Introduction: Glowing Glass Shard Coated Bottle Lamp *16 Color LED W/ Remote*

About: I am a graduate with a degree in Civil Engineering. My expertise is in structures and physics so a lot of the craft stuff here I love trying and learning myself!
Hello everyone!!!

This will be my first Instructable ever (Proof, I just added Instructable to the auto correct dictionary ^.^)

Being in my early 20's, I find myself at parties from time to time where great memories are made. Some memories more memorable than others! (or more forgettable >_<) SO, when thinking of a gift idea for a friend that lives in another country, I wanted to give them something to remember the crazy wild times we had here in the U.S. forever!


Enter RUMPLE MINZE! This guy never seems to fail in the *creating memories* department, so this was the bottle of choice... for so...sooo many reasons. Er'herm but continuing, I looked all over the internet for different ideas on how to do this and make it special. I came upon Instructables for the first time and saw some cool ideas, but they really came in handy for the fabrication aspects. It was on etsy that I saw the look I was going for. Credit goes to BodaciousBottles for the idea, though they don't explain at all how its made, which is why I'm here to explain how I got something similar.

This Instructable will detail my process of adding a light reflective flare to the inside of a(ny) bottle with a 16 color changing LED under it as illumination.  This is a very straight forward design that anyone can do.  The wood base was an artistic touch that I personally wanted to obtain, making this more a piece of art;  Though anyone can make a simplified base to streamline the project.

Lets get Started!

Edit**. Added two more I made for this Christmas!

Step 1: Preperation

I planned everything out almost completely before starting because I wanted this to be cheap and done right the first time.
Total cost was about $19 assuming you have the wood treatment lying around and buy the electronics like I did. (it was a gift I didn't want to use garbage)

Materials:


Bottle__
o Liquor bottle of choice
o Broken up glass/ Diamond dust http://www.amazon.com/Floracraft-Diamond-Dust-Crystal-Twinklets/dp/B001682AZI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368246568&sr=8-1&keywords=diamond+dust
o Adhesive with liquid consistency/ Glitter-It http://www.beaconadhesives.com/cgglit.html OR Mixture of floor wax, Elmers glue, thinner (3:2:1 approximately)
o Thick Squishy double sided tape

Wood Base__

o Detailed drawing of  design
o Wood log (White Birch)
o White wood stain
o clear wood wax coat
o polyurethane coat
o gold vinyl paper


Lighting/wiring__
o 16 color changing LED with remote http://www.amazon.com/Multi-color-Changing-Spotlight-Control-Standard/dp/B0067H5GPY/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1368247267&sr=8-9&keywords=mr16+color+changing+LED
you can also use the strips, but this was cheaper
o MR 16 connector socket http://www.amazon.com/GrayBean-MR16-Light-Socket-10-Pack/dp/B005I4J1D0/ref=sr_1_2?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1368247339&sr=1-2&keywords=mr16+connector
o in-line switch
o Power adapter (100V-240V In, 12V 1Amp Out)

Step 2: Bottle *frosting*

This was what really sold me on the project.  Once I saw how it glowed I knew I wanted that same effect

First things first, protect the bottle with some saran wrap, use tape to secure it at the top and bottom.  To clean the inside of the bottle for maximum adhesion I used warm water and alcohol.

Adhesive:
If you don't want to buy the Glitter-It or you plan to use larger pieces of glass then you can make your own concoction.  My mom suggested a formula she uses for crafts that is made up of floor wax, Elmer's glue, and mineral spirits.

The less viscous the better here, for you want to quickly coat the inside of the bottle and allow the glue to quickly work between the shards. 

I toyed around with the idea of a spray adhesive, though I feared getting an uneven coating, though if you have some and try it let me know.  My research said the E-6000 is great for gluing glass to glass.  Just as long as whatever you use allows light to pass through it you are solid.

Glass Coating:
I attempted to break some glass myself, but I became worried with the inconsistency of the shard sizes.  I went to the local art store where I get 40-50% off coupons every week, looked around and found the Diamond Shards.  For the $4 it was worth my sanity and avoid the hazard of breaking glass.

The planning took me a week but making it took 5 minutes....

Coating Application and Process:
Simply take your adhesive *Glitter-It, squirt a healthy amount into the bottle and rotate the bottle around until you are sure that 100% of the faces are covered.  Be cautious not to get any glue in the mouth of the bottle and bottom of the bottle (Causing a *bottle-neck* and blocking the light from coming in respectively)

Quickly dump excess glue back into the bottle and then just as quickly add *just a bit more than needed* amount of glass coating Diamond Dust into the bottle and shake to get a level coating all over the inside of the bottle.  I dumped out any excess shards that didn't stick right away.  In retrospect I would leave it a bit longer and then shake it forcefully when dry to clear out the excess.

***I chose to do one side of the bottle at a time so it could lay on its side and let the glass weigh down into the glue.  Though honestly you could just glue up the entire bottle and then add the glass and shake that baby like a maraca!  Well maybe slightly gentler than that. but the glue is strong with smaller glitter and dries pretty fast.  I used a hair dryer to speed up the process.

Step 3: Wood Base... I Am No Carpenter...

I am no carpenter, I have zero experience with wood.  This was the get it done with what you have way of woodworking... but by-George I got it done!  The wood base was easy to design with my drawings done well enough, but very time consuming since I was limited in the tools available to me.

Tools/Stuff Used:

o Safety eye ware
o Face mask
o Sand paper
o Hand grinder (Wire wheel attachment)
o Saw
o 2 1/4" Hole Saw (Circle drill bit)
o 1" Spade bit (trident looking bits)
o Dremel set
o Drill 1/4' bit
o Handheld circular saw
o Hand Sander
o Hand clamps

I first cut the log to about the size I needed it to be with about an 1 1/2" - 2" extra for leveling off.  I used a saws-all first for some terrible cuts, then used the wire wheel grinder and sander to remove high points and level it out on the bottom and somewhat on top.

After getting a parallel base and top I drew the planned circles (holes), square (angle cuts) and cross lines (corner of angled faces) as I had in my drawing.  I cut out the holes first so that I made sure to make the angled edges offset from the hole equal amounts all around.

**IMPORTANT!!** I kind of messed this up, but I planned to have the top portion where the bottle sits to come up over the sides of the bottle and hold it in snug.  I ended up cutting the angled sections too perfectly and I didn't allow much room to build up higher walls around the base of the bottle.  It all worked out well enough, but I would have liked them a bit higher up the sides of the bottle.

I only had a small circular saw and a hand saw to make all the cuts.  I feel lucky to have the circular saw which gave me "exact" 50 degree angles all around.  With nice deep notches started it was easy to finish the cuts with the saw.

I then added the curved slope at all faces with the wire wheel hand grinder.  While this worked great and quickly, I wish I was more careful.  The wire wheel left some VERY deep cuts that would just not sand out and are in the final product (though mostly unnoticeable with lots of fine sanding) 

I sanded the whole thing down with everything I had. high grit to low grit.  I used a dremel with a metal cone bit and the sanding tube attachments to make the indent at the square center for the bottle to sit in.  This was time consuming but accurate... constantly check to make sure the LED sits flush with the constantly dropping seat of the bottle. 

Since I didn't want to cut all the way through the base with the hole saw and because I didn't have a 2" spade bit I had to force the wood out.  I chose to drill a ton of small holes into the wood to remove and used a hammer and chisel to knock it out.  When low enough I used a small 2" wire wheel drill bit we happened to have to grind away and slivers shooting up. 

The deeper/smaller hole to that the socket dropped into was drilled just before reaching the bottom (not very scientific.) Then the exit hole for the wire was eyeballed to hit the bottom of the hole the socket was at. (with fingers crossed I hit it perfect the first try ^_^)

Step 4: Wiring and Lighting... I Am No Electritian

I chose this method because it was the simplest and required the least amount of actual wiring.  I did all of this before the wood finishing because I had to do a ton of grinding things down to get the LED to fit properly and the bottle to sit snug in that little indent I made for it.  The LED is out of the box, plug it in and it works, remote and all so that was great. 

I first tested the LED in a fixture I had, then tested it with the power adapter.  I chose to cut the end off and wire it right into a switch.  Since the LED has an off button on the remote next time I might just buy the circle female socket that matches and just use that. 

http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Projects/Electrical/Electrical-Improvement/how-to-install-an-in-line-cord-switch/View-All
This is how you connect the switch.  I didn't take any pictures of it apart and I'm sure not undoing it after I finally got it all tightly secured.

I "fixed" the bottle to the base by attaching the LED directly to the bottom of the bottle.  I did this because the bottle was a little wobbly due to me not being able to make the indent deep enough *bulb couldn't go any lower*.  With the socket screwed tightly to the base and the LED tightly to the bottle, when plugged in (which isn't too difficult to do) the bottle becomes held tightly in place.  The LED was attached to the bottom of the bottle with one layer thin double sided tape and then some pieces of the thick squishy double sided tape sold everywhere. 

This was all perfect in my opinion because it allowed everything to be easily accessible and change/fixable.  The double sided tape is not permanent if the LED needs to be replaced and the bottle/bulb easily pull out to allow me to change/replace the MR-16 socket.

IMPORTANT..ish**
Before taping the light to the bottom of the bottle, make sure the ring is TIGHTLY screwed back on and that the LED is firmly placed in the lamp fixture.  This will make it so that when you place the bottle into its "permanent" position it will be taped facing forward.  Every time the "Light-Bottle" is moved as one, it can always be inserted back with forward still being aligned.

Step 5: Finishing Wood Base

LASTLY!!
I did a lot of research and they talked about protecting the wood and getting it at the right time of year.  I don't mind the slight cracks in the wood though I probably should have filled them to preserve it better.

I did tons of tester trials with the angled pieces I cut off the step before.  The formula that gave me the exact look I was going for was as follows.

**What I was going for**
Stay light natural wood color...

The polyurethane turned the wood an ugly dark color that was not what I wanted.  So through testing (and research) I applied a very thin coat of a white wood stain.  I let it sit as the instructions stated, but wiped it off thouroughly because I didn't want the wood to be too changed.  What I think this did for me was plug up some of that absorption dry wood has so that the polyurethane didn't seep in and ruin it.

Now I completely disregarded everything I read and put an oil wax coat on and THEN the polyurethane.  I know this is 100% wrong but in all my test trials I liked the look the best when I put the wax on to further darken the rings in the wood to a natural color and then the polyurethane just for protection.  Does this have some long down the line effects probably, but this was all experimental for me and I was more preoccupied with present than future.  Everyone let me know in the comments if I've *sealed* my own fate!?  bahahah bad puns...


Sorry this is out of order, but I put the Vinyl wording on AFTER the wax coat and BEFORE the polyurethane.  My only reasoning is because I wanted the polyurethane over the letters as an extra covering to protect them from peeling off.  The letters were cut by my mom who has one of those fancy paper cutting machines and a nifty program *MakeTheCut* that lets her cut whatever google/bing image can come up with.

Step 6: FINSIHED

ALL FINISHED!

I hope everyone enjoyed this walk-through.  The real gem here was the *frosting* the bottle.

I'd love any comments or suggestions for later projects seeing as how everyone wants me to make them one of these now!!

Also show me your memory bottles!!  You don't need to share the story though, keep that between you and the bottle ~_^