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I am finalizing details with my cabinetmaker on kitchen cabinets. We are having trouble coming up with options for undercabinet lights and power. The upper cabinets will be 13″ deep, the face frame will extend 1.5″ below the bottom shelf. I do not want to have wires tacked underneath the cabinets to supply power.
Outlets: The walls are solid brick, I could create channels (have done so for regular outlets) for a wire chase and to house the junction box, but I would rather not. If I could find a suitable outlet strip I would like to figure out how to mount it underneath the cabinets towards the rear.
Lights: Rockler has round lights with xenon bulbs that can be house in a round hole in the shelf. Lamp wire supplies these lights from a transformer. Mounting these lights in a recessed hole would minimize the reveal, and the lights can be housed within the 3/4″ thinkness of the shelf without protruding through the other side.
It seems to me that by running a rabbet across the upper surface along the back of the shelf, and a dado in to each housing hole from the rear would create a chase for the wire. A 1/4″ piece of ply could cover the dadoes and could be covered by a solid wood strip in front, only increasing the overall shelf thickness to 1″. Junction boxes and transformers could be mounted inside and to the rear of the cabinets. A concern is that making the rear dado large enough to hose romex without overly weakening the shelf itself.
Any other ideas that would work, products to look for?
Replies
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Bill, This may work for you- you could leave the "L" shaped chase loose until after running power then screw & cap from the inside.
gb
*How bout wire mold? You're talking power to the transformer, right? After that it's l.v. wire which could also run in the wiremold if you prefer. Plugmold is its sister and many different repeats, connectors etc are available. In remodels with stock cabs, I've seen an extra shelf ordered to house the wires and that's just laid on the bottom of the box. Since you've got these coming custom, and you've got that big space on the bottom, why not hide that plugmold up in there to the back. Best of luck.
*Greg, your scheme is similar to mine except for placing the 1/4 ply underneath instead of on top. In some aspects it is easier than fitting it in securely as the top shelf surface, it is less noticable. it also eliminates the weakening rabbet across the back of the shelf. Creating the stopped holes for the lights is harder than simply boring them all of the way through and covering them with the 1/4 ply. I will see how hard it is to bore stopped holes that don't go all the way through.I was wondering if a short wood valence or skirt where your l-shaped chase is could hide an outlet strip as well, which I also need to incorporate. Perhaps it could be combined and serve as the chase as well? Calvin, wiremold has been discussed. Perhaps I haven't seen wiremold that has not looked clunky. I am not familiar with plugmold. I would really like a smooth surface under the cabinets if at all possible and practical, it would really me much easier to maintain. Since the doors are mounted flush with the face frame, an old style, when the doors are opened, the edge of the bottom shelf will be visible, and the bottom of the cabinets visible to someone sitting (and who cares to notice). What do you think?
*Bill, the way to do your light cavity is with a router with a template guide. A plunge router would be ideal If you want outlets on the bottom of the cabinet Calvin's idea with the plugmould would be the way I would do it.unless I am misunderstanding your face frame/door layout you should be able to hide the front edge of your bottom shelf behind your face frameattached pic of template guide & plugmouldgb
*Bill,Rockler's (and I assume any) zenon lamps make the shelf above surprisingly warm, regardless of what their ad copy says. Just thought I'd warn ya.MM
*I think I could make the L shaped chase work. The plugmold I just measured is 1 1/4W x 3/4H. An L shaped wood chase piece 1 1/4" H would accomodate plugmold mounted such that it faced the room. I could alternate it with low profile surface mount flourescent, halogen or xenon strip lighting and skip the recessed light stuff. The juggling match would then be wireing and mounting the whole rig. I can see mounting the plugmold on the wood chase prewired and only having to feed a final length of romex up through a hole in the bottom of the cabinet shelf into a junction box. The lights I am not so sure about. I doubt they can be mounted on the wood chase piece through the sidewall of the fixture, but would have to be mounted under the cabinet itself. In that case perhaps the cord for these lights could be pre-installed in the wood chase and then connected into the body of the light strip as it is installed. I can't tell much from catalog pictures, I will have to check out some local suppliers.What do you think? Any suggestions regarding good strip lignt options?
*I would stick with the low profile flourescents
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I am finalizing details with my cabinetmaker on kitchen cabinets. We are having trouble coming up with options for undercabinet lights and power. The upper cabinets will be 13" deep, the face frame will extend 1.5" below the bottom shelf. I do not want to have wires tacked underneath the cabinets to supply power.
Outlets: The walls are solid brick, I could create channels (have done so for regular outlets) for a wire chase and to house the junction box, but I would rather not. If I could find a suitable outlet strip I would like to figure out how to mount it underneath the cabinets towards the rear.
Lights: Rockler has round lights with xenon bulbs that can be house in a round hole in the shelf. Lamp wire supplies these lights from a transformer. Mounting these lights in a recessed hole would minimize the reveal, and the lights can be housed within the 3/4" thinkness of the shelf without protruding through the other side.
It seems to me that by running a rabbet across the upper surface along the back of the shelf, and a dado in to each housing hole from the rear would create a chase for the wire. A 1/4" piece of ply could cover the dadoes and could be covered by a solid wood strip in front, only increasing the overall shelf thickness to 1". Junction boxes and transformers could be mounted inside and to the rear of the cabinets. A concern is that making the rear dado large enough to hose romex without overly weakening the shelf itself.
Any other ideas that would work, products to look for?