Purchased a broken Piko country church, missing cross,bell tower had broken steeple supports, no front door and all the walls were unattached, window glazing broken,or missing. After giving all the parts a good cleaning I removed the old glue of which there was a bunch, some soft types like silicon, some hard like plastic glue. The soft stuff was no problem but the harder type was a bit of a challenge. Found that dabbing the old hard glue with acetone it would soften the glue and if I didn't use too much it would not hurt the piece. I found prints of stained glass windows on ebay from "davesattic", Carol there was very heplful and she can make them any size you want. Then ones I picked turned out not to be colorful enough so I added my own with permanent markers. Church is lit with solar powered LED's, added second led to circuit which dims it slightly but increases burn time by 25%, it shines in the foyer. Lettering was with cameo silhouette. If you want to make your own stained glass windows Tom Trigg explained how about 3 weeks ago on the forum under " stained glass windows"
I like it. Well done my friend. I too, use solar lighting when possible. I have a couple of buildings where solar lights were just not enough to highlite the stained glass. For those buildings I reverted back to 'plug in the wall transformer 24 volt sidewalk lighting'.
Tom Trigg
Sweet!
I experimented wito solar lights, too. I found two burnt out after about 18 months, and now I am studying how to get at them to change the battery, fix the wire, whatever!
Part of my problem, beyond being a rookie, was that the light was in a metal casing, and I found no good way to break it into it's component parts. In in addition, the circuitry was connected to the casing by melted tabs, making it impossible to seperate everything. Anway, I drilled holes in the roof, popped the whole assembly into the roof, and sealed it in place with silicon. My next efforts will be more studied!
Anyway, thanks for sharing yet another great recycling project!
Aloha,
Eric
Eric, the solar lights I have been using come from walmart and cost $.98 are all plastic, except the inards, are are pretty easy to take appart, found that you can add another LED in series, makes it a little dimmer but light last about 25% longer. the first ones I did I used the whole thing and cut a hole in the roof and like you siliconed it in. The only problem I have had taking them appart is the wiring is fragle and breaks off the circuit board. Bill
Bill,
Thanks. I just checked Target...No joy. We'll get to Walmart eventually. I had been using the ones I found at the hardware store, which cost ~$2.00, which is not unreasonable. I just found the metal housing too difficult to work with.
Aloha.
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