Porch Light Reglazing From a Chocolate Box.

In this short Instructable, I hope to not only show you how I completed my reglazing project but to also highlight a very useful source of material that can be recycled in many useful ways.

Supplies

Ferrero Rocher plastic box, Hot glue, hand saw or handsaw, sanding sheets or power sander. Marker pen.

Step 1: Fun First Step

Yes, the first action needed is to purchase then EAT a box of Ferrero Rocher chocs. Of course, you may share some of you may want to empty the box then consume the chocs as you use the case.

Although this,ibble covers my own use of the case, you will hopefully see that it is a super source of useable plastic.

Step 2: The Problem

As you may see in the photographs, the original glazing had become opaque and brittle. It was cracked and falling out.

Step 3: Making Templates

Rather than try to recreate a shaped plastic insert (The plastic would be capable of being thermo moulded), I made individual templates cut from card.,

Step 4: Aligning the Templates

The top plastic lid of the box has a very attractive triangular faceted effect that I wanted to align with each window. This meant carefully moving the template around the plastic then marking around it for cutting.

Step 5: Preparing the Plastic

First, the box edges were removed with a bandsaw. The plastic cuts easily but it is best to keep a good speed or some melting rather than cutting will occur. Once a flat sheet is cut out then a sander can quickly remove the decal. This also gives a nice opaque effect to the back of the plastic that will diffuse the light.

Step 6: Arranging the Cut Sheets.

Using the bandsaw the individual sections were cut into the matching sections, These were then held in place with a number of small clamps.

Step 7: Fixing in the Panels

The easiest and most effective method of retaining the panels in the frame was decided as good old Hot Glue.

Taking great care to avoid dropping glue in the wrong places, all sections were carefully affixed to the frame.

Step 8: The Completed Porch Light

Once all was set the reglazed light was fastened back on the wall and looked very good. I particularly liked the way facets of the plastic refract the light. This is not perhaps very clear in the photograph since it is difficult to photograph.

Although you may not have exactly the same need as I had, I do hope that I have shown the availability of a superb material that can be recycled in many ways. I hope to upload several other examples in the future.

Please do let me know if you use the material yourself for a project.