LED wiring for Dollhouse Miniatures: Part 5 Constructing Fixtures

Constructing Fixtures 2

Making the porch light:

I need a porch light for this building, and I want it to be something like the drawing below. I’ve looked everywhere on the web for lamp parts that can be wired with LEDs and have finally decided that I need to make them myself.

First, I tried a paper cone. This is more difficult that it would seem. No one seems to have a water cooler with those paper cone drinking cups anymore. So I tried to make a paper cone. Each cone I made leaned ever so slightly off center even when drawn with drafting compass and ruler. I also drew the shape on the computer to get it absolutely symmetrical, but it still did not turn out to my liking.

Needless to say, I did not take pictures of these failures.

Next, I bought a ‘yard’ light which turned out to be too large (2 inches in diameter). I thought, oh well, I’ll just make a smaller item of similar shape inside this light. I made one from polyclay but when I baked it, it crumpled a bit and looks more like an old hat than the shade of a fixture.

Now I was frustrated because nothing was coming out like my drawing:

Part numbers in above drawing are JAR-JAF.com parts.

Then I had to stop this project because of the demands of my day job. I also had to go for my annual physical. While there, I asked the nurse if she had anything that looked like a cone and told her why I needed it. “I’ll ask,” she said very generously. When she came back into the room after the doc was finished with me, she gave me the item below:

Above is the part I was interested in, so I brought it home and began by spraying it with Krylon Fusion, so I

could paint it after cutting it down.

I then drilled a hole in the base of the vial (or as it will

end up) the top of the fixture shade.

I've initially fit the parts of this fixture together. The wires run easily through the brass rod, but the 3 volt LED itself and its base connections do not fit well up in the new shade. I need a larger part for concealing the base of the LED, a ceiling plate, a metal top for the shade and paint.

I have ordered these from JAR-JAF.com.

While I wait, I will begin wiring some attic lights which will not have shades as they

will be hidden in the rafters.

I urge you to look at other sources for making fixtures like Kris’s blog

http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/2010/11/november-project-lamp-shade-part-1.html

Stay Tuned... for when I get my order from JAR-JAF

Wow, I totally forgot to come back to this section. Here are photos of the finished porch fixture:

Ready to be installed