Sunday 15 June 2014

Wires, wires everywhere.... pt 2

Last Sunday we showed you how we'd set up our bedside tables to contain USB sockets. Yesterday, after ordering some more components this week, we set about finishing off the project with wired in bedside lights.

The lamps we've got have their switch on the cable, so each night when you're half asleep and wanting to turn the light out you have to go scrabbling around down the side of the cabinet to find out where the switch has got to. Since we were trying to wire up our cupboards anyway we decided to fit permanent light switches to make things easier.

First we cut out the original switch so that we could replace it with the one we wanted, then created a hole in the top of the chest to take the wire from the lamp.


With another hole ready for the new switch, we fed both the cable from the lamp and the cable from the plug through this hole ready to solder to the new switch.


Then we soldered all the wires together and sealed the joints with heat shrink - this was going to be mains power and we didn't want to risk loose connections.


Finally we cut a hole in the back of the cabinet to feed both the plug from the lamp and the USB cable through. These are then plugged in under the bed and the bedside table has a nice, clean finish.


This has been a project that we've been talking about for a long time, and its so nice to see it all done. I may (or may not - just saying) have wandered into the bedroom merely to turn the light on and off yesterday.