Hey pals, I just got a free light fixture off of Craigslist. It is from a bathroom and is the"Vanity" style where there are 6 open sockets in a row with a polished steel/aluminum backing (perfect for cfl's). I would take a picture but I dont have a digital camera with me. Anyway since it was wall mounted and wired into the house how would I go about wiring it for an electrical outlet? I plan on adding this to my grow cabinet but want to be able to plug it into my timer. Thanks
I just wire three of these thing up to make make one big CFL fixture. I'll be running 468 true watts through them as soon as I get back in town (leaving tommorow for a fee days.) I've run them for a few days to get the kinks worked out, but there weren't any kinks! Workin great. K. Heres what you do... Go to lowes or home depot and pick up the following things. A cheap orange extention cord. Get one of the three prong ones. Just make sure its not one of those extention cube things. It has to be a little heavier duty than that. Get one like this... Also, pick up a small junction box. The one in the link sucks and is too expensive, just wanted to illustrate. ANy way, get one of the galvanized ones and the matching cover. They are a lot cheaper. Get some wire caps too. Just get a few, like one of those bags that has a dozen in them. You'll only need three. Go home. Once you get home, empty the bag and get your light. Take the junction box and look inside it. You'll see a bunch of circular recesses on inside. All like 1 inch or so in diameter. Those punch out leaving a nice clean hole. Use a screwdriver and a hammer to pound these out. When I did mine, I didn't take the circular pieces out, just bent them in enough to get the wire in. Added a little protection and helps keep the wiring in place without getting conduit. Run the wires from your vanity into one of these holes. Take your extenstion cors and cut the female end of it off. Strip the orance insulation back a couple inches and you will find the 3 wires inside it. Strip about a half ince off of these as well, and run them in the second hole of the junction box. Twist the two white wires together and then twist on one of the caps. Once its nice and tight, you're done. Repeat with the black wires. Now the green wire in the extension cord is the ground wire. I'm betting th ground wire on the vanity is just a plain copper wire with no insulation on it at all. That's ok. Just go ahead and twist and cap these two wires. Put the cover on the junction box and just let it chill on top of the light or tape it dow or mount it any other way you see fit. That's it!
Great! I kinda had an idea that was basically the way it would work. would not have known about the ground wire though (DUH!!) I really appreciate the tutorial sir. I have the same type of vanity up in my bathroom now and thought that it would be a great reflective light fixture for cfl grows. Great minds think alike sir. If you get time some time I would love to see some pics pf your set-up too. I will be posting a grow journal that will include my first grow and grow cabinet build hopefully soon. I am so chomping at the bit!!!! stupid money. PEACE!
I've been crawling around GC for awhile now but never posted but I thought I could add something to this thread. 13ronin gave some great advice but instead of halfway punching out the holes and sticking the wires in I recommend getting some 1/2" Romex connectors. You should actually only need one. Looks like this: A hammer and screwdriver sounds like an accident waiting to happen. If you have a pair of decent sized needle nose pliers use those instead. It's kind of hard to explain without showing you, but hold the pliers with the tip pointing down like your going to stab someone with them and hit the knockout with the tip of the pliers. Then use the pliers to twist off the knockout. Unscrew the round nut off the connector (lock nut), stick the connector into the box with the threads of the connector facing the inside of the box and screw the lock nut back on. Loosen the two screws on the back of the connector and stick the wires in, you need about 4-5 inches inside the box, and tighten the two screws so it clamps down on the cord (not too tight). Now your cord won't get all messed up and cause a short, and it'll stay in place.
Appreciate the good feedback. This is going to be a good learning experience for me. Trial and error, although thanks to you guys hopefully alot less error. Thanks for coming out to post