These things are so buoyant that after about a week in the water, it broke
the silicon seal and floated to the top. One is still underwater and
working, the other is still lit, but floating.

Barry, did you set the headlights in concrete? That
wont float. Cut down half-gallon milk cartons,
set a headlight all wired up and siliconed inside each
one then
fill with concrete. When throughly dry, tear the milk
carton off and place the concreted lights in the pond.

HTH

Nedra
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/4836
http://community.webshots.com/user/nedra118

"Barry" wrote in message
...
These things are so buoyant that after about a week in the water, it broke
the silicon seal and floated to the top. One is still underwater and
working, the other is still lit, but floating.

Barry,

I took 1 gallon plastic milk jugs and cut them off below the handle and put
a larger sized pea gravel into the bottom of the jug. I then pushed a small
sized 5.5 inch headlight (low beam only, #4000 sized lamp, these are for the
4 headlamp systems) after creating a pocket for the lamp to push down into.
You need to take a cleaner like alcohol or something like that to clean any
residue from the back of the lamp off, this is from manufacturing process
and handling of the lamp with your hands. I used the clear GE brand silicon
as its "food / fish safe" in the large caulking tube size and bonded the
plastic and lamp together ( I did use the whole tube though.) Make sure you
create a good seal on the back where the wire attaches to the back of the
lamp the day before so as not to upset it when pushing into the gravel.
Then make sure that you run a bead up onto the edge of the face of the lamp
to make sure that it acts as a retainer to the edge of the jug. Wet your
finger and smooth out the silicone for appearance sake. Headlamps (USA
spec.) operate on the 45 watts for low beam and 55 watts for highbeam 12 VDC
regardless of the size of the lamp( 7" or 5.5".) The Malibu lamp system is
12 VAC, and this will work but dont overload the transformers. Two 45w
lamps are the max for the Malibu 88 watt transformers. I put several large
slits into the plastic jugs below the glue line to allow water to fill the
jug and so the water does not become stagnate inside ( I'm sure that it does
to some extent but not to the point it harbours too much toxins.) I flush
the outside off with a hose as I am filling the pond every once in a while.
I put a hole in the bottom to run the cord through and tied a knot on the
both side of the jug and used some plastic washers to keep them from tearing
the jug apart. This helps to move them about or remove them. The gravel
makes the unit blend in a bit as it becomes a bit transparent when full of
water and gravel and after a month it was covered with a slight green tinge
(yeah) and hides the whole thing quite well. Make sure to use an
indoor/outdoor wire as all wire is not the same. I did this rather than
using more concrete as my first course of edging is concrete "keystone
blocks" and it is in my pond to hide the liner / water line, with rocks
sitting on top of this along with a concrete berm behind it to support the
rocks and hold the liner higher than the "keystone blocks". Hope this
helps.....

Jon Nyhus
Phoenix Arizona




"Barry" wrote in message
...
These things are so buoyant that after about a week in the water, it broke
the silicon seal and floated to the top. One is still underwater and
working, the other is still lit, but floating.

These things are so buoyant that after about a week in the water, it broke
the silicon seal and floated to the top. One is still underwater and
working, the other is still lit, but floating.



Hi Barry, what I did is: I solder the wires to the lamp and siliconed
them over, after sufficient drying time, I ran the wires from the bottom of
the lamps down through the bottom of the pot " ones like flowers come in
from the store" and tied a knot in the wire on the outside of the bottom of
the pot. Kinda tilted the lamp to one side and filled the pot with gravel
to weigh it down. So basically the wire is the anchor to hold the lamp into
the pot, and the rocks are just there to weigh it down. If using a flexible
type pot or soft plastic pot you might want to use a washer around the wire
before the knot to keep it from pulling through the bottom of the pot. If
the wires are solder to the lamp they shouldn't pull off.