Introduction: Recycled Bulb Vase
So this week i have chosen to do something with a light bulb. Glass glitters and shines when polished yet the first thing that comes into our mind when a bulb fuses is to break it. Why not make something out of it. Well there are thousands of ideas that could come for one but the one i though was to convert into some sort of pot to hold an aquatic plants. It is transparent and we could see what happens inside.
Step 1: Tool's
1. Please gather your tools for the job. You would need a nose player, the bulb, a wire cutter and a screw driver.
Step 2: Opening the Bulb
1. Pull out the terminals with your nose player. Rip it off clean from the bottom.
2. Now break off the black tar at the back of bulb. Probably this would be the toughest in this tutorial. Please hold the bulb in your hand comfortably cushioned and hit on the black tar to break it off. Then use your nose player to pull them off.
3. Now to the inner lining of glass tube which holds the tungsten filament. This would be moulded along with the outer wall. Again with much care try to break this connection with your nose player or with the screw driver. It is very delicate so please be careful or you would break even the outer wall. Right now patience would be our best friend.
4. Once you have broken it carefully pull out all the contents from inside the bulb. Your nose player will come handy here.
5. After you have pulled out the big chunk of glass from inside the bulb just them the rest of the content on a piece of mat or paper that you have spread down.
6. Trim off the excess metal if you have any from the bottom of the bulb with wire cutter. This is really not necessary if you have a clean cut. But if you have jagged edges then you may trim them with your wire cutter.
Step 3: Cleaning the Bulb From Inside
1. Make sure that you have emptied the glass bulb completely. After that rinse the bulb with some soap water to take out any hazardous material. A small splash of colin also would do.
2. After you empty the glass bottle, now thoroughly rinse the plain water. This would take out the soap water residue, any hazardous material and small glass particles.
3. Now push in a clean piece of cloth into the bulb using the screw driver. This would help you dry off any moisture inside the bulb. This step can be skipped but if you are planning to do any art inside the glass bulb then this would be helpful.
4. Just pull of the cloth after you have dried the glass bulb.
And now here is a cleaned glass bulb. It is easy provided you do it safely.
Step 4: Planting a Water Plant Into the Bulb
Now, just put some water again inside the bulb and carefully plant a small water plant inside the bulb..
ENJOY and Go Green
Step 5: RECYCLING BULB
My only suggestion is to get an old style filament globe and not a halogen, as these are hard to do. The globe in the pictures is a halogen and this broke on me when I tried to get the insides out.
Steps:
1. First remove the little piece of metal at the bottom of the bulb. Pliers usually will get this off.
2. Next use needle nose pliers to break the black glass at the bottom and remove
3. Inside the bulb you will see a glass tube, break this and push a screwdriver down the hole. This will separate the glass tube from the bulb.
4. Next you will need to make the hole bigger – this is the dangerzone! It’s very easy to break the bulb so take your time and take little chips out of the glass with a pair of needle nose pliers. One trick is to trim off some of the tin from the bayonet – this way you can make the hole a little bigger which will help remove the glass.
5. If the bulb has white frosting inside, use some salt to get rid of it.
Tip – Hold the bulb in a rag so if it breaks it doesn’t cut you. Hopefully now you have a hollow bulb..
