Hack-A-Lantern: DIY Salvaged Zombie-beatin’ Flashlight!

Recently, I was hanging out at the Milwaukee Makerspace, working on a simple project, when a fellow Maker offered me a used 5AH lead acid battery.

The project I was working on involved using landscaping lighting, and right there on the “Hack Rack” were some old computer power supplies. Hmmm. We also happened to be talking about Zombie movies and TV shows, when it all clicked – I have the skills and materials to build an electric lantern from scratch using just the materials that are right here!

The project started by taking apart a computer power supply. I snipped the wires from switch and power cord connection close to the circuit board, so that I would have plenty of wire still soldered to the switch. After removing the circuit board and cooling fan, I had a nice empty box to use as the case for the lantern.

Next, I snipped out the fan grate, to allow for the 12V 11watt landscaping light bulb. These things are designed to run on 12AC from a transformer, but nothing is stopping me from running it on a 12V battery instead!

I crimped on a couple of spade connectors onto the wires from the switch to go to the battery and the bulb. I also wired the power port so that it was unswitched (always connects to the battery) that way, I could use it to recharge the battery without having to open the case. I would just clip the external battery charger that I already had to the two pins of the port.

Once the wiring was done, I checked the connections, turned it on and off a couple of time, and then glued the bulb in place with silicon.

A key feature of a lantern (as opposed to a flashlight) is that it has a distinct handle on the top, which the lantern hangs from. When I’ve made handles before, I’ve usually used a pair of bolts with spacers and some sort of cross-piece of wood or metal. However, I didn’t have anything like that handy, and it didn’t seem to fit the theme of the lantern either.

I DID have all the extra wiring from inside the power supply. The main bit of it was already bundled and had a nice connector on the end. I drilled two 1/2″ holes in the case cover and ran the cable through it, then back through the other hole, and pinned it in place with a few zip-ties.

I also glued two bits of foam on the inside of the case to cushion and help hold in place the battery. With that I put the cover back on and reinstalled the four cover screws.

There ya go! A lantern made completely from repurposed, recycled, and salvaged materials! Whether you like tinkering, being ready for the zombies, or just like being prepared, the Hack-A-Lantern is for you. Why don’t you try making one and see what you come up with!

More DIY Eco-Projects at http://ecoprojecteer.net

Audio Switch Boxes!

I was recently comparing several powered speaker systems, but didn’t like the audible *Pop* I heard when plugging and unplugging the 3.5mm headphone jack into each of them.  I made a switchbox that eliminates this pop by switching the one input (my mobile phone) to any of the four outputs.  I didn’t have the right rotary switch at the time I built it, so it actually has two knobs that select where the input signal goes, meaning I can have two systems playing at the same time.  Alternately, the box can be used to switch either of two inputs selected with one knob to either of two outputs selected with the second knob.  Even more alternately, the box can be used to switch four inputs to a single output.

I few days later, after I purchased(!) the correct rotary switch, I built a second switch box.  This one has stereo logarithmic-taper potentiometers wired as voltage dividers, effectively acting as independent volume knobs on each channel.  With these volume controls, the playback levels of speaker systems with different gains can be matched, for ease of comparison.

Simple Wood Tool Box

Here is a simple wood tool box. It’s easy to make one (or several of them) in an afternoon.

The vertical, open, design means you can easily see and access all your tools – no more digging to the bottom of a bag!

This is one my father made, based on a tool box he was given over 40 years ago. See more images of this tool box in the “misc” image gallery.

I also posted it at: http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Wood-Toolbox/

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