown here are the clamps and jig I made to make sure the three pieces are glued up square and the joints tight.  The circled areas are the glue joints.

Here is the clamping jig with the pieces glued and clamped in place.  Once in place a ½” long by .025” diameter pin nail is shot into the joints center.  You can just see it at the red arrow’s point but the zoomed in view shows it better. 

Once the glue cures the process is repeated twice more.  Gluing the “U” shaped sub-assemblies to the four posts is next but first a clamped dry fit is done to make sure everything goes together as planned.  Once clamped together the assembly is checked to make sure all the joints are tight and square.  All the time and effort that went into accurately making the individual parts paid off since everything fit together except for one spacer that was just about 1/64” too long.  A quick trip to the big disk sander took care of that problem and it was time to disassemble and start gluing and pin nailing the pieces together.

Next Up – Gluing All Sorts of Pieces Together

Garage Light – #1 The Problem, Wiring & Starting Light Fixture

As with most houses there are a few things that are irritating after getting moved in and our current home is no exception.  One of them was a giant whirlpool tub in the master bath that was never used and got removed to make better use of the space see Master Bath Remodeling.  Another is how the interior garage lights are switched.  Currently the lights in the garage are switched at the door between the garage into the living area, between the garage and an unfinished store room and one between the garage and the shop.  However, there is not one between at the person door in the garage to the outside.  The drawing below shows what I mean.

If I could get access to the wiring from an attic or basement, I could add another 4-way switch by the back door so the existing garage ceiling lights could be switched from there too.  I’ve wired multiple switches together to control a light and it takes some time since controlling a light from four different locations is not the easiest thing to put together.  Here because the house is on a concrete slab and has a flat roof without an attic there is no way to get to the wiring without chopping holes in the walls or roof and that’s not going to happen.  My planned solution is to pull power from the existing switch at the back door to feed a new switch then use it to control a new wall mounted light next to the back door as in the elevation below.  That’s fairly easy however, there is still the problem of not being able to get wire to a new switch next to the door from the garage into the living area to control the new light from there.  The solution could be to install a powered smart switch at the garage/outside back door and using a battery remote at the garage/house door.  

At least that’s the plan.  The first step is open up the existing switch box and check to see if there is power available to add the new switch.  A little testing with a volt meter verified an available always on power source so that’s good.

Next was to transfer the location of the existing outside light to the inside wall so I wouldn’t end up cutting a hole in the drywall for the new light’s junction box only to find out it’s in the same place as the outside light’s junction box (left photo).  The blue tape (red arrow) is the center of the outside light’s box and the carboard cutout above it is about where the new light will go.

Laying out and cutting the hole for the new switch and light’s junction boxes is next.  That’s followed by pulling wire from the existing switch box to the new switch box and from that box up to the new light’s box.  All of that has been done in the photo below where you can see the wire hanging out of the openings.

With the holes cut and wires pulled I could install the junction boxes then make the necessary wiring connections and install a temporary light switch and light fixture.  The permanent light switches will get installed later since they need to be ordered now that I know the wiring side works as planned.  The light itself will get installed once it’s built which will be the main focus of this project from here on.

Here is a rendering of the light and an exploded plan of the parts needed except for the glass.  In the beginning I was thinking of making it from red oak but then decided to first go through my box of short leftovers and usable offcuts to see what was in there.  Turns out that red oak is the majority of the pieces available so that worked out well and is what I will use. 

Below is a dimensioned plan for each of the pieces needed, there size and quantity.  In total there are 44 wood pieces for the light frame but only eight different shapes.  Looks like there could be some jigs and fixtures used to make multiple identical parts.

More sorting through the leftovers weeding out any that had flaws or that did not color match well enough.  This narrowed the available stack down to the odds and ends in the photo below.  The pieces vary quite a bit in length, thickness and width so I will be spending some time measuring and talking to myself working to get the best cutting plan with the least amount of waste.  There is also a few whose color doesn’t quite match so they will get set aside.

With the majority of the odds and ends marked as to how they will be cut down I started on the four corner posts.  The black and white drawings below show a front and back view of the post along with its dimensions.  To simplify the cutting of the notch in the back of the posts the blank used will contain two posts plus a little extra. That’s shown in the right two color front/back drawings.  The area shown in light yellow will get cut away when the posts are sawn apart and trimmed to final size.  Milling the pair at the same time makes the cutting of the notch easier and safer.

The layout for the double post blank is shown on the end of the board.  The pencil line on the left marks the size of one of the two blanks I will cut off that board.

I cut the notch using a stack dado blade made up of three 1/8” thick cutters that will cut a 3/8” dado.  Once the correct depth of cut is set the blank gets close to being centered then run through the tablesaw resulting in the cut in the left photo.  Moving the fence to the left cuts more out of the notch then when the piece is reversed and run through the saw a second time the result is a perfectly centered notch.  The fence is moved a little more to the left and the pieces run through the saw.  This is repeated until the edge legs are the correct width ending up with what’s shown in the right photo.

Next Up – Corner Posts, Rough Blanks, Main Horizontal Pieces & Glue-up