I used these things to run the wiring through:



http://www.homedepot.com/p/Legrand-Wire ... 4eZ1z112l6

They cost $5 each, and I bought one for each Detolf. I cut them into 3 15" sections, and wrapped one around the back right part of the vertical frame, and put the wires inside. Then the wire comes out of the bottom of one of those, runs along the right side horizontal support of the frame, and is held in place by one of the little rubber "feet" that go under the shelves, and takes a 90° turn toward the middle of the shelf where the puck is adhered. Easy peasy, and it hides the wires really cleanly. Here's a photo of a back corner of one of my shelves so you can see how they run:



I would recommend putting your lights toward the fronts of your shelves. Instinct might tell you to center the lights, but figures that stand in front of the lights won't get any light on them, and they'll end up being harder to see. Mine have about 1.5" of space between the edge of the light and the front edge of the shelves, and I think that's just about perfect.

Oh ok- cable ties I think is what they are called. Probably can find them in a hardware store- as you mentioned Steve.

I'm just trying to get my head around working from the bottom up maintaining tension, which I assume is what I'll be doing?

EDIT:

Thanks for those tips James. Yeah I've read online about moving the light towards the front of the shelf. I'd like to see more pics of your wire control. That sounds handy. So basically no ties just those strips wrapped around the framing?

I'll try to get some better photos. Since it's the back of my shelves, it's a little difficult to get good shots. I'll post them here when I have them.

About to head out to Home Depot to get some supplies and just get this done already. I have an office console table coming in tomorrow and space is going to get even tighter. I decided I'm going to use gray cable ties to attach the wires and use James suggestion with those cordmates to condense the wires once they come out of the top. I debated using them inside the detolfs but I have OCD's and seeing these white strips along the nice matte grey framing would drive me batty. Outside the detolf they will come in handy wrangling the rats nest of wires though.

One quick question for anyone who knows....Seems sort of obvious but I could be wrong:

Do you attach the lights first to the glass using the sticky strips they give you and then pull the slack attaching them to the side framing via cable ties? I also assume you start at the bottom and work up? Seems like by the time you get to the top you will have a hell of a lot of wires to cable tie to the side because as you move up you have double the wire from the previous shelf.

Can you tell I'll never be a project manager for any sort of construction company?

^^ i work in the display industry (if that means anything to you, probably not ) and would definitely go with the order you mentioned always best to deal with wires last.

Yep I agree. What I did was I adhered all the lights to the shelves first. Then I took care of wrangling the wires, starting from the bottom.

Post your results Chris, I'd love to see what everything looks like all tidied up!

Sounds like a interesting job, and I'm big on clean modern aesthetics..

My g/f just texted me and said we're having a date night which means I better get going. I sense this is going to be an all day affair with me pretty much raging at these shelves. Fuck the shower and shave till later. The part I dread most if removing the toys from these shelves and then having to get them back in just right. It's compounded by having a ton of toys blocking everything on top. Maybe I'll post a pic of my hell later. I guess I've been trying to do this for what 6 + years but back then I had maybe a quarter of the toys I have now

For fucks sake! The sticky double sided things they give you to attach the lights to glass are completely worthless! Got the first one in and it fell in literally a minute. I have some scotch double sided tape (the thick foamy kind you can cut) but won't that pretty much lead to the same result? Do I have cement glue these to the glass?

EDIT: double sided seems to hold for now (Ikea always gives you shitty tools to assemble and attach)
EDIT 2: Well one good thing is it appears I might not have to 'empty' the shelves just move toys out that are in the area of the frame near attachment points in the back.

those foam pads are awful, they disintegrate as well leaving foam stuck to the glass, i used clear packing take on mine, they don't budge and for the most part they're invisible, only thing is after a couple of moves and disassembly the tape has pulled off some of the wood effect on the underside of the top.

Thanks, yeah I'm using packing tape to angle and seal the wire from the light to the wire framing. I just realized though that YES I am going to have to vacate all shelves (well one detolf at a time) before installing. Got a little ahead of myself with that wishful thinking that I could just move the side toys in the back out. I order to cable/zip tie the wires to the side frame and then the back frame you kind of have to have a clear shelf above. I'm on the floor looking up meanwhile toys are like dominos dive bombing my head with shelf dives!

Whatever kind of bad day you chaps are having (whether it be at work, bad weather etc) just think to yourself: "Well at least I'm not having to install 4 sets of Dioder lights intricately wound around the frames of detolfs with 500 toys spread about in a room after falling on my head like Lixx!"

geez! sounds rough man..

you should get some of this lixx.

http://www.amazon.com/3M-Heavy-Mounting-4910-Clear/dp/B0016HGFXW/ref=pd_sim_op_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=08PMGMJVCF5ZHFRKKP6J

shits serious, pretty hard to remove what you stuck down. You'd have to slowly pry it up. Leaves no residue when you do remove it though. You can probably get a lower strength version, maybe search indoor mounting tape. anyways, a few small squares on the back of the light would hold very well.

i was going to ask how well that holds
i have a few sets but reluctant to set up
my biggest fear would be pucks dropping and domino the whole display (obviously lol)

im glad to see this thread, helpful for sure

Yeah I've got two lights actually attached after an hour and a half! I wanted to post these photos for anyone thinking about doing this to save yourself some trouble! I idiotically mounted the first light with the cord facing the rear of the detolf. Not a good idea at all! What you want to do is mount them so the cord faces the side (see photo):



Why you ask? Well you so need that side frame so your wires aren't drooping down the center of your shelf.

Once you have that done, don't do what I did next: I zip tied a taunt wire BEHIND the front rubber grommit thus defeating the purpose of the tension (it kept sliding causing the wire to droop) After realizing that was dumb I spent the better part of 15 minutes trying to cut a tight zip tie with dull scissors (this was after I pulled a sharp Gerber knife out first but the zip tie kept slipping). Only after cutting it did I realize: "Hey wait those grommits aren't sealed onto the frames they just slip off and I could have just pulled it off and placed it behind the zip tie and pushed it forward for tension!" Doh! Anyhow this is a pic of the rear grommit with a zip tie behind it (the front grommit should have the zip tie in front):



I posted these pics because I could never really see the detail in Meczilla's first pic on page 1. Thus me messing up from the start. I might be going about this wrong way but as I searched all this week for some kind of youtube clip or online guide that is of some use (none to be found- every one on youtube absolutely sucked) I figured posting here would get the conversation going for the best tips. I'd pay a toy display whisperer to do this for me if I could!

Here's my hell:



Yeah this won't be a one day job. Thank fuck for another bedroom.

Poor Lixx! It does make an interesting read though . I can solve all of your problems, just send all of your toys to me

LOL that would solve all my problems but then I'd miss those damn toys. Toys are always a damn conundrum! I think this will look sharp in the end if I don't lose my mind first.

I'm getting a long metal console table to put my turntables on tomorrow (where you see the mirror now). This is so I don't break my back setting those up every other day and then breaking my set up down into a messy pile next to my desk. I'm pushing my glass desk over and the cool thing is that side metal cabinet I own slides under the console table (here's the link so you can see how it works):

http://www.cb2.com/go-cart-carbon-grey- ... le/s219404

My space is limited so every bit helps. I figured SB was getting a bit slow reading wise anyhow...

Oh no! Chris!

Your toys are arranged to the millimeters. You sure you can fit in a wire?

Just be sure to periodically check on those lights. The heat will dry up the double-sided tape.

Ok, maybe I'm missing something here, but instead of using all of that wiring and complications of going with it, has anyone tried using those stick-on led lights? You can use rechargeable batteries, and it seems that it's much easier to light your cases without the wires (and swearing! )

http://www.amazon.com/Danibos-Stick--Closets-Garages-Storage/dp/B00IUIA73Y/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1405068416&sr=8-5&keywords=led+stick+on+lights

http://www.amazon.com/Fulcrum-30010-301-Battery-Operated-Stick-On-Silver/dp/B000R7PM36/ref=pd_sim_sbs_hg_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1D34FSK2ZHY5N9J993F7

I think the only disadvantage, is that you have to tap the light to turn them on, but I think in tightly packed detolfs (cough cough Chris!), you can open the case and use a stick to tap them on? Too labor intensive?

P.S. Found out that there are motion-sensor LED stick-on lights too
http://www.amazon.com/Beams-Battery-Powered-Motion-Sensing-Stick-Anywhere-Nightlight/dp/B002FCGI8Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1405069281&sr=1-1&keywords=motion+sensor+led+light

Grace I tried those using those stick on LED's years ago and it was a disaster. They burned through batteries in a day or two and were too heavy (because of the thicker design to encase said batteries). They also fell every other day causing the domino effect. It was more trouble than doing this method. Trust me if there was another way I would certainly do it.

I'm determined to at least get the first one done early this morning now that I sort of have a system going. I just know it's going to get crazy when I get towards the top wrangling all those wires in one hand and trying to zip tie them with the other.

James or anyone else for that matter, I completed Detolf 1 but now I'm left with wires of varying lengths coming out of the top. I don't think those cordmates you suggested will help wrangle those since they are so stiff James, although you did just suggest them for the inside to be fair. Thinking of returning them in favor of something really flexible. Since one or two wires coming out of the top will be much shorter and will create an impossible angle to go downwards with the stiffer cordmate.

Geez another trip to Home Depot is in my day, and a return/exchange no less lol.

Here's some dark and out of focus pics of progress because I'm too sweaty and annoyed to care:

Making sure it works before cutting the ties/sealing the top (or I would have impaled myself on a knife):



As you go up you'll need more ties because of more wires:




At the end you'll need some packing tape to stick the wires to the top and catch any loose tension leading out (I eventually used a little more, oh and make sure you position the light wire towards the back on the top one only- not like me):



Oh and definitely remove all the toys/risers before hand. Don't hold onto the belief that you can just move some toys to the side and do this. I still did and my Sunguts Caveman on the top shelf smashed my head this morning! Ouch.

Looks great Chris! Yeah the wires coming out of the top of the Detolf are annoying to deal with. That's why I have toys standing on top of the shelves in front of the wires / power boxes.

Yeah I'm heading to Home Depot now to return 3 of those cordmates in favor of the really bendy kind for the tops. Might just keep the last cordmate for the electrical cords (wonder if 4 will fit?) I'll have no problem covering up the transformer boxes up top with the amount of toys I have up there!

Ikea really didn't think the design out for these at all. You also have to cut a small triangle out of those plastic top covers to accommodate the wiring coming out! Geez.

I already know for a fact I'm only doing this one detolf today.

So I'm done the first detolf. Wires secured, toys back on the shelves (thank fuck- my room was a mess). I used some flexi cord wranglers from Home Depot, also I have a pic of the top dust cover with the cut you must make to get those wires out (and keep the seal so dust does not invade your detolf):





James- spot on about the light placement. Loving the results:





Doing one is all I can handle today, but the first was the hardest. Now that I have the system down (and thank you wingnut for the tape things first suggestion!) I'm sure the others will be slightly easier. No more pics till I'm done I swear.

Now I'm off to finish putting any loose toys back up top and assemble a metal console table. Yeah just what I wanted to do next

Chris, I am really enjoying your documentation, but I think you need to take more pics of your toys out lying about in the "wild" . You must not have cats or dogs, as I'm sure you'd be so paranoid about getting them chewed on. My "new" cats Henry and Emma are the first cats that show any interest in my toys, and unfortunately, they think Kaiju are cheapy chewables, so nothing can stay out in the open .

Thanks for the input on those stick-on lights! I've always wondered if I should get a dozen or more and stick them around the house so that I don't trip in the middle of the night, trying to get to a light switch, but they sound like cheaply made things. A shame that they won't work in the detolfs though . Ok, looking forward to more documentation from you! Good luck, it should look stellar when you're done!

P.S. Those cord wraps make me think of... tape worms!

Grace you crack me up! Me and Kim were just torturing my sis on vacation with pics of tapeworms online. Kim is into all that stuff. We ended up going to the Mutter museum in Philadelphia while we were there. Google it. Not for the faint of heart!

No I do not own any cats or dogs. Love both, but not till we get a house. Unfortunately Kim is allergic to cats- and hates them so it might just be a dog. I'm secretly more of a cat person than dogs.

You know what those stick up lights ARE GOOD for? You know when you get up in the middle of the night and you need to get something out of a closet (in our case here we keep all the tolietries, advil, q-tips etc etc in a hallway closet). You can stick them underneath each shelf and instead of having to turn on a hallway light (and wake up your significant other) just click them for low illumination to see what exactly what you need. Also if I turn on a regular light it hurts my eyes and I'll never get back to sleep.

EDIT: Oh and one more tip for everyone (but I'm sure people do this already): Take a pic of each shelf before you take everything out! This helped me immensely recreating every shelf as I had a photo to go on when putting all those toys back.

Heck yes! Looks great Chris!!

And the way you have your shelves packed reminds me of riding the subway in Tokyo during rush hour. Talk about no personal space!!