Tuesday - June 04, 2013
These Ought To Be Included
So it finally stopped raining long enough for me to get some more work done on the landscape lights outside here by the walkway. It’s a small project, but it’s turned into a slightly annoying one. When we bought this place there were two pagoda style lights out there under the bushes and a small transformer hanging on the side of the porch wall. Old school stuff, they’d been out there for more than a decade. The transformer was shot, so I replaced it with a more modern one. Oooh boinky, digital razzmatazz, 4 different kinds of timing circuit and a remote electric eye, plus enough power to run 8 or 10 lights if I wanted. Great. Low voltage landscape lights, available at all the big box home improvement stores, all the lighting shops, and many electric supply stores. Right? Wrong.
Then I repaired the two old lamps. Nothing really wrong with them, just dirty and neglected. The screw bases of the frosted glass lenses were broken but the bits were there so I epoxied them back together enough so that they now screw in to their bezels somewhat. The bulbs were shot, but these old lamps use plain old brake light bulbs which are cheap and easy to find.
Then it was an internet journey into darkness trying to find some more lights that matched what was out there. And hopefully find them for a reasonable price. I went to all the local stores but nothing matched, or even came close. Sure, everything is LED these days and uses next to no power, but almost all the lamps are cheap plastic crap from China. Our 2 old ones are hefty chunks of metal. You hammer their 10” forged ground stakes in with a mallet. None of this 4” plastic spike nonsense. So the search was on. That took me a couple days, but I finally found what I wanted, a 3 tiered pagoda light, made from cast aluminum, in dark green, for a good price. It even came with a bulb. Excellent. So I ordered 3 of them.
The lights arrived in perfect condition in short order. Then I found out that the stems on them were only 6” long. No wonder they were so inexpensive. And they didn’t come with connectors. So I had to hunt down the manufacturer and order some extra stems and some “EZ connectors”. That set me back a week or so, but we were having monsoon season, so so what?
I installed the new lights yesterday, got them all in place at the proper heights - our walkway has two flights of stairs in it, the land slopes away from the side, and the edge of the walk has those 8x8 landscape timbers stepping down the slope, so some of the lights needed to be as much as 2 feet above the soil to put the lamps in the right position to illuminate the walkway - and went to do the “EZ connectors”. Which aren’t. Actually, they suck chunks. They’re the piercing kind, a chintzy screw together plastic block where you put the lamp’s wire next to the bigger main wire and tighten the thing, and hope that the 4 copper pins inside pierce all the conductors in the proper places. They don’t. The copper points bend, and when they do pierce the insulation they generally miss the actual wire inside. I fought with them for more than an hour, and managed to get exactly one to work. The other two fell apart.
There has got to be a better way. And there is: the “wire hat” pictured at the top of this page is a special kind made for outdoor ground contact use. They’re a bit bigger than regular screw splice connectors, and they’re filled with dielectric grease. Cut, strip, and twist your wires, screw them into the connectors, and the junction gets filled with thick grease, which waterproofs them forever. And the grease stays inside the cap. Very nice. Except I have to drive 26 miles down to Hillsborough to pick some up so I can finish the job today. And some bug spray while I’m there. But there is a nice old bridge I want to check out on the way back, so that will be fun.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/04/2013 at 08:09 AM
Filed Under: • Daily Life •
• Comments (2)
•
Trackbacks(0)
Permalink • Five Most Recent Trackbacks:
Once Again, The One And Only Post
(4 total trackbacks)
Tracked at iHaan.org
Thｅ advantage to having a guide with you is thɑt an expert will haѵe very first hand experience dealing and navigating the river with гegional wildlife. Tһomas, there are great…
On: 07/28/23 10:37
The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We've Been Waiting For
(3 total trackbacks)
Tracked at head to the Momarms site
The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We’ve Been Waiting For
On: 03/14/23 11:20
Vietnam Homecoming
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at 广告专题配音 专业从事中文配音跟外文配音制造，北京名传天下配音公司
专业从事中文配音和外文配音制作，北京名传天下配音公司 北京名传天下专业配音公司成破于2006年12月，是专业从事中 中文配音 文配音跟外文配音的音频制造公司，幻想飞腾配音网领 配音制作 有海内外优良专业配音职员已达500多位，可供给一流的外语配音，长年服务于国内中心级各大媒体、各省市电台电视台，能满意不同客户的各种需要。电话：010-83265555 北京名传天下专业配音公司…
On: 03/20/21 07:00
meaningless marching orders for a thousand travellers ... strife ahead ..
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at Casual Blog
[...] RTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPL [...]
On: 07/17/17 04:28
a small explanation
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at yerba mate gourd
Find here top quality how to prepare yerba mate without a gourd that's available in addition at the best price. Get it now!
On: 07/09/17 03:07
DISCLAIMER
THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.
Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.
Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner
Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
RSS 2.0 
Atom 
