DIY pendant light project

[HoosierBuddy]

Hey guys.

25 years ago ceiling fans were all the rage. When we took out a wall and made our back porch part of our kitchen, the cathedral ceiling was a perfect spot for one. The 3 bulb lamp is the only light in that area and got used all the time.



The fan? Not so much. I don’t think it’s been turned on once in the last 10 years. Then, the housing started to rust…so something needed done.

I could have taken it down, cleaned it up, repainted it, and reinstalled it…but like I said…really never gets used as a fan.

So, I started looking around for a pendant light…and there are a lot of nice ones out there. Nothing really seemed to check all the boxes though. I was looking for a 6 or 7 bulb lamp with super simple lines. Not seeing exactly what I wanted I decided to just build one.

The box is 1 X 6 pine stained and polyurethaned. It’s all put together with pocket hole screws. It hangs from 2 pieces of 3/8” all thread mounted to hangers that are screwed into rafters.

The old fan control was replaced with a switch/dimmer. The lamps are 10 watt dimmable LEDs. The only hard part was carrying it up the ladder and getting it hung by myself.

 

[captain14]

Great idea. I like it.

The boss approved the design and idea?

Did you buy any new tools for this project?

 

[mrVanagon]

Looks great!

 

[nadogail]

If you hung the fixture with All Thread. How did you run the power to the lamps?

 

[txvwnut]

Looks great. That’s as nice as any high end fixture.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Great idea. I like it.

The boss approved the design and idea?

Did you buy any new tools for this project?

I have wide latitude with the boss.

As far as new tools, my 20 year old Makita 18v drill/driver’s clutch finally gave up about 1/3 way through drilling the pocket holes (Kreg’s jig). The repair part would have been $35, and a new/refurbished replacement was $70… so I chucked the old drill and bought a new one.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

If you hung the fixture with All Thread. How did you run the power to the lamps?

Excellent question. That’s why I had to use 3 down rods. The outer ones have all thread in them. There are nuts and washers in the box. The box lid is slotted about an inch so if my hanger plates were off a bit I could slide the rod in the slot to get the down rods perfectly vertical.

However, the center down rod has no allthread. It’s nutted to a metal junction box in the light box and to a cross-plate that’s attached to the ceiling electrical box. There is 16 gauge 2 conductor (sleeved) lamp wire in that tube and I also ran a bare copper ground with it that connects from the house ground to the metal junction box in the lamp itself.

The all thread is tightened into the plates far enough to take strain off the center down rod. Then matching covers were slid up and screwed into the ceiling (2) and to the ceiling junction box (1).

 

[mike93lx]

Excellent question. That’s why I had to use 3 down rods. The outer ones have all thread in them. There are nuts and washers in the box. The box lid is slotted about an inch so if my hanger plates were off a bit I could slide the rod in the slot to get the down rods perfectly vertical.

However, the center down rod has no allthread. It’s nutted to a metal junction box in the light box and to a cross-plate that’s attached to the ceiling electrical box.

The all thread is tightened into the plates far enough to take strain off the center down rod. Then matching covers were slid up and screwed into the ceiling (2) and to the ceiling junction box (1).

Would have been way cooler to make one all thread the hot and the other the neutral

looks good

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Would have been way cooler to make one all thread the hot and the other the neutral

looks good

When we bought the house (105 years old now) it still had a lot of knob and tube wiring in it. I actually considered making a fixture that featured exposed, bare copper, knob and tube wiring…as a “tip of the hat” to the old way.

Then I remembered how much work it took to get all of it replaced (the last run wasn’t de-energized until we’d owned the house 8 or 10 years). Plus it might have ended up looking like a kid’s science fair project. Kind of “busy” to go in a breakfast nook.

It would be a good look for a different project though. I’d want to hide a transformer somewhere so the conductors would have low voltage on them.

 

[Wiz02]

@HoosierBuddy, my wife is the queen of ceiling fans and they are used constantly in my house for most of the year. I think that only professional electricians have installed more celing fans than me.

However, I think that you may have stumbled upon a side hustle building and selling light fixtures if you can get UL approval and are interested in doing it. The cost of some of these "designer" light fixtures curls what little is left of my hair.

 

[nadogail]

@HoosierBuddy, my wife is the queen of ceiling fans and they are used constantly in my house for most of the year. I think that only professional electricians have installed more celing fans than me.

However, I think that you may have stumbled upon a side hustle building and selling light fixtures if you can get UL approval and are interested in doing it. The cost of some of these "designer" light fixtures curls what little is left of my hair.

I think you can buy or print your own Undertakers Lab stickers, or maybe just buy stickers from the Chinese.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

I’ve done some of the one man, small production, specialty market, side hustle work before. After you make about six of anything, it really starts getting repetitive. Kind of like work.

I’d be all over it if one of my kids wanted me to make them one or something like that….but it was over $200 in material…and 2 weeks of all my free time to knock that out…so not super involved but not trivial either. I had fun doing ONE of them is all I’m saying.

 

[Digster]

You did a nice job, Well done

 

[nadogail]

Good looking work.

 

[no704]

Used to work in a UL lab. It’s a joke! Had two tape measures That had to be calibrated yearly.