First Attempt at a Tiki Light - Home Tiki Bars

C coldwarspacemonkey Tiki Socialite Shipwrecked on the First Coast Joined: Aug 08, 2017 Posts: 200	C coldwarspacemonkey Posted posted on Wed, Dec 21, 2022 11:28 AM Skip – thanks! I appreciate the feedback! You have good eyes. That is indeed 16 gauge wire. I probably over-engineered it. Not having a dedicated tiki space (although I’m slowly encroaching on Mrs. Monkey’s dining room), I had to swag the lamp, necessitating about a 15 ft run of cord. It’s only a 25 W bulb, but being ignorant of how long a cord you can get away with in the smaller gauge I erred on the side of caution. Of course they were out of brown that day at the hardware store, hence the black. I would much rather have an 18 gauge cord – and I’ll probably re-wire it after the first of the year. As for hanging it, nothing in my bag o’ cords worked. Jute twine is too small, and too uneven to get a reasonable braid. The next size jute I had was too big – all you saw was the cord. Sisal is a bit too stiff and hairy at that size. At this point I was just wanting to get the darned thing hung up. I’m thinking about some of the braided seagrass that Jayme talks about in his YouTube video. But one way or another the chain has got to go. Absolutely concur with masking up to work with this stuff. Even with hand tools the dust was flying. [ Edited by coldwarspacemonkey on 2022-12-21 11:28:58 ]

Skip – thanks! I appreciate the feedback!

You have good eyes. That is indeed 16 gauge wire. I probably over-engineered it. Not having a dedicated tiki space (although I’m slowly encroaching on Mrs. Monkey’s dining room), I had to swag the lamp, necessitating about a 15 ft run of cord. It’s only a 25 W bulb, but being ignorant of how long a cord you can get away with in the smaller gauge I erred on the side of caution. Of course they were out of brown that day at the hardware store, hence the black. I would much rather have an 18 gauge cord – and I’ll probably re-wire it after the first of the year.

As for hanging it, nothing in my bag o’ cords worked. Jute twine is too small, and too uneven to get a reasonable braid. The next size jute I had was too big – all you saw was the cord. Sisal is a bit too stiff and hairy at that size. At this point I was just wanting to get the darned thing hung up. I’m thinking about some of the braided seagrass that Jayme talks about in his YouTube video. But one way or another the chain has got to go.

Absolutely concur with masking up to work with this stuff. Even with hand tools the dust was flying.

[ Edited by coldwarspacemonkey on 2022-12-21 11:28:58 ]

Post #806963 by coldwarspacemonkey on Wed, Dec 21, 2022 11:28 AM