fitting a light fixture to a wooden hood

[houndour]

Hi,

I've just bought a T5 light unit and just opened it and it looks like it's to be fitted to a metal hood.

I'm not a DIY type person so I don't have a clue how to fit it. It comes with 2 clips but I don't know how I can attach this clips to the hood. Glue might not be strong enough? But the clips don't look like they would handle screws.

Anybody else attached their lights to a wooden hood?

Sam

 

[Jen]

does the light strip have holes in it? if it is lying on the floor, look in the space that is below the lights. you may have to take off a cover covering the wires and bits. most light strips will have various holes that you can use with those hooks. I just took about 6 shorter screws - my wood is 1/2 inch thick - so some 1/4 or 3/8 screws and fired them in. They do a great job, and althought I was a bit iffy about it falling off, it is firm in place.

 

[konrad05]

What I did with my shoplights in my canopy was I drilled about 6 holes into the metal light fixture, then I screwed in 6 small screws, about 3/4" just long enough not to pierce through the other side (top of canopy). They've been holding ever since. Good luck!

 

[houndour]

Hmmm, I'm not sure my strip light fittings are the same.

Basically I have 2 plastic clips that clip onto the bulb itself. And the clips clip into these plastic things that are simply pushed through a 7mm hole. So there is nowhere to screw anything through on the clips that hold the bulb.

It's hard to explain. I could make my own thing to hold the light? What materials would be safe to hold a strip bulb?

Thanks,
Sam

 

[StrontiumDog]

Hi houndour,

I needed to fit T8's to my wooden hood unit. So I asked my LFS if he had the clips for them and he produced some plastic clips, with a hole in the middle of the clip small enough for a small screw to fix them to the hood.

I'm sure if you ask your LFS what your problem is they will come up with the right size clips for you.

HTH

Edit: for a pack of 4 it only costs a couple of £'s if that

 

[houndour]

Oh that's exactly what I need then. I will have to wait until saturday now.

Thanks!

 

[keane]

Sam,

I am assuming you are talking about the little "arrow shaped" clips. They are useless with wooden hoods .

Throw 'em away and simply fasten the light tube clips straight into your wooden hood with a 5mm screw through each hole (the head of the screw will be wide enough to hold the clipd firmly in place.

I have done the same on all three of my wooden hooded tanks.

No problems .

steve 8)