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| Make Your Own Yard Lights - The Lineside. - Getting You Started. - Your Model Railway Club | ||||||||||
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MaxSouthOz Admin 
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I wanted yard lights which represented 50's quartz halogen or similar. I couldn't find any in the shops, so I decided to make my own. Each light requires one brass pole 2.4mm dia 140mm long and a brass sleve 3.3mm dia 45mm long, two 1k ohm resistors, two 3mm high intensity (1600 MCD will do) LEDs, two 3/8"x1/8" flat washers and two pieces of rainbow wire about 230mm long.  Cut one wire off each resistor, leaving about 2mm. Cut the other wire leaving about 23mm. Solder the two short ends together. Strip about 10mm off one of the pieces of rainbow wire. Tin the exposed wires and bend into a hook. Wrap the hook around the two short ends of the resistors where they have been soldered together ans solder it on.  Slide the short length of brass tubing over the long piece and solder them together, leaving about 1cm poking out of one end. It is only necessary to tack them together. Feed the tail of the wire attached to the resistors down the brass tubing until there is about 3mm still exposed. Put a drop of thick CA glue on the wire and pull it through until the joint is sitting on top of the tubing; but not touching. The glue should roll up the wire and make a smooth boss between the resistors.  Put it aside for a few minutes until the glue has dried, making sure the resistors are at right angles to the brass tube. When it has set up, test that there are no short circuits in the assembly. Cut the short legs (negative) off the LEDs, leaving about 3mm. Bend the long legs at right angles and solder the short legs to the ends of the resistor wires; overlapping by about 3mm. Bend the wires at right angles and the LED long legs at 45 degrees, with about 1.5mm kicker at the end.  Solder the long legs of the LEDs to the brass tubung, so they form a brace for the lamp. Hold the tube in a clamp so the assembly is upside down and put a drop of thick CA on either side of the LEDs. Make sure the glue is placed on the collar of the LED and not the lens. Drop a 1/8" washer on to each LED and position them centrally.  When the glue has set up, solder the other wire to the bottom of the thinner tube below the collar so that it will go through a 1/8" hole to mount it in the layout bed. Put a small piece of shrink tubing over each LED and spray paint to taste.   ____________________ Max Port Elderley |
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Robert Legacy Member 
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Very nice how to Max. Much appreciated. I have moved the item from the online shopping to the Lineside here as it will be read by a lot more people, and it is a more appropriate section for your work.
____________________ Barchester |
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Alan Former Member
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Hi Max Very impressive, How will you power them when they are all installed, and you MUST show us them all lit up on the layout. |
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MaxSouthOz Admin
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Hi Alan. They can be powered direct from the DCC bus as they have the resistors built in, but I have a regulated DC power supply for all my LEDs as DC is reputed to give them a longer life than AC. I'll try to get some shots. It was a bit stressful, what with Photobucket et al, but I'm getting there. Thanks to Bob for tidying up the post.
____________________ Max Port Elderley |
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MikeC Former Member
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Wow, Max!! This is great, and they look very good indeed. Many thanks for showing how it's done. I'd love to give it a try. Mike |
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Wayne Williams Member 
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Max, what a great idea and I sure like how you explained it. Maybe even I could do that now.:wow May have to look up how to "tin" something though!  Wayne ____________________ My Layout "The South Shore Line": http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=509&forum_id=21 |
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MikeC Former Member
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Tinning is just getting a thin film of solder over the wire prior to doing the actual solder. Mike |
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Robert Legacy Member
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I have put this topic in the Forum Index so we don't lose track of it.
____________________ Barchester |
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sparky Member
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They look great max ,what exactly is rainbow wire ?
____________________ reg |
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henryparrot Former Member
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Max a great tutorial many thanks They sell similar things at express models but you would probably be looking a £80+ for the amount you have produced so with effort on your part you have saved yourself a great deal of money plus the satisfaction of making a unique yard light yourself. cheers Brian.W |
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Lawrence Former Member
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Great stuff Max, now in N gauge please 
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Kevr Member 
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I wish i was clever enough to make something like that. They are Brilliant (no pun intended)  ____________________ 'Kev |
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MaxSouthOz Admin
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Thanks for the compliments, guys. Rainbow wire is used for internal connections in computers. It is about .5mm multistrand in about 8 colours moulded in a flat format of about 16 cables. Hope that makes sense. I don't have any new bits at the moment to count them properly. Not sure about N scale - I'll have to think about that one. I have also used the LEDs to make fluros. IanSA showed me how. I'll put a pic of them on when I do the requested "lit up" pics of these. Cheers Max
____________________ Max Port Elderley |
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MaxSouthOz Admin
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As promised, pic of the lights in situ - including some shots of the 3mm HI LEDs used as fluro platform lights. Cheers Max     
____________________ Max Port Elderley |
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henryparrot Former Member
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Max They look really good and the fluo ones aswell look really good. Little sideline business for you there Max`s model lighting. Max on your layout that centre section that is still just baseboard it looks as if it will be difficult for you to work on that or am i not noticing something in the photographs? cheers Brian.W |
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Marty Enjoying the Journey 
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Very nice, great how to, I could follow it  Now I've got to be able to do a similar thing in N to represent GWR gas lamps  ____________________ Marty N Gauge, GWR West Wales Newcastle Emlyn Layout. Newcastle Emlyn Station is "Under construction" |
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owen69 Former Member
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Marty,you can get 1mm leds should be about right for n.  |
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Kevr Member
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Those are The Business :wow ____________________ 'Kev |
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MikeC Former Member
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I just love seeing them continuing off into the distance. Very impressive sight. Mike |
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MaxSouthOz Admin
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Hi Brian. The baseboard is strong enough to sit on to work, and the layout is only 1.8m wide; and at 1140 off the floor, I can stand on one of my many IKEA stools and easily reach to the middle. I laid the track for the coal preparation plant behind the hills, and soldered the drop wires that way. I may be old, but I am still bendy .. .
____________________ Max Port Elderley |
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| This is topic ID = 2669 Current time is 11:54 am | Page: 1 2 |
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