by Tom Duffy

Every Christmas, my wife and I make gifts for people rather than buying them…it isn’t that we’re cheap, we just love to make things.  This year, we decided that she would make custom dish towels and I would make a color changing solar lantern.  Here’s a video of the final lantern:

Now, just so you know up front…I didn’t “make” the color changing solar part of this project…I just took an affordable and existing product and modified the casing.

Materials Needed

• 3/16″ Diameter Wood Dowels
• 4″x4″ Blank Wood Coasters from Michael’s
• Pack of 2 Garden Creations Color Changing Solar Yard Lights
• A Dremel or other quick cutting tool
• 200 Grit Sandpaper
• Thin Natural Fabric – from fabric store
• Sewing Machine
• Electric Drill
• Wood Glue
• A Pencil
• Flat Black Spray Paint

SAFETY WARNING

Any time that you are using power tools you need to be careful.  Make sure that you have a safe work area and always wear eye protection.  Personally, I prefer these safety glasses from PlugsSafety. They actually have built in ear plugs which help when you’re in a small area with noisy equipment and tools!  Also, I’m not responsible if you hurt yourself or others while doing this project.  Just use common sense and you’ll be fine.

Step 1 – Preparing The Solar Light

The first thing we need to do is remove the part that we want from the yard light.

We just want the top solar part which is also attached to the LED.  Carefully twist the solar top counter-clockwise until it unlocks from the bottom piece.

It should now look like this:

Now would be a good time to mention that I ordered 5 pairs of these solar yard lights.  Of the 10 total lights, only 3 of them actually worked out of the box.  I discovered that of the 7 that failed, 4 of them had drained batteries and 3 of them still failed after a full charge on the batteries.  So, I unscrewed the housing and had a look inside.  All three of them had the same problem…the solder had broken free between the switch and the battery leads.  I re-soldered them and sealed them back up.

Step 2 – Preparing the Base

The base of the lantern starts with the 4″x4″ blank wooden coasters that I got from Michael’s.  They start out looking like this:

The first thing that you will want to do is give the whole piece a nice sanding with the 200 grit sandpaper.  If you are really picky about finish, you can then go over it again with some 600 grit automotive sandpaper to make it really smooth!  Next, you want to outline the shape of the solar top with pencil onto the coaster.  I had a bunch of these and I know how to solder, so I just removed the LED housing from one and cut the wires:

Next, we will mark where we want to drill our pilot holes that our wooden dowels will slide into.  I didn’t really need to measure since we actually DON’T want it to be exact.  We aren’t going to be using anything but tension to hold the top piece onto the dowels, so our lack of accuracy in this step actually keeps the top piece securely in place!

Next we drill!  The dowels are 3/16″ in diameter, so I used an 11/64″ drill bit.  Go ahead and drill straight down all the way through where we marked our coaster.

Step 3 – Preparing the Dowels

Next, we are going to cut our wood dowels to the correct length.  Here’s the dowels that I used:

The length that I used is 5″, but this can easily be changed…just remember that whatever length you use, you will need to adjust the size of your fabric wrap accordingly!  I started out using my dremel to cut the dowels to size, but found later in the process that wire cutters were a lot quicker.  Wire cutters also pinch the ends of the dowels a little, which makes it a lot easier to push them into the pilot holes in our base.

Step 4 – Getting The Dowels in Place

Next, just push the dowels into the pilot holes until they just start to appear from the bottom of the base…don’t let them actually poke through though.

Next, turn the whole thing over so the base is on top and let the dowels act like table legs.  Add one or two drops of wood glue to each hole on top of the dowel.  I personally let wood glue dry overnight, but if you are confident that it is dry before then, go ahead and move on to the next step when you are ready.

Step 5 – Preparing The Fabric Wrap

Okay, this part is hard unless you know how to sew or know someone who does!  I don’t know the first thing about sewing, so my wife handled this part like a champion!  Basically, the wrap will have a circumference of 13 1/2″ and the height is entirely dependent on your dowel length.  All you really need to keep in mind is that when all is said and done, there should be 1/4″ of dowel sticking up above the wrap after it is in place.  My wife managed to create a nice seam on both the top and the bottom to keep things nice and neat.  Here she is hard at work:

And the finished wrap:

Step 6 – Put it All Together

Next, slide the wrap over the dowels and make sure that all sides are pushed all the way down flush with the base.  Next, push the dowels that are protruding from the top of the wrap into the corners of the solar housing.

Step 7 – Paint it!

Next, remove the solar top and the fabric wrap.  Go over all of the wood again with sandpaper to make sure it is nice and smooth.  Place the piece base down on some newspaper in a well ventilated area.  I wore rubber gloves for this part because you will have to touch the paint.  Spray an even coat over all of the exposed wood.  Grab the end of one of the dowels and flip the piece over so it is resting on the dowels like a table.  Spray an even coat over the base.  Let the paint dry for 24 hours.  Apply more coats if needed.  That’s it!  You’re done!  Now try it out!

Feel free to comment if you have any questions or if you get stuck on any of the steps.  I wish I had better photo documentation of everything, but I did the best I could.  I plan to make several more of these, so if there is a particular step that many people want photos of, just let me know and I’ll make sure to get some pictures.  Thanks for reading!