Garden/Pathway Light (LED) [2025 Updated]

This model is for a “streetlight-style” wired garden/pathway light. Brighten up your garden path with lights, without spending a fortune on MoonRays or similar products where a single lamp can cost up to $20! In bulk I can make these for about CAD $3 a lamp, give or take $1.

This description has been updated from the original v1 (2023) to v2 (2025) which features a number of improvements.

Tinker the design on TinkerCAD.

Overview

The design consists of a rectangular head section in a “streetlight” style (rises up and to one side so the pole is offset from the light source), a set of poles that allow customized heights and allow the wire to feed through them, and then one of 3 separate bases that can be used to customize the positioning. The full array of parts options is:

• Head (square, “streetlight”-style)
• LED strip insert
• Diffuser cover (optional)
• 50mm riser pole
• 100mm riser pole
• 200mm riser pole
• Wall-mount base (can screw or tape onto a wall/fence/etc.; designed for #8 head screws)
• Clip-mount base (sized for https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09XXBPBNL metal fencing)
• Ground base (for direct insertion into the ground)
• 140mm stake (used with Ground base; for soft soil or extra stability)
• 90mm stake (used with Ground base; for hard soil)
• Wire wrapper (optional, for holding slack wire if needed)

In addition, you will need:

• Outdoor LED strip lighting (e.g. https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0C4PCSYJF)
• 24-gauge silicone lead wire (e.g. https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CBB4VG5V)
• Some way to connect the lead wire to your wiring system
• A wire stripper, soldering iron and solder to connect your wire to the strip lights
• ASA/ABS slurry (ABS/ASA + acetone) or superglue (optional, for maximum rigidity of the poles, attaching the wire wrapper, and for protection of the LED strip)

The LED insert is designed to accommodate 2 sections (~50mm) of COB or traditional LED strip lighting; what voltage you use depends on your system but any standard 8mm LED strip lighting should fit. Personally I find this is the perfect amount of light for one lamp to illuminate a ~4-foot section of pathway or accent a feature. There is also an optional “diffuser” cover that can be printed in clear/transparent material to help spread the light, but I personally don't bother; it's included just for customization purposes.

There are 3 riser lengths, of 50mm, 100mm, and 200mm, so you can greatly customize the exact height. I tend to use 2 200mm poles myself for an overall height of ~600mm (~2 feet) including the base unit.

The 3 different bases provide a very wide array of possible mounting options. Use the “ground” base plus the stake for inserting the light directly into the soil; use the “clip” mount for clipping onto the aforementioned metal fencing; or use the “wall” mount for attaching to a wall, fence, or other similar vertical surface. I use all 3 mounts in my garden in various places.

Print Configuration

I print these in ASA for maximum outdoor weatherproofing; my V1 was printed in ABS but after a full year (including leaving them out over the winter), the plastic became very brittle and 3 separate lights broke in various ways. I took the opportunity to redesign the entire system to provide more base types as well as optimize the design for ASA and my new Creality K1 Max printer.

The model should be printed at an 0.16mm or 0.24mm layer height; the entire design is optimized around this, especially the size of the inserts for a tight fit. While it might be possible to modify this, your results may vary.

5-7 wall layers are recommended for maximum strength and inter-layer adhesion, as this matters a lot during assembly (see below).

Speed depends on your printer, but as with all ASA prints a lower speed is recommended for maximum performance.

Infill can be anywhere from 10-25%, or even 100% if you wish, but there is very little infill in the final design.

Supports are required on the external connector pieces (i.e. enable the “touching buildplate only” option and/or paint supports only on overhangs for these sections), but are NOT recommended for the internal connector pieces as the support material can be very hard to remove if printed in ASA. There may be some artifacts from this; see the next section for details.

I slice with OrcaSlicer 2.3+ using the defaults for the K1M, aside from what is noted above.

Assembly

Once printed, assembly is fairly straightforward.

Before assembling the printed pieces, prepare your wire (I personally use 50 inches of wire per light to ensure plenty of slack; hence the cable wrapper piece) by soldering it onto your LED strip and attaching it to the insert. I recommend using superglue to permanently hold the LED strip down to the insert board for optimal longevity, as the built-in is not always reliable.

Ensure you insert the wire through the head and poles before you actually attach the head to the pole(s)! While the sweeping angle of the tube through the head can allow wire to be pushed through if it's strong enough, I found that this isn't the case with the silicone wire recommended above, and if you attach the wire to the LED strip first as I suggest above, you will have to insert the wire “against” the inserts which makes it difficult. So I always ensure I thread the wire through the head first, then through the straight poles individually, before attaching those all together.

The tolerances for the inserts between the poles (and head) are quite tight directly out of the printer. You may need to manually shape and clean up the connectors with a utility knife and/or pliers but this is a relatively quick and easy process - I typically remove the bottom layer of the external pieces where it contacted the supports with the knife, and use the pliers to pull out any stray threads from the internal pieces, and this allows the pieces to fit together snugly without too much force.  Be careful when assembling that you don't apply lateral force as this may cause delamination! Also note that the stakes for the ground base fit in very firmly and are twice the length of the other connections, and these require a lot of force - ideally against a very solid surface - to insert all the way; once inserted they also cannot be easily removed, so keep that in mind.

I strongly recommend permanently attaching the pieces together with superglue or ASA/ABS slurry once fully assembled. Without it and with the “cleaning up” of the connectors as mentioned above, they tend to come apart or worse, delaminate. Personally I used a little bit of ASA slurry on both the front and back of each connector piece, pressing them together and then cleaning up the excess squeeze with a paper towel. When you do this it can help to let it cure clamped to a straight surface to prevent bowing, though there will always be some bow in the longer pieces.

The cable wrapper can be attached to any of the bases via superglue or ASA slurry as well; it is kept as a separate piece both to aid printing and to allow customization of the position. This piece has two “pegs” to wrap the wire around, as well as a small opening to feed the wire in and out of to lock it down. The part is optimized for that 24-gauge silicone wire, so larger wire may not fit; about 2-3 turns (or ~6 inches) of slack is ideal; any more and it has a tendency to fall off; if you need more you could print thin little circles of a larger diameter and attach those to each peg. And of course this piece is completely optional if you don't want to leave that much slack.

Enjoy your new, brighter garden, pathway, or outdoor seating area!