Re: Floating Shelf Idea « Reply #30 on: January 11, 2025, 02:21:04 PM » Author: xmaslightguy
Ballast is a HPF RS, but I don't remember what brand/model it is. I'd go for those Sylvania F30's over the 25w version. To me the full power lamps are just overall so much better. Even Supersavers would ok in a refrigerator since they would be in an enclosed fixture or atleast have a sleeve over them. (atleast here... health-codes require the lamps be protected so shattered glass doesn't end up on food products if one gets broken) A fixture is around 4" wide & ofcourse you need alittle space to be able to take the channel cover off/on, so a 5" or 6" wide shelf would work well. (plus less width on a shelf means you can get by with smaller brackets.)
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	Re: Floating Shelf Idea « Reply #31 on: January 11, 2025, 07:53:10 PM » Author: suzukir122
I found slide-in bracket based floating shelves that are 5"x36"... so now my goal is to buy 11 of them. Then I'll install all of them, then I'll begin purchasing fixtures after the installation is complete. Before any of that though, I think I'm gonna purchase lamps first... mixture of both F30T12 Cool White Sylvanias, and Supersaver Cool White F30T12's. My goal is to have possibly 11 fixtures in use... so all I need is 9 more fixtures, and many low profile sockets. (Converting three footer T8 fixtures to T12, so I'm gonna also need to find more full power HPF magnetic R.S ballasts... 9 more....  )
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Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend

	Re: Floating Shelf Idea « Reply #32 on: January 11, 2025, 11:38:54 PM » Author: xmaslightguy
Sounds like those would be the perfect shelves. I personally prefer the taller lampholders, reason being because those shorter ones sit so close on some fixtures it makes it hard to get T12's in/out. Lamps should be fairly easy to find. Fixtures? maybe, especially if you just get & convert T8 ones. Have a feeling that full-power ballasts will be the hard part in this! (if you do find those, probably best to *not* run supersaver lamps on them. If you cant find full power, and end up going with standard HPF RS, then the supersavers would be fine) ---------- I'll be looking forward to seeing how this project comes together once you get it all done.
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	Re: Floating Shelf Idea « Reply #33 on: January 11, 2025, 11:58:17 PM » Author: suzukir122
I've also been thinking about looking for the F30T12 full power HPF R.S ballasts instead.... the ones that claim to be able to run energy saver lamps as well, but I have a feeling those ballasts would be even more difficult to find than regular F40T12 full power HPF R.S ballasts... which I'm also reluctant to use with F30T12 lamps. I'm hoping that some of those fixtures will use energy saver lamps, while most of them would use full powered lamps. Hopefully this all works out well. I'll always monitor each ballast to make sure that none of them are over heating... I was never a fan of seeing ballast overheating symptoms, such as Automatic Resetting Thermal Protection.
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend

	Re: Floating Shelf Idea « Reply #34 on: January 12, 2025, 02:32:21 PM » Author: xmaslightguy
Yep, if you can find actual F30 ballasts, that would be better (not to mention cool). Ofcourse also much harder to find since those are kinda rare... If you end up having to use energy saver lamps, ideally put 1 of those & 1 normal lamp in each fixture since that's less stressful on the ballast.
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	Re: Floating Shelf Idea « Reply #35 on: January 12, 2025, 03:33:09 PM » Author: suzukir122
@xmaslightguy, Yep! That's my plan! Although a couple fixtures will have 2 energy saver lamps, (maybe 3 fixtures) some will have 1 energy saver lamp, while most will have both full powered lamps. I think all of my lamps will use Sylvania T12 Cool White, but a part of me really wants to use my GE Watt Miser lamps as well. How would 5"x36" "Weathered Oak" shelves look? This is something I've been debating... the Weathered Oak shelves are the ones I'm currently choosing to buy, but I'm debating on painting them all white to somewhat match the wall color. The other thing is, since I want to get the 5" width shelves instead of 12", this should reduce the cost of the shelves over all and speed up the process of purchasing them. I'm hoping to be done with this project by August or September... hopefully...
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend

	Re: Floating Shelf Idea « Reply #36 on: January 14, 2025, 07:54:25 PM » Author: xmaslightguy
I think the 'oak' could look good, might give a nice definition to it. But like you say white would match up with walls/fixtures. I'd say when you get the shelves, put 1 up as is, even set a fixture on it(no need to connect), then see what you think of it. With that style of shelf, its easy enough to pull it off & paint...
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	Re: Floating Shelf Idea « Reply #37 on: January 14, 2025, 08:08:57 PM » Author: suzukir122
I've thought about doing that as well... buying the high tech Stud Finder along with the laser leveler, and then setting up one shelf, and then setting up one fixture, both as tests to see what it'll look like... then posting to Lighting Gallery. I think this will be my next plan. After that, I'll be setting up just the brackets until every bracket is in place. (This will take a while since I'll be purchasing each shelf and bracket when I have the money, certainly can't afford purchasing all of them at once.) When all brackets are installed, that's when I'd work on purchasing the fixtures and ballasts... but again... I'm a bit frantic about that because of the stupid bans. I may have to purchase the fixtures and ballasts FIRST before everything else. I guess we shall see.  I know for a fact that I'll be purchasing bulbs next, possibly on my next upcoming paycheck later this week.
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend

	Re: Floating Shelf Idea « Reply #38 on: January 16, 2025, 10:46:11 PM » Author: xmaslightguy
A studfinder is deff worth getting. I have an old basic one, nothing high tech, but it does the job. Install the shelves fully 1 at a time.. don't try setting up all brackets at once without shelves! Things won't line up quite right if you do - all it takes is being off by a small fraction of an inch, then you'll have to end up re-drilling holes & stuff. Its a real pain to deal with that! Keep a good watch out on eBay (or local stores or wherever you like best) for fixtures/lamps/etc. If you see a deal grab it while you can. Just a matter of time before more states do bans, or stores/online-places/etc discontinue carrying all that stuff. ----------- An interesting thing I've seen here: fluorescent lamps are banned, but you can still buy fixtures & ballasts.
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	Re: Floating Shelf Idea « Reply #39 on: January 17, 2025, 01:21:37 PM » Author: suzukir122
Officially getting started... I'll have to wait a bit longer for the stud finder and the laser leveler, but I did just purchase one 5"X36" shelf, and a four pack of F30T12 Cool White lamps from Sylvania... so that's pretty cool. The Supersavers will be bought as well, but unfortunately might have to wait a bit longer for that too since the only seller selling those is selling for a stupid - expensive price.
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Interests:
1. Motorcycles, Cars, Women, and Lighting (especially fluorescent)
2. Weightlifting/staying extremely athletic
3. Severe Thunderstorms of all kinds
4. Food and drinks. So gimme them bbq ribs
Lighting has ALWAYS been a passion of mine. I consider everyone on here to be a friend