Tent Stake Marker

Prevent midnight tripping hazards over your tent on your next camping trip by showing where your tent guy wires are with illuminated Mike's Hard Lemonade tent stake markers.

This simple hack uses light diffusion inside the bottle to create a soft glow that alerts late-night walkers to where you've staked your tent. This camping hack can be done in seconds and you probably have all the components at your campsite already.

Here's how you make your own tent stake markers to light up your late night party.

Step 1: Grab Some Mike's + Supplies

Mike's Hard Lemonade bottles

Life Gear LED glow sticks fit perfectly inside the clear bottles

Salt or sugar

Step 2: Consume Beverage, Fill With Salt

After finishing a refreshing Mike's Lemonade rinse bottle to coat entire inside with water, you'll need the entire bottle to have a wet interior for the salt to stick to. Empty bottle of any pooled water.

Step 3: Salt Bottle (while Still Wet)

Next, pour a generous amount of salt inside the bottle and shake to distribute the salt evenly inside. The salt should have stuck to the inside of the bottle. Add more salt and shake again if there's any bare spots.

Continue making salted bottles for every LED glow stick you have.

Step 4: Add LED Glow Stick

These Life Gear LED glow sticks fit perfectly inside Mike's, and the handle rests neatly on the lip of the bottle.

When it gets dark twist on the glow stick and insert inside the salted bottle.

Step 5: Light Diffusion Comparision

By adding salt or sugar to the bottle you are spreading the light and creating a soft and even light glow. The LED glow sticks already have a diffuse filter on the wand, but adding another layer inside the bottle creates a pleasant and moody glow to your campsite.

Step 6: Place Markers

All that's left is to place the markers around your tents to mark out where the stakes are located. No more tripping hazards!

Now you can keep that campfire party going all night long.

Step 7: Bonus: Pathway Lights

Not going camping? A bonus for these bottle lights might be to line your pathway, guiding you along your walk. Perfect for that late night picnic.

Comments

[JAYBO1]

Can you tell me how long the LED glow sticks last?

[dbenedetto]

Love it! I especially love the glow sticks. Thanks, I will get some for my car to use as flares. Don't usually drink lemonade but I suppose I could try mikes. :-)

[reikimaster5555]

Love the idea. Anyone who likes to camp knows how dangerous those tent stakes are and this is a great problem solver. To bad that bfry doesn't understand that this is a Mikes hard lemonade instructable. I like to think that anyone who uses glass in this manor would be responsible for any broken glass and 'leave no footprints' when you leave. Where I live, we have beautiful rivers, sand dunes, beautiful forests and best of all, Lake Michigan. Leave no footprints simply means, take home what you brought and keep your area picked up like you weren't even there.

[rbeforee]

Maybe the salt would motivate extra caution since a cut embedded with salt would suck. Especially if you don't want to waste your precious water to wash it out. LOL

Fun project. Nicely done step by step.

[sethsdad]

The salt/sugar thing is the 99 percent cool tip of this DIY since I don't drink Mike's, but my college neighbors would appreciate the tip!

[bengodwin]

If anyone needs help emptying the Mikes bottles, please let me know. I'd be happy to empty all of them for you!

Cool Idea!

[Eric Brouwer]

Cool idea

[John_the_Builder]

Cool, I've bee putting Chemical Light sticks on my tent pegs for years. Especially when camping on the sand / beach. Makes it easier to find your tent on a pitch black beach. Funny, we drove into town after pitching our tent on the beach, and came back a few hours later to find our tent surrounded. I guess people saw our green lights and thought they all needed to pitch their tents within feet of us... Next time, I'll wait until dark to put out the glow sticks ;-)

[impalajoel]

that is so awesome i will build it thanks for the idea!!!

[SparkySolar]

I like your Instructable

Thank you so much for sharing

Rima

[puminkahn]

Did that help

[love2make]

you could take a leaf out of Moser's book with the bleach bottle lights (google moser bottles) use a plastic bottle fill it with water add a little bleach and a disposable glow stick and wallah disposable tent marker
no disrespect to mikes lemonades sponsorship deal with instrucables keeps this wonderful resource alive

[rhkramer]

In addition to the other criticisms here, I'd ask two questions:

* How much do glow sticks cost, both in $ and resources--it would seem to get fairly expensive if you went camping for a week or longer?

* Is it a good idea to mark every hazard, or is it a better idea to learn (and teach your kids) to beware of hazards, and, especially in this case, that tent stakes are an expected hazard around campsites (and volleyball nets)?

[dmayer2]

Totally Agree. However I think this was meant to be a #mikehack. It's not necessarily meant to be practical or efficient, but a corporate sponsor's advertising ploy. There are lots of clear glass bottles the author could have used, but this 'ible explicitly calls for "Mike's Hard Lemonade bottles." I don't think this would have gotten a featured spot had plain glass bottles been used. Not that this is a bad thing... even instructables has to pay the bills.

[bfry]

Camping and glass aren't a great mix. Along with being a heavy thing to carry, glass bottles are prone to dangerous breakage. Both of these factors also increase the likelihood of dirty and eventually broken glass being left behind for the next unsuspecting camper to come across. If you want to drink, there are a plethora of quality craft beverages now available in lightweight aluminum cans, and if you want to mark your tent stakes, solar landscape lights do a great job, and can be reused without creating a salty mess to clean.

This project is very pretty, and could be a fun project for kids in the backyard.

[spylock]

I like.

[BLASTFEMI]

Slick idea! I love it! I wonder if powdered sugar/salt would enhance the effect? I like the idea of making solar/LED version to use in landscaping!

[snoopindaweb]

~(:- })={ > --- ]

[Micuti]

I would use plastic water bottles, salt and beans. Beans are heavier to keep them in place. Glass bottles break. Wouldn't want to get cut while camping.

[AmyLuthien]

Now that's thinking with your noodle! ;)