Project Information
Several items in the shop require 12 volts. On one side I already have a power box I use to run a roll down shade powered by a power window motor from a Ford, as well as 12 volt power outlet for testing and a LED fog lamp I use on my swing arm lamp. Not wanting to run that much wire across the ceiling I made another power box for the opposite side of the shop. This will be running some 12 volt LED fog lamps I converted for use as task lamps for the drill press and bandsaw. Looking through my supply of stuff I had a old computer power supply, found the digital voltmeter and said hey that tells me how many volts and is a visual sign I have line voltage at the ports. The blue light I also had in stock have no idea why. The box is straight forward design, nothing fancy just scraps and no sexy joinery. The other power sources I built are yellow with the metal covers being aluminum so I kept that theme going. My overall cost on this was $14, had everything but 18 gauge wire in stock so had to break down and purchase that. To keep from having to remember to turn this off I put an outlet in the ceiling tied to the lights overhead. When the lights go out, it turns off and no fires or other issues since it becomes a dead circuit. Special thanks to Bearpaw he is the one that showed me to put outlets in the ceiling for the lights to individually be plugged in rather than hardwired. That paid off over the years this project included.