Light Up House Numbers

In this Instructable you will learn how to make homemade light up house numbers using Christmas lights and a piece of wood.

• Strand of Christmas lights (for 3 numbers a strand of 50 lights worked the best for me but use what works for you)
• A 6'' x 16'' x 1.5'' piece of wood
• Peice of plywood slightly smaller in dementions then the peice of wood you use
• A circular saw
• A router
• An electric screwdriver and a 11/32'' bit
• 4 1'' screws

Depending on the amount of numbers you have you may be able to shorten the boards length. Pick whatever number you would like to use and laser engrave it onto the piece of wood. When laser engraving make sure to make the numbers big enough so that the lights aren't wider then the number, and so you can fit a decent amount of lights on each number.

In order to put the lights through you will need to drill holes through the numbers. I used an 11/32'' drill bit for mine but feel free to use whatever size you need in order to fit your lights. Then you want to drill your holes in the board. I found that in order to evenly space them it is best to put about one drill bit width in between each hole. When drilling the holes try to make the same numbers have the same number of holes so that it looks professional.

In order to hide the wires coming out from the light it is best to rout out about a quarter of the width of the board. When routing out the board make sure to rout out an inch long hole in the bottom left corner wall of the board so that you can stick the wires out of it. Also when routing out the inside of the board don't go to much wider than the numbers because you will need the extra un-routed board on the side to screw the boards together.

Once you have drilled out the holes and routed out the inside of the board you will want to put the lights through the back of the wood. There will be a lot of wire so you will have to compress it together so you can screw on the back (the extra wire will provide the pressure to keep the lights in place).

Once you have the lights in place you will screw the back on to get the wire out of the way and make it look nicer. I used one inch screws for my piece but you can use what ever screws you have, that will still hold the board in place without poking through the otherside. Make sure that all the wire is out of the way so that you don't screw through a wire and break the lights.