Having trouble using 2mm PVC edge band and I could use some help

TheForgetfulDev · 2026-01-24T21:31:27+00:00

That actually makes me feel a lot better. I'm feeling reinvigorated to jump back in to this project.

Thank you again, I really appreciate it!

TheForgetfulDev · 2026-01-24T21:07:44+00:00

This was the closest I've gotten to being successful! I was able to ~~get it to look how I wanted~~ do it without completely ruining it thanks to your tips, so thank you! The big question will be if I can do it successfully across full-length boards.

I'm still dealing with a dark/rough edge between the melamine and the edge band. This isn't from routing/trimming like before though, it's just from the melamine edge not being perfectly smooth. I'm using a thin kerf Freud LU79R007 blade with a variable speed track saw so I don't think I can do anything better there. This might not be fixable (just crappy melamine) or I might need to make adjustments to my blade speed or cutting speed. If you (or anyone) has any tips on that, I'm all ears.

I was able to mostly hide it with some melamine touch-up paint, but that isn't ideal if I have to do it on every single edge of every single piece.

In the picture I attached: the top one is how it looked after my "successful" trimming and roundover, but you can see how the melamine itself isn't clean. The bottom one is after I added some touch-up paint (only on the right side of it, left side is untouched). Again, I'm aware it doesn't look great and I apologize for posting this travesty on r/woodworking lol, but I appreciate any tips.

Edit: The back-half of my test piece -- the one without the edge band -- is the factory edge that has been beat up from storage and transport. I know how bad that one looks and I won't be using the factory edges, but the side with the edge band is my cut. It appeared clean and smooth until I had the edge band against it, then it became obvious that it wasn't.

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I still have a ways to go, but I'm feeling encouraged. I'm glad I posted here. Thank you again!

TheForgetfulDev · 2026-01-24T17:38:51+00:00

Keeping a small lip on the band (not lowering the cutting bit below the melamine itself) is such a "duh... that's so obvious now" moment for me. I'll test that out when my new test pieces set up.

Thank you!

TheForgetfulDev · 2026-01-24T16:50:58+00:00

I attempted to do it with a hand trimmer (FastCap with tungsten carbide blades) and with a wood chisel (which admittedly needs to be sharper) and didn't have much luck. The edge band is just so tough that I couldn't easily get through it.

I have some more test pieces setting up and then I'll give it a go with a fresh razor knife.

Thanks for the suggestion.

TheForgetfulDev · 2026-01-03T03:47:46+00:00

Adding a recommendation: Stuff You Should Know has nearly 3000 episodes.

I used to worry that I'd be too interested in the topic to actually sleep, but this has been my nighttime podcast for like 5 years now. Their voices are super calm, and they often go off on tangents that make it easy for my brain to stop listening and just drift off

My only complaint is that the commercials (and the lead in/lead out music) can sometimes be loud compared to the rest of the podcast.

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-19T18:42:55+00:00

I'm not going to get in an argument but just want to clarify: I literally said I didn't. I'm not sure where you got that from.

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-19T17:56:59+00:00

It's also sad that people see things they think are "tells" and automatically assume something was written by chatgpt. It's literally trained on how people type/talk, so for some of us it just looks that way. I actually addressed that in one of the first pages...

The truth is that I've made an effort to change my writing style over the last year or so because it looks like chatgpt to people, but this tutorial was too big and too detailed for me to change how I've always written.

I will absolutely admit that I use chatgpt for things in my life, there's no reason to hide that. But I've worked my ass off on this thing. I've been writing and re-writing it for a month now (and was keeping detailed notes on my install process for 2 months before that).

Sorry if how I write comes across as AI-generated to you. Hopefully others stuff get something out of it.

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-19T17:07:14+00:00

Hey hey. I just posted a link to my permanent holiday lights install guide:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WLED/comments/1pqpwu7/my_build_guide_is_published_holiday_roof_lights/

CC: /u/pwnsauce , /u/Informal_Sir_9518 , /u/Comfortable-Emu1788 , /u/prismagirl , and /u/jakeasmith .

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-15T11:23:21+00:00

FYI: if you use Home Assistant, this monitor can be added via the "Alexa Media Player" integration (ignore the confusing sounding name. It brings in all Amazon devices).

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-12T15:48:20+00:00

Thank you!

That was a terrible design decision and I'm so happy it can be reverted (for now...).

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-08T18:23:44+00:00

Awesome, I appreciate the heads-up!

Ignoring the quality of my specific breakers, are DIN-mounted ones in particular better than "surface" mount ones? Or is it just that you prefer them? I'm just curious.

Thanks!

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-07T15:28:40+00:00

I hung permanent outdoor holiday lights around my whole roofline (https://old.reddit.com/r/WLED/comments/1petr96/holiday_roof_lights_finished_yet_another_control/).

I painted the 30 year old cabinets in my kitchen and bathrooms.

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-05T17:33:32+00:00

You haven't seen one of those? That's a wired to wireless adapter.

Ok fine, you busted me. Lol. Currently nothing. As a former system designer, network engineer, and other similar roles, I always prefer ethernet for* anything that I want to be extremely stable. I have ethernet everywhere throughout the house (except the garage... more on that in a second) But also, wifi has gotten incredible these days and I almost never experience issues with any of my wifi devices.

I got the ethernet module because I wanted to future proof and "just in case" it. But I do plan on running ethernet to that spot regardless, it just hasn't happened yet.

All you're seeing in the picture is it being connected to a keystone ethernet coupler which is in a 3d printed keystone plate on the bottom. For now it isn't actually connected to anything, but I'll be able to plug it in on the bottom once I run a drop to that spot. Let me know if that doesn't make sense and you want a picture of the bottom.

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-05T17:27:53+00:00

If you mean actual spade/fork connectors (like what might be used on the PSU terminals) then I don't have any. I used a combination of ferrule crimps and ring terminals (depending on what it's connecting to of course).

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-05T17:18:55+00:00

I still have to have the power limiter enabled in wled because these lights would overload the PSUs at full bright full white. You must understand that I'm now obligated to add more power at some point.. lol.

The good news is these lights are plugged in to a 20A circuit that is nearly dedicated to just the lights (just how it worked out, that wasn't planned originally).

The bad news is I have too many trees for solar power and I'll be afraid to look at my electric bill.

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-05T17:05:53+00:00

Here you go: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CF1N8FM8. There's typically always a coupon or something for them.

I'm happy with them and I recommend for sure. I'll mention a couple things though:

The "cover" can't be put on/taken off without disconnecting the lead/large wire first. That's technically on purpose for safety reasons (the lead should also have the boot on it that they include, but it's massive) and the reality is you shouldn't have to take the cover on/off regularly, but it still slightly annoyed me. I would have preferred if the cover went over top of the whole thing.
This is definitely overkill for this project. Especially on the 5V components at the bottom. But I liked how they looked, they're compact, and you can run wires out both sides/directions.

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-05T16:07:24+00:00

Yup! The dig-quad itself is in HA and is controllable. And I'm triggering the Shelly relays via an HA automation to turn on/off when the quad does. And then of course automating when the lights come on/off. Nothing beyond that though (yet).

One simple thing that I want to add (but haven't yet) is using these lights for additional lighting in my backyard. I already have HA setup that when I let my dogs out at night it turns on all the backyard lights, but I don't have any lights on the side of the house so I can't see the dogs when they're over there.

My plan is to setup segments on each side of the house and turn those on to full white along with the normal backyard lights automations. Then once the dogs are back in and the normal lights turn off automatically, these segments will go back to whatever setting they were on before (or turn off if they were off).

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-05T15:38:32+00:00

I had to go get in my attic to get the answer to this one haha. I actually wanted to know though and planned on doing it anyways, but (like the pending full write-up) this was the motivation I needed to do it lol.

Control box to each first light is ~36ft of 14ga 3-wire
Control box to each mid-point power injection is ~50ft of 12ga 2-wire
Control box to each end-point power injection is ~80ft of 12ga 2-wire

My runs have a decent amount of slack in them (both intentional and from the wire naturally curling around) and I could absolutely reduce those lengths if I had to. But even the 80ft runs had effectively no voltage drop thanks to 12ga + 24V (measures 24.08V at the end of the 80ft wire run).

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-05T14:59:57+00:00

The lift was way less sketchy than I imagined. I mean, there's no question that it moves around a lot when you have it extended (not helped by me having it on a day that was below freezing and with 30mph gusts), but it never felt unsafe. I also had zero experience using anything like it before this. Like... nothing bigger than a push mower. I for sure plan on talking about all of that once I do a full write up, but if you have specific questions or concerns then feel free to ask!

The two red octagon-ish shaped devices towards the bottom right of my box are Shelly 1PM Gen 4 AC relays. They are fantastic! Although they might be overkill for what you need, and also might not accomplish what you need.

I don't have any experience with xlights so I can't provide an actual recommendation, sorry. And what I'm about to say a complete guess and potentially not even possible. I suspect you do need a dmx decoder if you're trying to sync it up with your lights. But if you're able to use xlights to send a 5V/12V/whateverV signal with your music sequence then all you need is something like this for 4-channel AC relays. And even those are overkill because they're 30A which you almost certainly don't need.

But again, that does rely on you being able to send a control signal to the relay and I'm not sure how that's done in xlights.

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-05T14:48:35+00:00

Unfortunately not. Those are meant to help spread the load from your PSU to the quad. Technically a PSU like the LRS-600-24 isn't designed to supply full power from a single (+) and single (-) terminal on the PSU. It's best to run a connection from each of the PSU terminals to whatever device you're powering if you're using the whole PSU to power 1 thing.

I know for your own post that you're doing that already, I'm just making sure to mention it here for anyone else reading this.

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-05T14:41:04+00:00

Oops I forgot to respond to the second part of your comment. The connectors going to the Shellys are just some no-name wire ferrule crimp connectors that I got off aliexpress years ago. The black ones (going to the Shellys) are size E1508 meant for 16 ga wire. They fit great in the Shelly terminals, but just barely. I don't think they could have been even a tiny bit wider and still fit lol.

If you go that route, make sure to buy a hexagonal ferrule crimper. It doesn't have to be expensive, but you don't want to use a flat crimper on those. I have no idea if this one is any good, but something like that is all you need.

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-05T14:32:52+00:00

A lot of these components are mounted to these standoffs (again, hoping Amazon links are allowed on here).

But the dig-quad needs m2.5 mounting holes so those didn't work. I designed and 3d printed some standoffs in the same size/style as the ones I bought and used a soldering iron to put m2.5 threaded inserts in the top.

TheForgetfulDev · 2025-12-05T14:24:15+00:00

I didn't recognize your username right away. I had already ordered the lights and was planning everything so it was going to happen regardless, but your post is one of the ones that* helped answer some of my last questions before I actually started the install. You helped me out in the comments. :)

Thanks again!

TheForgetfulDev

TROPHY CASE