While most of us have already upgraded all our light bulbs to the energy-savers, there are still a number of the original style light bulbs around. Instead of tossing them, there are a number of things that you can make from them after they have been cleaned out.
Admittedly, the idea of taking something sharp to a light bulb is a bit intimidating. I did it- and if I can do it, you can too! After looking at a number of tutorials to do the same online, I made the jump- and found the existing technical tutorials lacking. Just be sure to follow all my safety instructions and non-technical terms and you'll be ready to prepare some light bulbs for upcoming projects.
Tools:
- Sturdy pair of needle-nose pliers
- Protective gloves (I wore my heavy duty garden gloves.)
- Goggles
- Waste basket to work over
- Old light bulbs- more than one as you'll likely break at least one!
Note: I broke about 8 out of 30 light bulbs, so don't get discouraged when you first start out!
- Arm yourself with your goggles and protective gloves- you want to look and feel the part of Upcycling Hero.
- Position yourself over the trash can at all times- you never know when a light bulb might break during the process. There is most definitely a learning curve.
- Look at the end of your light bulb- there will be a circular metal piece in the center. Sometimes the edges are raised up a little bit, sometimes they are not.
- Pry up the edges of the metal circle and squeeze together until you have a little chunk of metal rather than a circle. (The metal is pliable.)
- Grasp the metal and twist the lightbulb around... and around... and around.... until when you pull a bit a wire comes out.
- Now you will have a small hole in the center. Yay!
- Use one side of your needle nose pliers to sort of grind away at the hole. Be careful as the black pieces will come off and they are awful to pick up!
- Once you get one side of your pliers a bit into the light bulb, try to crack the black glass by pressing against it. Be careful not to hold the light bulb too tight or you'll break it!
- Sometimes all of the black glass will just fall out for you, other times you have to work it out with your pliers.
- Press one side of your pliers straight into the light bulb. I broke about 3 light bulbs at this point in time, so don't squeeze the light bulb!
- Eventually the piece of glass inside will shatter. Shake out any pieces you can.
- Use your pliers to pull out any more innards. You may need to break more glass inside to allow it to come out.
- Holding the light bulb horizontally, use the edges of your pliers to grind the edges inside the top of the light bulb. Once you get to this point you'll be able to look inside the light bulb and see what I'm talking about. This is another time to be careful as if you get overzealous you'll- you guessed it- break the light bulb!
- Shake it out again until you're certain all the pieces are out.
- Rinse the light bulb out (the white powder is non-toxic); you may need to swipe it a bit with a baby bottle brush.
- Dry.
- Stay tuned for projects using these!
Leanna is Hipcycle Scholar at Hipcycle. In her spare time, she enjoys finding new uses for her garage sale finds, particularly anything to do with the written word. She would love to hear from you at [email protected]!
1 Response
BE CAREFUL
August 20, 2012 at 10:53 pm