LED lighting install

[macxdiy]

Our nearly 4 year old (now 5 year old) daughter was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour in Jan 2015, she's lost the majority of her eyesight because of it.

Amongst many things that need doing, I want to run some LED lights up the inside of both the stair strings in our house to help guide her a little better.

She's away for a few days over Easter which is an ideal opportunity to get some things done!

Can anyone suggest how I can cut a dead straight groove right up the stairs only a couple of mm deep? So the light strips can be recessed neatly. Obviously I can't remove the strings to cut in to them, and I'm not sure if there is any specific tool that will help me do this in situ. Alternatively does anyone have any better suggestions?

My DIY skills aren't great and there's a lot of changes that need making to accommodate this disability in our home. I suppose I really need to employ some help, there isn't a DIY SOS that's going to help us (we've tried them) so we're going to have to do our best by ourselves!!!

Appreciate this is not what this forum is about but if anyone is interested more search #eleanorsvoice as we try to raise some awareness.

Thank you.

 

[leewallbank]

not sure how wide you need the channel but either a small circular saw or router would do it - you'd set up a straight edge/guide to keep it in line.

 

[macxdiy]

Probably no more than 5mm, whatever the width of LED tape is. I'd expect the recess to be no more than 2-3mm deep.

Because of the stair edge being so close to the strings edge I don't think I'd get a saw or router close enough. Any other ideas?

 

[leewallbank]

got any pictures?

 

[foxhole]

Might be easier to surface mount a track.
http://www.ledspace.co.uk/aluminium...face-profile?gclid=CKO37qCi3ssCFZUW0wodgrwMlQ

 

[macxdiy]

The fairy lights are not the LEDs... temp solution!
As you can see there's not much to go on either side and probably not a decent amount of room to get in there with a power tool.

 

[macxdiy]

Might be easier to surface mount a track.
http://www.ledspace.co.uk/aluminium...face-profile?gclid=CKO37qCi3ssCFZUW0wodgrwMlQ

Thank you, yes I thought of doing that but it's just another thing to get in the way.
I like the idea of the diffuser though, that was my next plan, to cover the recess with some sort of diffuser.

 

[foxhole]

Ideal for that type of stairs, would not be in the way mounted on the top each side.

 

[macxdiy]

Ideal for that type of stairs, would not be in the way mounted on the top each side.

I kinda wanted the light to wash the stairs instead of pointing upwards.

 

[leewallbank]

If you don't want them facing upwards, why not mount them sideways on top of the strings and add some scotia bead or something similar on top?

 

[macxdiy]

If you don't want them facing upwards, why not mount them sideways on top of the strings and add some scotia bead or something similar on top?

Thanks Lee - aiming for as clean and contemporary lines as possible. There's no pleasing me, sorry!
I guess there's no easy way to make this recess happen then is there?

 

[leewallbank]

If you don't want them facing upwards, why not mount them sideways on top of the strings and add some scotia bead or something similar on top?

Thanks Lee - aiming for as clean and contemporary lines as possible. There's no pleasing me, sorry!
I guess there's no easy way to make this recess happen then is there?

I'm not sure how these lights are mounted - do you have a router? you could cut a pocket/chamfer the edge of the strings and cap over the top, thats the easiest/quickest way I can think of. *edit* just looked at the picture and I can't see how a router would fit.

 

[SimonH2]

Would be tricky, but a modified (woodworkers) plane might possibly do it.
I'm thinking in terms of grinding the blade back to leave just a narrow edge (the width you need the slot) and fixing a guide to it so you can run the guide on top of the strings and the bit of the blade that's left would cut the groove - a bit at a time, extending the blade after each cut. The biggest risk I see in this method is splitting the grain at the edge of the cut - so you might need to make a jig to take a knife along top and bottom of the cut, assuming you don't have a knife edged marking gauge.
In lieu of the hacked plane, some patience with a narrow chisel will do it - but you'll need to allow plenty of time and the cut will be slightly uneven. If you get two good knifed lines then the chisel shouldn't be too hard - try on a bit of scrap first

PS - my condolences to all of you, it's not something I'd wish on my worst enemy.

 

[Nozzle]

Use a router, no question about it. You can do it in seconds and it'll be dead straight and neat. You can buy a cheap one even from Aldi that'll do the job.

Nozzle

 

[jazzcricket]

I had to do a similar thing a while back...
I used a spirit level to mark 2 parallel lines where i wanted the channel......if you can afford it,or borrow it, a laser level would make it a bit quicker to mark out.
A palm router did parts of it, but couldn't do the tight parts..for that i used a multi-cutter, such as bosch,fein,whatever you budget stretches to, to groove a channel,and tidied up with a chisel..
not the quickest way,but i'm a diyer,and it worked..
for the straight edge for the router, i think i built what they call a jig...
3 bits of wood that sat on the step that gave me the angle between steps for the main cut with the router..

Hope this helps..