What I've been doing for the past few weeks.

[El Matador]

You guys might have noticed decreased boarding activity, this is the reason.

As most of you know, Desmolu is opening up a Kitchen rental facility/cafe, since she's trying to keep costs down, we've been doing a lot of the work ourselves. From laying down tile to electrical work, I've worked harder for the last 4 weeks than the last 4 years in college, and I'm double-majoring in engineering.

One thing I'm particularly proud of is the lighting system I designed and built for the Cafe. Lu didn't like the exposed piping and ugly ceiling, so instead of trying to hide them, I thought that the best way to do something about it was to tie them into the overall look of the space. All the lighting options were incredibly expensive, and I was pretty sure I could come up with something cooler anyways, so I scratch built this:



Forgive the one lightbulb that was out, it's been fixed. The array is actually much larger than that, that is about one fourth of the whole system. The copper is either 3/8' or 1/2'. I ended up using about 320 feet of piping and came out with 26 different lights. At night it looks like fireflies. Here is a crappy pic of the other side of the cafe/light arrangement.



When still under construction. This is only half of it:



And the view from the cafe:



We're going tomorrow to take some better pictures.

Any feedback is appreciated 

[stopintime]

When I read the title, I thought it was about something else

Good idea to tie the whole ceiling contents together like that - very good idea and well done Looks right!

[swampduc]

Very nice! Can't wait to see it in person!

[Kopfjäger]

Nice.    I hope there is a little piece of Ducati art in there. 

[Howie]

 

[El Matador]

Nice.    I hope there is a little piece of Ducati art in there. 

Thanks guys!

I'm tryin to get some wrecked parts such as frames and forks to make tables an such for the cafe

[r_ciao]

very creative  

do you plan on polishing the copper?  it will turn green w/ a patina that might look good also.
those bulbs look like incandescents.  those will run hot and use more wattage than CFLs.  or you could try compact halogens that put out a lot of light.

BTW, what's that stuff on the ceiling?  it almost looks like the underside of a bad concrete job from the second floor.

[El Matador]

very creative  

do you plan on polishing the copper?  it will turn green w/ a patina that might look good also.
those bulbs look like incandescents.  those will run hot and use more wattage than CFLs.  or you could try compact halogens that put out a lot of light.

BTW, what's that stuff on the ceiling?  it almost looks like the underside of a bad concrete job from the second floor.

They're actually high efficiency candelabra bulbs, but yeah eventually we might move to halogens.


Polishing the copper is def the way to go, I'm gonna do it after construction is done so I only have to clean it once; the system is 16 feet up in the air, it aint no fun getting up there.

Re the ceiling: I think It was just some tiles that were once put there and were long removed. The building is the third oldest continuous use building in Houston (Built in 1910) and that ceiling was hidden under nasty drop ceiling popcorn tiles for a few decades.

[El Matador]

Very nice! Can't wait to see it in person!

You'll get to see it soon hopefully 

[The Bacon Junkie]

Thanks guys!

I'm tryin to get some wrecked parts such as frames and forks to make tables an such for the cafe

Paging Duck-Stew... Duck-Stew to a white courtesy phone.  Duck-Stew...?

Looks great you two!  If I get to Houston, I'm coming in for a meal!  

[TiNi]

very cool 

copper pipe is an awesome design material!
we made a trellis out of it for some climbing flowers
since ours is outside we let it go patina

[GAAN]

Thanks guys!

I'm tryin to get some wrecked parts such as frames and forks to make tables an such for the cafe

I've got a tank that I need to swap out for my spare

You can have it

I'll even strip it so you can see wreckage and welds

[ducpainter]

Are those fixtures UL listed? 

[The Bearded Duc]

Another option for the light bulbs are late 19th century carbon-filament bulbs. They don't burn that hot, use relatively low energy, and will add to the look of the exposed brick and copper piping.

The only downside is the can be somewhat expensive. Here's a site that sells reproductions.

http://www.rejuvenation.com/typepageReproduction%20Bulbs/templates/houseparts_group.html

[zooom]

I just have to ask ( not to rain on your parade), but if you are trying to keep costs down, why did you use copper?...that stuff ain't cheap....it is cool as hell...just not cheap...