After recently building my dedicated guitar workspace, I quickly determined that more lighting was necessary. The space works great but the lighting is less than adequate for this kind of work. I decided that some overhead Pendant Lights would work good, so its off to the shop I go.
I began by rummaging through the boards I have on hand, I found some Barn Wood that would work great. I jointed one edge then ripped them down on the tablesaw to about 2 3/4″ wide. Then I cut some dadoes to make up the triangular shape of the brackets. After a little preassembly, I got the measurements of the angled portion of the brackets and cut them at 45 degrees. Now I can glue them together. The hardest part here, is making sure I don’t glue one of the brackets in backwards. It worked out fine though. After the glue dried, I moved on to the finishing. Since the edges were freshly cut, I wanted to make it match the old wood a bit more. I applied some grey, water based dye to the cut edges of the barnwood. This really worked well and helped it blend in a lot more. Finally, I applied a coat of Boiled Linseed Oil to the brackets, and they were ready for the lights.
To make the lights, I ordered a bunch of parts from Color Cord Company. (not sponsored) They are a Colorado based company so that makes them pretty cool, plus they have tons of fabric covered lamp cord and cool looking fixtures. If you order from them, tell them Home Built Workshop sent you. (I don’t get anything from this) After carefully wiring the fixtures up it was just a matter of threading the cord through the holes in the brackets, adding the plugs, some shades I found on clearance, and the lights are done. (Just a quick note on these light sockets, DO NOT preassemble them. The socket locks once you screw the parts together and its very tricky to get them apart again.)
Now, I just screwed them to the wall above my repair bench, plugged them in to a switched outlet and now I have tons of overhead light. The terrible shadows are gone and I can see great. I’m really glad to have these lights in place. What a difference good lighting makes. Check out the whole build video below. Thanks for popping in.
— Affilliate Links —
Wixey Angle Gauge – https://amzn.to/2Gv9wIu
Boiled Linseed Oil – https://amzn.to/2Dio9vw
Nitrile Gloves – https://amzn.to/2TEQseu
