Punched Tin Lantern

Make a punched tin lantern with recycled steel cans and pop rivets. I made this one as a Valentines day present.

Punched metal used to be used a lot for lanterns and in cupboards, to provide ventilation without letting flies in. This project costs <$5 once you have the tools.

Step 1 Tools

Tools:

A bunch of empty steel cans
Tin snips
Pop riveter
Pop rivets
Hammer
Nails (2 sizes - smaller ones for holes, and some that match the size of the rivets)
Scraps of wood
Clamps
Drill
Pliers
Can opener
Transparency Paper
Masking tape or glue
A candle
A large metal ring (should be big enough to put your hand in comfortably)

Comments

[polymarkos]

Technically, these kinds of 'lanterns' are actually 'candle carriers.' Obviously they don't let out much light, and they often trap too much heat--causing your candle to burn much too quickly.

These carriers were used to take an already-lit candle from one place to another, even in high winds. In the days before matches or lighters or such, lighting a candle was a bit of a pain, and keeping it lit on a midnight run to the outhouse real trouble. So they used these punched tin carriers to haul a lit candle with little chance of it extinguishing.

Once one arrived at their destination, one would remove the candle from the carrier and place it in a proper place to provide full light.

[lynks]

I have a friend who made one out of Holiday popcorn tins. They are a great source of flat "free" metal.

[thepelton]

I saw a light that was used by miners in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that was made from a log cabin syrup tin (with five sides). They cut one end out, and punched holes in the other sides. It made for a passable lantern at night that was not as succeptible to the winds. A votive candle could be put into a quart cylindrical can-lantern that way, if it had a loop tied or soldered on the top.

[johnpombrio]

http://www.piercedtin.com/ Country Accents has all the materials to do a copper lantern. Having done several copper lanterns, trust me, it is the punching that takes the longest. If you are going to put a lot of work into punching tin, might as well start with good materials.

[chuckr44]

Neat idea using free materials.

[GorillazMiko]

Cool. Looks nice, you could probably put some cool picture designs on it. That would be nice.

[LinuxH4x0r]

Cool! I'd recommend using flat metal to make the design stand out better