Old-World Light Bulb Load

Step 7 Assembly and Wiring

The last step remaining is to assemble all the parts. I had to clear the holes with a hand-drill, as some wood filler had adhered to the insides, but otherwise, this was completely straightforward. I mounted the fixtures down with some #10 screws.

I fed some 18AWG wire through the holes in the back of the bulb fixtures, and soldered them to the binding posts. I fastened the other ends in the screw terminals. After that, I put the retaining rings on the fixtures, and added some bulbs.

I made a bottom out of a sheet of mat board from a craft store, which I cut to size using a rotary cutter. I rounded the corners of the mat board on my disk sander, which worked far better than I expected. I then glued this to the box with some rubber cement.

I was out of rubber feet, so I made some with a bit of craft store self-adhesive foam sheet. I made a punch by sharpening some 3/4" brass pipe on my disk sander, and while pressing the punch into the sheet against some scrap wood, turned it until the material was cut. This seems to be a pretty easy way of making non-marring feet, although the foam is a bit soft. I applied four of these improvised foot pads to the bottom.