The New Hotness

The object of the game being to tilt the LED strip lights at (maybe) 30° to put more light higher on the wall and further out on the ceiling, with the overriding constraint of no visible holes. Given their eventual home atop the window moulding along the front wall of the ~~Living~~ Sewing Room, these seemed adequate:

LED Bar Lamp Mount - solid model — LED Bar Lamp Mount – solid model

The hole on the angled part fits an M4 brass insert and the recessed holes capture the washer-like head of a sharp-point lath screw.

Two pairs applied to the lights sitting atop the Fabric Cabinets served to verify the fit:

LED strip light - moulding mount - on cabinet — LED strip light – moulding mount – on cabinet

They’re held firmly by the aluminum extrusion and don’t need a bigger footprint to remain stable.

So I made another six, stuck on ⅞ inch strips of aluminized Mylar (cut from a bag in much better condition), and drilled holes where they can’t be seen:

LED strip light - moulding mount - installed — LED strip light – moulding mount – installed

It’s almost too bright in there with 3 × 40 W of LED lights washing the wall and ceiling:

LED strip light - moulding mount - lit — LED strip light – moulding mount – lit

I don’t like the cold 6000 K color temperature, but Mary doesn’t mind it. They fill the Sewing Table with shadowless / glareless light, although that kind of light makes the place look like a store.

I think moving the strip lower and away from the wall could hide the entire mount from view.

Contrary to what I expected, the Mylar reflectors must be at least an inch tall to avoid Baily’s Beads seen from across the room:

LED strip light - short reflector — LED strip light – short reflector

With all that in mind, we’ll run these for a while to shake out any other improvements.

The OpenSCAD source code as a GitHub Gist:

	// LED light bar mounts
	// Ed Nisley – KE4ZNU
	// 2025-03-16

	include <BOSL2/std.scad>

	Layout = "Show"; // [Show,Build,ScrewMount,BarMount]

	BaseAngle = 30; // [0:50]

	/* [Hidden] */

	ID = 0;
	OD = 1;
	LENGTH = 2;

	Protusion = 0.1;
	NumSides = 3*4;
	Radius = 1.5;

	$fn = NumSides;

	MouldWidth = 18.0; // nominal (3/4) * INCH, but lots of paint slop
	MouldScrew = [4.7,12.0,2.6]; // clearance, head OD, head thick

	Insert = [4.0,5.5,6.0 + 3.0]; // heat-set brass without pilot end

	BarClip = [33.0,15.0,11.0]; // snaps around led base

	ScrewBlockOA = [MouldWidth,MouldScrew[OD] + 2*Radius + 2.0,10.0];

	BarBlockOA = [BarClip.xcos(BaseAngle),15.0,BarClip.xsin(BaseAngle) + 2*ScrewBlockOA.z];

	Gap = 2.0 + max(ScrewBlockOA.y,BarBlockOA.y);

	//———-
	// Define shapes

	module ScrewMount() {

	difference(){
	cuboid(ScrewBlockOA,anchor=BOTTOM,rounding=Radius,except=[FRONT,BOTTOM,LEFT]);

	up(ScrewBlockOA.z – MouldScrew[LENGTH])
	zrot(180/NumSides)
	cylinder(d=MouldScrew[OD],h=MouldScrew[LENGTH] + Protusion);

	down(Protusion)
	cylinder(d=MouldScrew[ID],h=2*ScrewBlockOA.z);
	}

	}

	module BarMount() {

	difference() {
	cuboid(BarBlockOA,anchor=CENTER,rounding=Radius,edges=RIGHT);
	yrot(BaseAngle)
	cube([3BarBlockOA.x,2BarBlockOA.y,BarBlockOA.z],anchor=BOTTOM);
	yrot(BaseAngle)
	cylinder(d=Insert[OD],h=2*Insert[LENGTH],anchor=CENTER);
	}

	}

	module Mount() {

	union() {
	right(ScrewBlockOA.x/2) back(ScrewBlockOA.y/2)
	ScrewMount();
	right(BarBlockOA.x/2) fwd(BarBlockOA.y/2) up(BarBlockOA.z/2)
	BarMount();
	}

	}

	//———-
	// Build things

	if (Layout == "ScrewMount")
	ScrewMount();

	if (Layout == "BarMount")
	BarMount();

	if (Layout == "Show")
	Mount();

	if (Layout == "Build") {
	yflip_copy(Gap) Mount();

	}

view raw LED Bar Lamp Mount.scad hosted with ❤ by GitHub

The New Hotness

LED Strip Lights: Window Moulding Mounts