Blown Glass Ball yard / garden light mount

I had a few of the glass ball solar lights left, but all of the stems / stalks had broken.  Most of my garden and path lights are wired. So I wanted to convert them to wired 12v lights The 3d printed parts capture the ball securely and provide the mounting for the bipin sockets and 2W LED lights. Wire was 16guage direct burial LV cable. 

From a design standpoint the challenge was to get the balls on the base with no access to the inside of the ball. The balls are approximately 100mm diameter and the bottom hole is approx. 28mm diameter.   You could also make them in a glass blowing class. 

The inner piece (orange) is made from eSun PETG. The base is Overture ASA brown.  All were printed with a 0.4mm standard (not high flow) nozzle. The screws are M3x18mm Stainless steel.  The screws started easily in the threads. I placed the inner pieces with the "boss" around the holes facing up to maximize strength.  Make sure the screws fit freely in the notches in the base or it is very difficult to get them assembled, they need to spring into position freely. 

To insert the inner piece, start the screws in it for a few turns. Then fit it through the hole and grab one screw with a forceps (as shown) or thin needle nose plier to get it in position and hold it while the outer piece is attached. Insert the lamp into the socket and align the base over the screws. You must flex the inner piece to get the screws into the slots, and then they spring outwards to hold it in place (as shown in the photos).  Tighten the screws and then attach the wire to the socket leads. 

The stalk is 1/2" copper water pipe. The stake is 1/2" black iron or galvanized pipe. Each stake is about 10" long with a slightly pointed end (sawn and beaten with a hammer).   A standard 1/2" FPT to 1/2" pipe adapter screws onto the stake. The copper parts were powder coated as my wife does not like the look of green copper. The powder coat I used is: Prismatic powders "Soft Misty Copper". This is the same as I used several years ago on our front path lights and has held up beautifully.  The front path lights project is at: https://bronkalla.com/blog/2020/11/24/path-lights-concept/ which covers the construction and powder coating (tricky to bake the powder coating onto soldered parts).  The 2w lamps are almost too bright. 1w would be plenty. 

The stalks for the lights are tall enough to get them above the hostas, but the deer have been vicious this year and all  that is left are the stalks (I need to spray Bobbex on them earlier).