How to Cut a Light Bulb in Half

In this Instructable, we'll have a look at one of the ways to cut light bulbs in half.

Once the bulb is cut in half, you can put in a large object and glue the bulb back together.

We will need:

• Empy/Hollow Bulb
• Nichrome Wire
• Copper Foil Adhesive Tape
• Battery from a drill or alternative power source

If you are Interested in a video version of this Instructable and the embedded video does not appear on your mobile device, here is an alternative link

Step 1: Put a Nichrome Wire Onto the Bulb

Take a piece of nichrome wire, twist it to make a loop.

Slide it onto the bulb.

It should fit tightly.

Step 2: Secure the Wire With a Copper Tape

Secure the wire to the bulb with a copper tape.

Put 2 pieces of tape on each side of the wire twist.

Step 3: Separate the Wire Twist

Cut off the twist and separate the wire.

Step 4: Prepare Your Power Source

Prepare your power source.

I used a battery from a drill.

It's a 24v battery, but lower voltage batteries should also work.

As long as the battery has lots of amps, it should work.

Most of the power tool batteries will be powerful enough.

The power source will also depend on the nichrome wire you use.

Thinner the wire, less powerful battery you will need.

Step 5: Cut the Bulb

Put the positive cable to one end of the wire and the negative cable to another end of the wire.

The wire will start to glow.

Be careful as it will become extremely hot

If the wire does not light up in 2-3 seconds, your battery might not be powerful enough.

If the wire burns out, that means you have too much power.

After a few second of heat, the bulb will split in half.

Don't worry if there is a piece of glass that is uncut (the part where the wire did not touch).

It will break once you try to separate the glass.

Step 6: What's Next?

With a bulb cut in half, you can make something cool.

I put a large pad-lock in the bulb and glued the bulb back together.

If you look closer, the line is visible, but it still looks impressive.

If you want to hide the cutting line, you can try to use a window color to draw something on top.

Comments

[emsuemac]

You can remove the metal part of the bulb by soaking in acetone for 10 minutes or so. Before soaking, carefully and gently flick back the edges of the metal edge with a razor blade. This way, the acetone can flow to the glue inside.

[sveedio]

Just curious, could you cut thicker glass with it

[Dawsie]

that's so cool :-) as for glue there is a glue that you can get for fixing wine glass and that sort of thing I used years ago to fix a set of wine glasses and you could not tell where I had fixed them :-) you can get the glue from a good hardware store in the section the gave for all their glues :-) that's where I bought mine years ago :-)

Will gave to buy some of those bulbs to try the trick :-) love it and if I make a special stand for it to sit in I could hide the glued line behind the stands ring for holding the bulb :-)

Thanks for a great idea :-)

[xenobiologista]

Where can you buy or easily scavenge nichrome wire from?

[Laral]

I was wondering the same thing. eBay has it at good prices - nichrome wire | eBay. If you're willing to wait, this guy - Nichrome Wire 32 Gauge 0 2mm KANTHALA1 Cantal 100 ft Resistance Resistor AWG | eBay - is selling 100ft of 32GA for $1.96 from China.

[Peterd92]

I found it on Amazon.com.

[Angelbane]

You can buy it from vape stores as they use it in the homemade vaping equipment.

[smurfi1989]

Think you can try guitar cord as well but try a thin gauge cord to start off with. Used this in a foam cutter they heat up nice.

[xenobiologista]

OK thanks for the info both of you.

[lithiumdaze]

Ebay

[Nokota]

Seriously, what kind of glue did you use? The line is barely visible and the whole thing looks better without the glass paint, personally, I think. This whole instructable is useless if you don't tell us what kind of glue you used to make such a seamless and strong bond when putting the glass back together. Several people have already asked.

[fauxgal]

Use can E6000. But apply it with a toothpick point. You have to be very careful to pick up only a tiny bit on the point each time you grab glue

[Laral]

I use E6000 and it is great, but it is way too viscous for this purpose. Regular viscosity cyanoacrylate glue (Superglue) would be best. It flows really well. You could apply it with a pin or toothpick.

[Calcfan]

The bulb could also be cut diagonally to be slightly less obvious. Calcfan.

[Peterd92]

This looks way cool and i want to try it. What gauge is the nichrome wire? I see it comes in a variety of gauges (20g, 24g, 26, 36g, and probably others).

Other than that question, this was an excellent video!

[arekaybee]

Would this process work to make a hole in the bulb?

[EmillyBint]

Nice idea. I also love these two ideas. Do you have an idea how to cut the metal part?

[JayLundgren]

Emilly, you can cut the metal part with a Dremel tool and a cutting disc.

[akshayamytaneja]

This is a really nice idea!

[JoyM10]

Emily, you should do an instructible segment on this idea.