"Light Bulb" Simple and Easily Made

Great way to light up the path to your door, back yard, party, or special occasion. These bulb lights are quick and easy to make and can be hung up or set on a table, walkway, road, etc. We used a couple different color LEDs to see the affect of them. Ally Cat liked the green and Kitty Cat loved the blue. So easy to make that we had Cool Cat make his own (he's eight).

Materials

• Ping Pong Ball - We got ours from Kroger and some more from Menards. They had no brand name on them and they had a tiny spot to see the exact top of the ball.

• 3V Battery - These can be bought cheap on e-bay if buying in bulk.

• LED - Color of your choice

• Hot Glue Gun

• Hot Glue

• Drill

• Drill Bit - A bit bigger then the size of the LED

Optional Material

3/4" PVC Pipe - Cut in 1" ring OR Film Canister

• Find the bottom of the ball.

• Find the center of the bottom.

• Drill hole big enough to easily fit the LED.

Make sure you have plenty of extra room. The hot glue, a few steps later, will be

rubbed all the way off if the opening is not big enough.

• Take your LED and bend the longer (positive) leg at a 90 degree angle.

• Insert the short (negative) leg through the hole of the magnet. Bend the short leg up and around the magnet as shown.

• Add the battery negative (-) side facing the magnet and LED. Bend the longer leg around the outside of battery as shown.

• Hot glue around the bulb of the LED.

See our other instructable for more examples.

• Place the ping pong ball carefully over the LED.

• Try hard to leave as much glue on the LED as possible. The glue on the LED diffuses the light to make a nice glow affect.

• Let dry.

• Place battery negative side up toward the LED / bulb. Adjust the wire and or battery gently to keep the light on.

We used these to light the path to a recent sweet 16 birthday party and to shine a light on a flyer we made. These look great around the pool, walking up to the house, on the porch, in the windows. Use your imagination and let us know what else we could do.

We used a left over piece of PVC pipe to place the "bulb" on. It may not look like it that much in the picture but it really looks like an old regular (incandescent) light bulb. Make sure the magnet and battery fit into the PVC and glue it place, if desired.

In the second picture we used a translucent (almost but not quite clear) film canister. Making it look grand and giving it a more all around glow.

We had the light bulb hanging upside down from the curtain rod and it also made a great overhead light.

Please share ideas. We already have a few of our own but that maybe for another time / instructable ;-)