Cabin lighting issues?

[scottdube]

I did a few searches and didn't find a thread on this so I thought I'd share my info.
Over the years my cabin light switches have individually become intermittent then stop all together. After a season of not using the boat (last summer) this year most of them didn't work. In the past I have soldered new switches in, 1 offs not a big deal. But this year I had 10+ to do. I had been buying the switches at radio shack for nearly $5 a piece.

So this year I thought I would change the fixtures, then I priced them. I decided to look for switches again. I found Micro mini switches on Amazon. $5.88 for 10! add shipping $5. So I started pulling them out 3 or 4 at a time. These switches are a pain to solder because they are so small you have to be careful not to overheat them, it destroys them quickly. I just finished the last 3. I did ruin a couple of switches until I bought a set of helping hands, which I will have for future projects.

If you can solder and want to spend an extra hour on it you can avoid buying all new fixtures.

 

[fred1diver]

I like your helping hand, where did you get It? How much was It ?

 

[scottdube]

I like your helping hand, where did you get It? How much was It ?

$25 Amazon, it has an led light built in but it's not bright enough. I still ended up using a light off to the side...

 

[Jerry Clark H356 SV Persi]

Thanks for this post. I've had 3 out of of 4 of these out for over 10 years (and may have been longer) and just never bothered to fix them. I am going to buy these switches, a soldering iron, helping hand, and fix these this summer. In addition, I am going to change all 14 of my G4 halogen bulbs to LED 1.2 watt replacements. I run the generator all the time so DC power consumption is nit a big deal to me but the LED lights are 1.2 watts versus 10 each currently installed.

 

[woodster]

if you get a low wattage soldering iron you won't burn up the switches something like 25 watts will do and also keep the tip free of solder