Wiring Time

[kevin_standlee]

In order to make proper use of the "studio lights" we bought a few weeks ago for Railway Legends, Myths, and Stories, Lisa wanted to install a switched outlet in the ceiling. This will allow her to mount the lights up there and get them aimed the way she wants them, and then when we're going to record, she can just flip the switch without having to spend a bunch of time setting up lights. This afternoon after I finished with Day Jobbe for the weekend, we set out to to the wiring.



Lisa plugged the test lamp she got from her friend Chris into the outlet at the floor, from which she previously had branched a line up the wall to a switch and to some additional lights. She shut off the circuit breaker (safety first!) after we shut down the computers and moved them and the monitors off the computer desk and put the desk aside so she could get at the area where the new wiring would be.



There sure are a lot of wires in our computer area. This project did give us a chance to clean the desk and vacuum in the work area, which is difficult under most circumstances due to all of the wires back there.



Lisa disassembled the light fixture. Originally, these two lights were individually switched. She disconnected the wires and wired both lights to one of the switches below out of shot. She then was able to connect the lines from the other switch to wire running through a new piece of Legrand surface conduit to an L-bracket where the wall meets the ceiling, then along another piece of conduit, where she would install a new outlet.



Here she is installing the backing to the new outlet on the ceiling.



Here's the new outlet box and outlet. We've run out of face plates. We'll go buy some more before installing the new lights, but the hard part of running the wire and conduit is done.

Lisa turned the circuit breaker back on and tested both the rewired light fixture and the new outlet, and everything is in order. Once we have more electrical face plates and the mounting hardware for the studio lights, she'll finish the installation. She thanked me for my help handing her tools and parts, disposing of discarded pieces of wire insulation and conduit packaging, and otherwise serving as an electrician's assistant. The saved her a lot of time because she didn't have to keep climbing up and down the ladder.

Cleaning all of the computer wiring, the table, the area underneath and around the desk, and putting all of the computers, wiring, monitors, etc. back into place took around as long as the wiring project did. I'll have more to say about the computers and monitors tomorrow.

Comments

[a_cubed]

You might think about getting one or more wiring boxes to help keep the wires at the back of the computer workstations less dusty and easier to clean - you can clean the outside of a wiring box more easily than a bunch of tangled wires.

[solarbird]

Cleanup and clearing out taking a lot more time than the actual work? Oh yeah, been there done that. Look forward to seeing how it all comes out.

[delosharriman]

I'm always glad to know that little gadget I wired up continues to be useful.