A need arose for new workbench lighting surrounds for Shalini’s work area!
Over Christmas 2018 we completely rebuilt Shalini’s work area for her Copper Smith work. This comprised new benches and a big rearrangement of her layout of tools and equipment etc.
On completion of all of this Shalini realised that the current lighting set up just wasn’t up to the mark anymore so a solution had to be found.
Simple Workbench Lighting Surrounds using Pallet Wood
This project is a mix of old and new, in that all the wood used is pallet wood and therefore upcycled, the electrical bits are all new as are the wall brackets and wire.
So initially it was a matter of working out were the new lighting should go and how big it should be. then we found a couple of light fittings that were adjustable and would work with GU10 LED bulbs.
This gave me something to work with as I now had dimensions, so building the lighting surrounds could commence.
Sadly I never took pictures during the build of these but they are relatively simple, each of these pallet wood light surrounds comprises of the following components:
3 x long pallet wood planks, cut to length to suit your light fittings
3 x short pieces cut from one plank, length of each to equal width of two long planks side by side
2 x wall brackets and screws
Light fitting and bulbs
Wire and switch
First job was to cut the 3 long planks to length and then sand them down. I didn’t sand them two much as we wanted to preserve the rustic feel of the wood. We also chose not to finish the wood at all and left it bare so it would age naturally.
Next I laid two planks side by side and then took the overall width measurement, this gave me the size of the 3 smaller pieces. These were then cut and fixed across the two longer pieces at 90 degrees. One at each end and one in the middle. This is shown in the picture to the right has been taken from above.
At this point I laid the two long planks on their back and positioned the light fitting and determined were the hole for the cable would have to be drilled. After this the fitting was wired up and an inline switch incorporated so it would be in easy reach when sitting at the workbench. Of course it was also important that the light was covering the right areas of Shalini’s benches. Quick point, if you don’t know how to do the electrics maybe get a competent person to do it.
With the wiring completed and checked the light fitting was attached to the planks. Then the third long piece of wood was attached to the front of the lighting surround. Then the two wall brackets were fitted, one at each end.
To complete the job the workbench lighting surrounds were fixed to the walls in the right places and bulbs fitted, then it was time for the grand switch on!
We both think they look good and are very functional giving a good spread of light in the right places.
So in conclusion these two workbench lighting surrounds made from upcycled pallet wood were easy to build. The costs involved came from the actual light fitting, bulbs, wire and switches. But we are sure they still came in at lot less than ready made items, if in fact we could have found anything like these!
