May 18, 2006
I made further progress on the wall cap today.
Here's the gig... Notice the squared off notch on top of those blocks that have the glue on them? The rope light kinda goes up in the groove that creates once the top block is on. Then I drill a screw straight up into the cap blocks (one per cap block) to hold the rope light in that groove. At night, I actually get a decent glow under the lip as well as on the patio floor concrete. Just about what I was hoping for in the conceptual phase. For now... Put down some block glue....
Set the blocks..
Once those are good and glued I can put the rope light in. I need to hammer drill upward on the blocks, so good and stuck down is the best.
My glue tube was out when I got this far. So, next time I work on this, I have to saw the block for this end and glue it down.
Do my best to fit that corner on a 90. The rope light just rounds the corner under there. One length for both sides represented here.
This was the ginny pig section for rope light installation. I'm pretty happy with the turnout, so this is the plan for the rest of it. You can see the little black dots (one per top block). Those are the screws that hold the rope light in place. Lightly detectable at best.. I didn't want the sore thumb effect and I think I avoided it.
The switch box has two switches. One for all the rope lights, and the other for the pagoda lights that will be out in the barked area.
This is not the wiring plan, just a 'test'... One day we need to churn this up, put the lights where they go, then wire them up, then bark over it all.
This switch box is not this way for how cool it is. This is what I found when I was in search for a water resistant, outdoor switchbox. Interesting thing about finding this switch box. I was in Home depot looking all over and didn't see anything that looked like an outdoor switchbox.... they gotta make it, but... dang.. if HD doesn't have it.. maybe they don't... So, I asked the guy.. He told me no.. The only thing for an outdoor switch is the big plastic bubble ugly thing. HUGE BUMMER since I didn't want that ugly duck stuck to the wall here. Oh well.. so I left him and went looking for other stuff and within 2 minutes ran into an aisle end cap that has all these outdoor switch boxes in several styles and sizes.. one switch or two.. etc... About 10 bucks for the whole setup (box, face, 2 switches, etc..).