GLIMMER is a Wand originally developed as a conductors baton
to be visible to musicians in a darkened nativity stage performance.

You need to know .. how to solder electric wires .. in order to make this light wand.

This Instructable is Fun to make and Fun to use !

Step 1: PARTS LIST

MATERIALS

One Single AA Inverter
One AA size Battery
Three feet of 2.2mm EL Yellow Wire
One 3/8" Copper pipe Coupler
A 1" × 3¾" dual sided o.062" PCB scrap
A 15" length of plexiglass tube 1/4" OD by 1/8" ID
Shrink Tubing
Epoxy ( hand mix kind )

TOOLS

Hand Soldering Iron Fine-wire
Solder Gun or Heavy Iron
Wire Stripper
Shrink Tube Heat Gun
Hand Saw or Band-saw
Spring Clamp

Step 2: HOW WELL IS IT VISIBLE

Observe the wand in brief use in a darkened room.

Step 3: READY THE PLEX LIGHT TUBE

Simply seal a plexiglass tube at one end, then slide the EL wire into it,

Take a 15" length of plexiglass 1/4" tubing and heat gun seal one end.
Strip off the last 3/4" of the filtered yellow EL wire to reveal the base blue light wire
Insert the Electro Luminescent wire into the plexiglass tube for a fitting.
Now is a good time to Test your EL wire tube using your one AA cell inverter.

Step 4: WAND HOLDER CLASP

BEGIN TO ATTACH THE PLEX TUBE TO THE HANDLE

Start with a 3/8" round copper pipe coupler ( joiner )
An .062" thick double sided PCB 1" wide and 3¾" long.
Cut two slots into the PCB to hold the copper coupler.
Solder the coupler to both sides and clean up the rosin.
Drill a 3/8" hole for later ease of later wiring.

Step 5: THREAD THE COUPLER

Cut a thread into the copper coupler to fit the plastic cable clamp thread.

ALTERNATIVE

If you can't get the cable clamp and you don't want to do it this way.
You can mount the plex in the copper coupler with Sugru or Epoxy
and Skip This Step.

The thread will accept and hold the yellow colored lighted wand plexiglass tube

You need a 3/8" by 18 threads per inch Pipe Tap
a crescent wrench
And a vise to hold the coupler tube
So that the plastic cable clamp can screw into the coupler.

Step 6: ASSEMBLE THE UNIT

Join it all together.

After testing the plexiglass EL tube prepared in STEP #2
Slide ( insert ) the plexiglass tube into the cable clamp
Pass the EL wire through the PCB platform see Pic 3
Tighten the cable clamp to restrain the EL Plex tube
Use rubber bands to mount the Inverter to the PCB platform see Pic 6 & 7

Step 7: WIRE IT

This wiring is actually Very Simple;

In the First Picture
Note the yellow EL wire and the black AC Inverter wires protruding through the PCB platform.

The Second Picture, shows how to Strip the EL wire.

In Picture Three

Put some electrical tape on the PCB under the length of the EL wire.
Twist the the longer AC wire to the bare end of the EL copper core wire.
And solder the wires together.

In the Fourth Picture
Bend back the fine wires across the sleeve and wrap the second AC wire around the sleeve.

In the Fifth Picture, press and lay the wires flat against the tape.

In the Last Picture

Cover the wiring with more more black tape.
Slide clear shrink tubing over the clasp and up to the Inverter switch.
Now heat shrink the clear tube, just enough to shrink , take care not to overheat the inverter ! !
Also slide a segment of shrink tube over the inverter end.
Heat shrink the tube, just enough heat to shrink , take care not to overheat the inverter ! !

Finally try the power switch.

Step 8: LAST WAVE

On the Move

The final shrink tube application can be any color you like.
It should block light emanating from the EL wiring.
The outer black shrink is a thicker tubing for wear and tear.

To change the AA Battery trim the material away from the
positive battery side of the inverter. Makes it easy to pop
the negative and slide the Positive AA cell in and out.

REAL APPEAL

This baton had enough attraction that my first one was one was actually stolen
Taken without the promised payment by an architect acquaintance for his conductor girl friend.

Anyway it's not just a conductor's_baton and pointer but also a wizardswand.

Have Fun Waving and Pointing your Magic Wand ..---·' ¨¯ ¨'·--..--·' ¨¯ ¨'·--..--·' ¨¯ ¨'·- ! !

Step 9: COSTUME ACCESSORY

Accessorize your costume this year.

Every wizard or witch even 'the boy who lived' needs a highly visible magic wand..

FINAL NOTES :

The writing of this instructable takes much longer then the
three partial days it took to put the wand together.

Now that I think more about it the use of epoxy in place of
STEP_5 makes speed of assembly a good substitution.

Initially I had considered making it a plug and light wand system.
That could select color and length inserts as the situation dictated.
Which probably explains that Step.

The longest item I initially had to find for this project to work,
was the plexiglass tube to hold the EL wire straight.

The inverter operates faster then your POV.

So, pick the EL color and length that suits you, and make it for the sheer pleasure :-)