prv
Well-Known Member
When I had Ariam's mast down last winter, I ran a cable for some deck lights. However, I ran out of time before the scheduled re-rigging to find some lights I liked, so the upper end of the cable is neatly coiled and taped to the underneath of the radar bracket.
I've now found and ordered some lights - retrofit boy-racer daytime running lights designed to simply be stuck to a car bumper with double-sided foam tape. Tacky as hell on the road, but the stick-on nature means they are very thin and hence unobtrusive on the undersides of the spreaders. I'll probably back up the included sticky with some sikaflex and / or epoxy.
Once they arrive I'll need to wire them up. My usual standard for permanent wiring like this is solder, plain heatshrink on the individual cores, then adhesive heatshrink over the whole thing ensuring that it's properly bonded to the outer insulation all the way round. This gives a robust and waterproof joint. However, this technique doesn't work for the three-way joint needed here, because one end of the heatshrink has two cables coming out of it and you can't get a continuous glue seal all the way round.
I can think of various ways of solving this, from self-amalgamating tape to a blob of silicone to a waterproof junction box and cable glands, and others besides. But I'm curious to see if the forum can suggest a neat, elegant, and relatively cheap technique for a three way joint which I haven't come across.
Cheers,
Pete
I've now found and ordered some lights - retrofit boy-racer daytime running lights designed to simply be stuck to a car bumper with double-sided foam tape. Tacky as hell on the road, but the stick-on nature means they are very thin and hence unobtrusive on the undersides of the spreaders. I'll probably back up the included sticky with some sikaflex and / or epoxy.
Once they arrive I'll need to wire them up. My usual standard for permanent wiring like this is solder, plain heatshrink on the individual cores, then adhesive heatshrink over the whole thing ensuring that it's properly bonded to the outer insulation all the way round. This gives a robust and waterproof joint. However, this technique doesn't work for the three-way joint needed here, because one end of the heatshrink has two cables coming out of it and you can't get a continuous glue seal all the way round.
I can think of various ways of solving this, from self-amalgamating tape to a blob of silicone to a waterproof junction box and cable glands, and others besides. But I'm curious to see if the forum can suggest a neat, elegant, and relatively cheap technique for a three way joint which I haven't come across.
Cheers,
Pete
