Wiring - Phase II

To accurately add the 5 new stalls to the old 6 stall building, I used my kitchen counter top as a flat surface to provide a level environment for the concrete sub-floors.  You can see the progression in FIG 6.   I provided weight on the concrete floors, since they will sometimes rise due to imperfections in an alignment.  At this time, I pre-drilled the black plastic girders to accommodate the 6 wires that would run from one side of the building to the other.   Lights were hung from the plastic girders, attaching to the bus wiring through the support girders that set on the concrete floor of each stall.  My only regret is that I didn’t do this with the original building.

I wish I had started the wiring before I glued the top skylight pieces in place, it would have been easier.  But the hook is, you need to stability of the top skylight pieces when you want to lift the entire structure.  I tried to drill holes in the old girder trusses and found this rather tedious through the old portion of the building, and instead wrapped the bus wires one time around each truss from one side to the other.  Before doing this, I built three telephone-like structures from some brass rod that allowed each of the three circuits to come up through the floor and then propagate across the girder trusses from one side to the other (FIG 2).   Without the starlight openings in each roof piece, it would have been impossible to connect the lights to the bus wiring without breaking something in the process (FIG 11).

With the bus wiring in place, I measured and cut the black plastic girders for each stall that would support the individual lights.  I tested each light assembly before gluing in place.   Each stall had a front, middle and rear girder that was glued in place with the light attached, allowing enough free wire to solder to the main circuit wires going through each stall in the same area (FIG 10).   This task took several evenings. Once finished, I tested this with one of my DC transformers and the result was quite impressive.  However, final analysis implies that these circuits may require more power than one transformer.  I’m thinking of cycling the power between the three circuits to provide a realistic effect.

I can't over emphasize the care and patience one must use in adding each stall, checking the alignment and fit with the concrete channel and front doors.   Once everything is under roof, it not the time to be readjusting the rafters.