Fix That Broken Landscape Light Stake!
2 Materials
$5
10 Minutes
Easy
I put in landscape lighting a few years back. Converted the bulbs to LED and put in a Dusk to Dawn sensor. It worked great... until....
We watched the neighbors dog... much much bigger than our little dog... and it proceeded to break the lights of their respective stakes simply by trotting past them during a game of fetch.
I am now faced with fixing dozens of stakes.
Here is the broken light. I took the stake off. The power is still working and I do NOT want to re-wire anything.
Close examination of the "metal stake"... it is very brittle. Cracks easily under any stress.
I could just replace it again... but I don't want to keep doing that.
Here is the problem: I have replaced some of these before... the replacements are $8-12 a piece.... but they all have the SAME problem.. they break easily because they are NOT solid metal.
Solution.... MAKE my own.
Supplies all from LOWES - Makes 4 stakes:
- 1x: Silver-Line Plastics 1/2-in x 2-Ft 125-PSI Plastic Coil Pipe ($1.98)
- 4x: 1/2-in Polyethylene Drip Irrigation Female Adapter ($0.57/each)
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PLASTIC! I went to LOWEs and got a piece of 1/2 inch tubing and some fittings that pressure fit into the tubes.
These fittings have a 1/2 inch female thread end... which is perfect.
In order to allow the wire to pass through (remember, I don't want to re-wire them) - I had to cut a small notch to all the wire to pass through.
Here I cut the tube shorted and added an angle on the bottom so it would drive into the ground easier.
The height is around 6 inches which is similar to the broken stake.
I fed the wire through the fitting...
Screwing it on, the wire comes out the side
Good as new. Also... much tougher than the original design.
Now... the rest of the fallen lights to repair.
Hope this inspires you!
Comments
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3 of 5 comments
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David, it's great to see a project from you! Great solution, thanks for the share!
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I love these type of hacks. I have a few broken ones already in my queue. Not sure if you experimented much but I think I may try modifying slightly so that it will act as a "break-away" and I can simply re-insert if it is knocked over. In some of my cases the stake is ok but the force bends or breaks the shaft of the light itself.
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