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When I picked up a 3.0 single wide it made me notice just how underlit the old school towers are- in my case a couple of core towers.
I was thinking about selling them to get another 3.0, but the cores are awful damn sweet and I figured that I would try to improve on the existing lighting situation.
My cores have a single halogen light in the top and I think that a big part of the reason that the 3.0 lights up so well is the light source in the bottom- in addition to the 4 MR-16's in the top.
Wandering around Costco I noticed some 18' rope lights ($23.00) and figured that I would give that a whirl.
I used a versa bit to put 2 holes in the top of the core display- one in the front left top corner of the display and another directly behind that towards the rear. Then I notched the shelves in the front corners to secure and provide space for the rope light.
I ran the rope down the backside of the left front support to the bottom shelf, around the edge of the bottom shelf and up the back of the right support. Where the rope faced directly forward I blacked it out so that it wasn't directly in the eyes.
I'm not totally done and totally happy yet but the improvement is what I was looking for- to increase the amount of light, the color temperature of the light and get some light all the way to the bottom shelf.
Whaddya think?
Before:
During:
After:
You can see the rope lights' reflection in the back glass but they are all in the front and around the sides.
I was thinking about selling them to get another 3.0, but the cores are awful damn sweet and I figured that I would try to improve on the existing lighting situation.
My cores have a single halogen light in the top and I think that a big part of the reason that the 3.0 lights up so well is the light source in the bottom- in addition to the 4 MR-16's in the top.
Wandering around Costco I noticed some 18' rope lights ($23.00) and figured that I would give that a whirl.
I used a versa bit to put 2 holes in the top of the core display- one in the front left top corner of the display and another directly behind that towards the rear. Then I notched the shelves in the front corners to secure and provide space for the rope light.
I ran the rope down the backside of the left front support to the bottom shelf, around the edge of the bottom shelf and up the back of the right support. Where the rope faced directly forward I blacked it out so that it wasn't directly in the eyes.
I'm not totally done and totally happy yet but the improvement is what I was looking for- to increase the amount of light, the color temperature of the light and get some light all the way to the bottom shelf.
Whaddya think?
Before:
During:
After:
You can see the rope lights' reflection in the back glass but they are all in the front and around the sides.