LED Light wands

I have always been attracted to creative lighting, especially LEDs.  Recently, my I saw a a BMW that came with the Adaptive Xenon lights and the beautiftul LED corona rings.  So, naturally, I set out to "borrow" the design for lighting anythings.

Parts List:

Blind Replacement Wand - http://www.lowes.com/pd_3662-978-NW015239_0__?productId=3067205&Ntt=blind+wand&pl=1&currentURL=&facetInfo=
LEDs
Resistors - you can figure out the appropriate resistor here: http://ledz.com/?p=zz.led.resistor.calculator
Wire
Hot Glue
Heat Shrink
Power Source
Scrap wood
Cardboard
Metal Duct Tape

Tools needed:

Pencil (Naturally)
Jig Saw
Sander
Dremel
Dremel Cutoff Wheel
Dremel high speed cutter
Glue Gun
Oven

Basically, I made an LED wand,as seen in the photo below.

Step 1: Find your design and make your pattern!

The first step is to find what you want to use as a pattern, should you want to decorate something with a wand of light.  For example, you may want to make something like a neon Open sign, a curved light, or even just a straight bar of light to put on a shelf, or under a cabinet. 

Once you come up with your design, make a pattern.  You will need this to bed the wand around in the coming steps.  I started by copying my design onto onion paper, and then onto cardboard.  I then traced the card board onto 3/4 inch thick wood, which was probably overkill, but what I had on hand.  Then, I cut the wood piece out using a scroll saw, and sanded it perfect.  This will be the piece that you mold the wand around.

Comments

[PKM]

These are pretty cool! Using bent clear plastic rods as a light guide is a neat idea, much simpler (and cheaper) than LED strip. It looks like cutting all those notches with the dremel would take a while, though.

[aykalper]

Thanks! I find that it looks better than the individual LED bulbs, at least, how I used it (as a fog light corona on my car). It does take some time making all of those notches, but once you get on a groove, it passes relatively quickly. Just have some good tunes on!