# Lighthouse Gets a Face Lift



## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

Many of us have the ubiquitous solar-powered lighthouse that was sold for years at places like Wallymart. The lower portion is ceramic and should last longer than I will, but the upper structure is made of iron and rusts out, flaking off in big chunks.

A few years ago I could see the writing on the wall and when one of my favorite surplus electronic suppliers had clear glass high-tension insulators for a couple bucks, the obvious solution presented itself.

The lighthouse could have made it through 1 or 2 more years, but was looking long in the tooth. The existing iron easily came apart and pealed off the ceramic base (held on with silicone adhesive).

The new "platform" is a 6" diameter, stainless steel, "clean-out" cover so should easily withstand the elements. A hole was drilled for drainage so that water doesn't puddle and get into the electronics. Galvanized wire cloth was used to make a new fence so that the lighthouse keeper doesn't take the high dive.

Three LED (white, flashing red, and flashing green) were mounted to a plasti-chrome reflector, upside down, so that the back of the plasti-chrome sits up into the recess of the insulator. Finally, a plasti-chrome bolt cover (for a license plate bolt) was CA'ed to inside top of the insulator as a convex mirror to reflect the LEDs and add scatter.


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