Want to express yourself creatively with light? Make a mood light, perhaps? Could you use a night light? Make name signs or multi-word messages? Using readily available materials, Illuminated signs are easy to make. Any of these and more uses can be accomplished with the simple methods in this instructable.
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Signing UpStep 1: Gather Materials and Tools
To make a light, I used common corrugated cardboard, a piece of yellow paper, a small piece of acrylic sheet plastic, tape, glue, etc. For tools, the usual paper cutting implements, i.e., straight edge, box cutter, scissors and so on. I use a table saw to cut the acrylic, but it can be cut by scoring lines deeply on your cut line, and then snapping the plastic. Special tools are made for this, but a utility knife will work....USE CAUTION IF SCORING PLASTIC THIS WAY! The light source for these signs are mini christmas lights, available everywhere. They are low amperage, low watt, low heat lights and come in different sized strings, and colors.
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OR you can buy "PAGE PROTECTORS" (remember those plastic covers with a Black sheet of paper from school days?) in up to 8.5" X 11 " in most department stores, (Larger at Office Supply Stores) and they can be cut by scissors easily.
Have fun.
You've hit another home run here. I knew I shouldn't have retracted my previous marriage proposal to you!
Do you have any suggestions for what I can do with old blueprint paper tubes? I get them from work - giant paper towel-type tubes 3 inches in diameter and 3-4 feet long. Any ideas are appreciated.
Keep up the good work.
Now, I'm looking at the pics of what you called " styrofoam mosaics".
What part is styrofoam? The tiles? If so, what did you grout them with. Looked for a link to another Instructable . . . Looking for GOOD kid projects and this is a dandy.
Standard Christmas lights about 15 - 25 Watts.
LED Christmas lights about 5 Watts.
You do the math.
Attention grabbing, add a flasher bulb to regular Christmas lights or an electronic on off timer to LED Christmas lights and they will draw attention.
OR better yet add a sound controlled on off for variable timing to local sound or music.
This looks like fun! :)
Would it be better to use LED lights rather than incandescent ones, by the way, to stop the heat build-up?
I know you say that they are "low heat lights", but I would have thought these incandescent lights can still give out enough heat to significantly warm a sealed enclosure, causing early failure or damage? Or maybe that can be solved with some ventilation holes?
Yes, some of the LED lights are a bit more pricey, but they seem to be coming down in price all of the time. Maybe some day they will be as cheap as the incandescent type. The light they give out may be an issue, as you mention. I'm not sure if they generally give out as much light as standard incandescent bulbs - I suppose that varies with the kind you buy.
Another issue with LEDs is that the plastic packages around the light emitting parts often focus the light into a thinner beam than normal bulbs, which throw out light in all directions (unless they have the "cloudy" type of package). It might be necessary to site them a bit further back from the sign or use a piece of "frosted" plastic sheet or similar to diffuse the light, to avoid bright spots of light from being thrown onto the back of the sign, unless that kind of look is what people are after!
LEDs should have the advantage of being more energy efficient for the same light output, though, assuming the transformer that they're supplied with is an efficient one, of course.