Medicine Cabinet Light

[fred42]

My RV did not come with a light for the medicine cabinet. The bathroom has a halogen ceiling light that does a great job of lighting up your left shoulder, but I could not see to shave.

I found an AC powered LED strip at Wal-Mart for about $20. It is a 3000k warmer light that I like better than the normal white LEDs. I used some cedar to make an angled base for it. A stainless screw prevents the light from slipping off its mounting screws. I put two hooks on the backside to wind up the excess cord as I used a 3' flush plug extension cord.

I like working with cedar and it is everywhere in my house. It stays straight, smells good, does not need painting and matches RV wood reasonably well.

[Bumpyroad]

finally finished my light. a poor/cheap man's version of your original.

if I got that right. 🙂
guess I didn't, back to the drawing board.http://tinypic.com/r/dvokrt/8
try again?
think it works now.
bumpy

[Bumpyroad]

discovered another advantage to my battery operated LED light strip. was trying to figure out where/how to put that small screw to keep light strip from sliding out and falling when it dawned on me that since mine has two release buttons to be able to slide the unit open and remove the front that I think I can just put one screw thru the back into the board to keep it from moving. If that works it would have been easier to just use two screws thru the back into the board instead of trying to line them up with the supplied template. incidentally I don't know what unit that template was supposed to be for but it certainly was not the light strip that I got.
I would like to put some more of these remote controlled lights in other areas but am afraid that since the range is 50 ft and that they will be on the same frequency that one control will turn the whole RV on and off at the same time. 🙂
bumpy

[tenbear]

I had this problem too. At first I installed a small fluorescent light on the cabinet, but the light was too blue and too dim.

I reworked the fluorescent light to use LED strips.

My mod is shown here.

[LarryJM]

fred42 wrote:
My RV did not come with a light for the medicine cabinet. The bathroom has a halogen ceiling light that does a great job of lighting up your left shoulder, but I could not see to shave.

I found an AC powered LED strip at Wal-Mart for about $20. It is a 3000k warmer light that I like better than the normal white LEDs. I used some cedar to make an angled base for it. A stainless screw prevents the light from slipping off its mounting screws. I put two hooks on the backside to wind up the excess cord as I used a 3' flush plug extension cord.

I like working with cedar and it is everywhere in my house. It stays straight, smells good, does not need painting and matches RV wood reasonably well.

Nice job and I had exactly the same issue, but I installed a second ceiling light that I had removed from another area of the trailer when installed some fluorescent fixtures. The existing light was to the left of the medicine cabinet and the one I added to the right was near the powered roof vent for the shower so I was able to tap into those wires and make it look factory and 12V. Now I can see both sides of my face when I shave and the one I added was a double bulb vs. the existing single bulb fixture on the left.

Larry

[fred42]

I got rid of the plug and connected it directly as eric1514 suggested. I made a small cutout in the cover. The receptacle had connection holes available so I did not have to do any wire nut mess. Of course, turned off the breaker first. Not sure if polarity matters in this case, but I marked the hot wire before cutting the end off the extension cord as this wire is not coded white/black. The hot wire is supposed to be the shorter of the two plug blades.

[mrgreetis]

Fred42, great job. It got me to thinking that I would like to see as I shaved as well. Blood doesn't match many other colors.

I'll have to see what is available, but a self contained LED light fixture, like Bumpy mentioned, makes sense.

Thanks,
Mike

[fred42]

eric1514 wrote:
...just come in the side of the box and hardwire the light to the outlet from the back...

That's a great idea Eric. What you don't see is that there is usually an LED nightlight permanently installed in the top receptacle, so it would be good to get an available receptacle back.

[eric1514]

Good job! The only thing I would do differently (and I don't know if it's code, and I don't care) is that I would eliminate the plug at the outlet and just come in the side of the box and hardwire the light to the outlet from the back. But a great mod, none the less.

[westend]

Looks good!
X2 on the Cedar, I really like working with it, too. The trim in my trailer is all Cedar.

[Bumpyroad]

going to make a few changes in your design. since I am lazy I bought a plaque, about 4"x16" which I will mount using two reinforcing plates bent at a 135 degree angle and mount to the top of my medicine cabinet. since I don't plan on that much use I wanted to avoid wiring and got a LED light bar that was remote controlled for $15.00 battery operated. not as "nice" as your setup but then as I said, I am lazy.
wal mart had some remote control LED bars that look exactly like the one you used for $18-25.
bumpy

[Bumpyroad]

looks good. just went out and looked at my setup and I think I will copy yours. might try to use a battery operated light however.
bumpy

[k1hog]

Nice Job!

Johnnie