Fake EL Wire

Because real EL wire is somewhat expensive, I decided to make my own. It does not use the same principles of true EL wire, but it gives a similar effect.

What You Need:
Airline tubing (appx $3 for two meters. Available at pet stores and Walmart)
Bright LED flashlights (keychain ones work well)
tape
water

Step 1 Filling the tubes up

Cut the airline tubing so that it is less than a meter long. If you are going to light these up in broad daylight, make them shorter that 30 cm (one foot). If the tubes are too long, the light won't be even.
Run water into the tube until there are no bubbles. If you want, you can color the water to make the light a different color.
Once the tubes are full, jam one of the LED's on the flashlight into the bottom and one on the top. Make sure water doesn't come out.

Comments

[_Scratch_]

At this point, you might as well just buy about 10 feet of fiber optic cable for like, 10$ or something. Cool 'ible though.

[ANDY!]

thats what I did actually.......

[ElectricFeel]

It looks like it's more of a fake fiber optic than fake el wire

[yashfau]

you can use a highlighter's color to soak in the water and instead of a normal led, use a UV led. this should surely be brighter through out. and better looking too with the glowing effect xD

[dragonsniper]

thats what im doing for an art project


:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P:P

[The nerdling]

you could put copper/aluminium tape over the led so it will hold it and will make only the tube light up

[Toastslayer]

It'll glow much brighter if you use salt water. The downside is that if it leaks, it's more likely to short out any electronics.