Hey all, I found this flourescent shoplight in my garage.... it's old and pretty dirty at the moment, but I will clean it later. It holds two 40w tubes. However, the way the wires are exposed right now makes it a fire hazard. I used the loose cord there and connected the prongs to the appropriate wires, and the light works just fine, but the prongs are loose and there is no connection for the ground wire, so it is too dangerous to use that way. I don't know anything about wiring or electrical work, so I was wondering if anyone can help me get a connection to the wire that will be safe and secure. What do I need to get and how do I connect and wire it? Thanks for the help in advance... (I'm going to be using one of these in a wooden chest I have for a veg box for seedlings and clones, so I figured fixing this would be cheaper than buying a new one.) EDIT: Woops, forgot to add the pics... here... The black cord is just the loose wire I used to test if the light worked. I'm guessing I'll be throwing that away since it doesn't have a ground wire connection.
One way to fix it is buy a short extension cord and cut off female end, then strip some off outer insolation off. Now take stripped end and tie into light Black is the hot lead, White is the Neutral, and Green is the Ground. Buy some good wire nuts and electrical tape
I am missing some critical components on your pictures. You are supposed to have a ballast and some kind of starter device with it.
What the guy said all yo need now is 7 more they are only 25 bucks a piece down here in the very expensive caribbean
Seeing that he said they start up and that the camera is only taking 1 half picture of the length of the fixture i would think the ballast is just off sides from the picture Lets not get too trivial here please.
PS thats a pretty wide shoplight, you can get them with the bulbs closer which will take up less space mounting them next to eachother... I can see why you said in the other thread that you dont have enough space, yes with that type of shoplight it would require alot of space to put 4 in a row next to eachother.
As Dier said, it's built in and works. I've plugged the light in with the cord there and it works just like it should. I just needed to know how to make the wiring safe to plug in so I can use it. Thanks for the help, guys. It sounds easy. I'll go to Lowes and get electrical tape, a short appliance extension cord, and the electrical nuts... I hope they have the nuts, I couldn't find them on the website. Oh, and Dier, I might pick up some of those skinny 4ft single tube strips to put in there too. I can't put them to the sides of the plants but I bet I could fit one inbetween those two tubes there and one on each side of those tubes... just resting them against the reflector. I'm just holding the light up with books underneath it on the ends to elevate it enough to put plants under it. that would be 5 tubes (200 watts) in a small space right on top of the plants. I think that would be plenty for vegging seedlings and clones for 2 weeks...
is to go to a place like home depot, u can get a new shop light fixture for about 10 dollars... no fire hazard or anything
Don't listen to Dier. The fact that he noticed what I did not notice proves beyond a doubt that I smoke more potent stuff then he does. So what the hell could he know?
LOL... Yeh probably coz i dont know the first thing about growing Dont buy the single, for almost the same price you can get the double tube shop light, yours is wide verson you can get the narrow type.
why wouldn't I listen to him about a light...? you don't need to know anything about the ballast. the electrical wire to run electricity to the light was simply cut so it had no plug. I already said that I've tested the light and it works. I just need a plug connected to it safely so I can power it as for the shoplights... I've only seen them for $20 bucks. and dier, they have the single ones here for $10 each. :] seems like it's 10 bucks per every 40watts no matter which way you buy it....
I understand all too well. I was kidding. Didn't you notice the smilies? I also say I did not notice that part about you testing it already. Listen to Dier. I do.(well....sometimes)
lol sorry! I think when I looked at that I had been using firefox. when I use this forum with firefox pictures and smilies (any images) don't show up at all.... so, no, I didn't see the smilies! lol