Scott Conners
07-26-2009, 6:37 PM
I make my living as a low-voltage electrician, doing mostly luxury home automation (Control 4/Crestron/Lutron etc). Included in that is security/CCTV systems.
On a recent job (new house), I went to install the outdoor cameras and found that on both cameras the wrong junction boxes had been installed, and they were to big! The corners of the box stuck out from under the camera.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=123761&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1248646815 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=123761&d=1248646815)
This is a >$4 Million property, and was being shown the next evening. After telling my boss, and us trying to figure out who I knew we might have a router and the proper bits and jigs to make some sort of bezel extension, I realized I already owned the proper tool to make great bezels! I measured the hole and camera carefully, then spent the night in the shop.
I put 3/4" MDF on a screw chuck and shaped it with a bowl gouge, parting tool and spearpoint scraper. MDF machines beautifully but makes a terrific mess, make sure you wear dust protection! The odd bite out of the inner rim is a hole I drilled right on the cut line. It allowed me to judge the thickness of that point, while I worked from both front and back to get the proper depth reveals for camera bezel and box screws. I had to keep the inner rim to 3/32" thick so it would hang from the stock bezel without extra hardware.
I painted them with Rustoleum black textured spraypaint, which matched the texture on the cameras impressively well. The result is great, they've been mistaken for metal and plastic, but never wood. Both the builder and my boss were extremely pleased, and I made a good chunk of change making them in such a rush. It was a good technical turning challenge, to turn two matching objects like this that had such small tolerances.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=123762&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1248646815 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=123762&d=1248646815)
I just thought this might be interesting, it's certainly a departure from what I (and most of us I think) turn much of the time. Homes like this are fun, this particular one was fairly thoroughly automated, you could control the pool, HVAC, security, audio/video/lights for the whole house as well as security and gates, fireplaces, blinds etc from any TV or remote. It had touchscreens in important rooms, and the system is such that you walk in the door and hit one button on the screen and the lights come on, tv, music, fireplace (if it's night), blinds open, and the air conditioner all turn on automatically.
On a recent job (new house), I went to install the outdoor cameras and found that on both cameras the wrong junction boxes had been installed, and they were to big! The corners of the box stuck out from under the camera.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=123761&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1248646815 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=123761&d=1248646815)
This is a >$4 Million property, and was being shown the next evening. After telling my boss, and us trying to figure out who I knew we might have a router and the proper bits and jigs to make some sort of bezel extension, I realized I already owned the proper tool to make great bezels! I measured the hole and camera carefully, then spent the night in the shop.
I put 3/4" MDF on a screw chuck and shaped it with a bowl gouge, parting tool and spearpoint scraper. MDF machines beautifully but makes a terrific mess, make sure you wear dust protection! The odd bite out of the inner rim is a hole I drilled right on the cut line. It allowed me to judge the thickness of that point, while I worked from both front and back to get the proper depth reveals for camera bezel and box screws. I had to keep the inner rim to 3/32" thick so it would hang from the stock bezel without extra hardware.
I painted them with Rustoleum black textured spraypaint, which matched the texture on the cameras impressively well. The result is great, they've been mistaken for metal and plastic, but never wood. Both the builder and my boss were extremely pleased, and I made a good chunk of change making them in such a rush. It was a good technical turning challenge, to turn two matching objects like this that had such small tolerances.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=123762&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1248646815 (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=123762&d=1248646815)
I just thought this might be interesting, it's certainly a departure from what I (and most of us I think) turn much of the time. Homes like this are fun, this particular one was fairly thoroughly automated, you could control the pool, HVAC, security, audio/video/lights for the whole house as well as security and gates, fireplaces, blinds etc from any TV or remote. It had touchscreens in important rooms, and the system is such that you walk in the door and hit one button on the screen and the lights come on, tv, music, fireplace (if it's night), blinds open, and the air conditioner all turn on automatically.