Gardening Flowers, Plants and Trees at Weekend Gardener

Have you ever thought about installing an outdoor spot light? It is easier than you thought and these lights serve more purposes than originally thought. Most homes or business establishments that have outdoor lighting schemes can benefit from the installation of outdoor spot lights. Outdoor spotlights have a number of different purposes ranging from providing extra security, high-lighting pathways, providing extra safety, and providing a nice form of ambiance. Properly positioned spot lights are a wonderful addition to any outdoor lighting scheme.

Initially, when we think of spot lights we picture figure skating events or rock concerts. At least that is what comes first to my mind. These days the use of spot lights has transcended the historical uses and now you can find spot lights in many different locations. These lights are regularly used in commercial spaces, industrial spaces, urban spaces, and residential spaces.

Don’t confuse spot lights with flood lights. Sometimes the names are used interchangeably but these are two very different types of lights. Each light serves different purposes. They do, however, possess some overlapping similarities. The most obvious difference between these two different lights is the focus of illumination. Flood lights disperse the light widely and are intended to light up large areas such as football fields. Spot lights have a more narrow focus of illumination and target a small area of intended illumination such as an athlete. The most obvious similarity between these outdoor lights is that they are in most cases installed at a significant distance from the object they are intended to illuminate.

Many people have discovered the benefit of weather proof spotlights used to great effect for backyard parties. They are simple to install, and a spotlight on a focal point of the party - ie. the bar area, or food table - can add to the ambiance by making these areas easy to see, but still keep other areas more dimly lit to maintain the ambiance. You can even add colored spotlights to the outdoor party scheme and maybe create a whole theme effect by lighting up a few well placed theme items, such as an outdoor elvis statue, or a water fountain.

Using outdoor spotlights to bump up the safety factor at your home or business is a very wise investment. Motion detector spot lights give you a number of advantages over regular lights. First, they are triggered by movement, so any intruders around the property will be less likely to roam around undetected. Second, they are convenient - you don’t need to find a switch or turn them on before dark. And as an added bonus, they will be on only for the time you actually need light, thus saving energy and reducing electrical bills.

There are numerous ways to make effective use of spot lights around your home or business. Spotlights have become inexpensive and are really easy to install. The addition of an outdoor spot light to your outdoor lighting scheme is an easy and effective step to making the whole scheme work better.

All too often, novice woodworkers don’t realize the power of wood putty. No doubt, they have heard about it and perhaps worked with it once or twice but had poor results. Chances are they either used the wrong product or the wrong application or maybe even both. It is sometimes referred to as wood filler or wood patch. It may be a water base or a solvent based. Solvent base has probably been the favored choice in the past. The water-based products have really made some excellent strides in their performance and are now being used more.

There is nitrocellulose-based putty. This dries very fast. To clean up all you need is some diluted acetone or lacquer thinner.

A gypsum-based putty comes in a powder form and you have to mix the proper ratio with water. If you clean up while it?s wet, it?s simply done with plain water. If you let the gypsum dry and try to clean up with water, it just isn?t going to happen.

Finally, an acrylic based putty will clean up with water as well until it dries then after that you will need to clean with acetone or toluene.

There are advantages to working with water wood-based fillers because they don?t have the heavy fumes to them that the solvent-based ones do and they are easier to work with. What woodworkers like about it the most though is how easy it is to clean up. It is also more economical for storage as it doesn?t? dry out as fast as the solvent-based putties do.

All wood putty is really is a glue mixed with material such a sawdust or gypsum for example. It creates a binder that holds the filler together.

Once you get used to working with wood putty ideally, you will want to keep both on hand if you are an avid wood worker or do it yourselfer.

Knowing which putty to use in the beginning may be a bit of a challenge. You want one that is going to stick and not shrink once it has dried. Another attribute about a good filler is you should need to sand it a great deal and it should have a satin finish to it afterwards.

Woods like poplar, rosewood or walnut just to name a few have very large pores and open grains. You can use wood filler to even out some of the grains in these types of woods.

Another good feature about wood putty is that it comes it different colors, which makes it much easier for blending. Ideally, before you use any of the colors check it on an unobserved piece of the wood to see what the end result is going to be. It may come out lighter or darker than you intended. If you are new to using wood putty ask your local paint supplier which seems to be the favored by most of their customers. This often gives you a good indication on how good and effective a product will be.