# Floating Candles



## RowlandHarris (Sep 11, 2009)

Was watching a Harry Potter movie and loved the 'floating candles' in their cafeteria! How to do that???

The candle tubes are made from fluorescent light protective covers (Home Depot or Lowes), less than $2 each - I'm trying the large ones (~1.5") and the small ones (~1 1/8"). Cut them to the lengths you want (1' to 1.5') and then cut the 'top' to make it look like it's been lit a long time (lots of hills and valleys). Use a hot glue gun to add the 'melted wax' look to the outside. I spray painted them with an off white, and plan to accent the drips with a black paint pen on one side and maybe a red paint pen below the drip (simulate blood).

The flame:

I have a bunch of submersible led lights (Amazon: search for 'submersible white led lights) left over from my son's outdoor wedding a couple years ago. Mine have TWO coin lithium batteries (CR2032) that last at least a couple days).

I bought ten 10mm flickering LEDs from Evil Mad Science shop (http://evilmadscience.com/productsmenu/partsmenu/333). A good price cut from the individual price!

I tied thin fishing line through the wire leads and superglued them to the top - this is what the candles will hang from! Then I took CLEAR hot glue and SLOWLY added glue to the LED - hold it upside down/right side up - to get the form you want. USE A GLASS OF VERY COLD WATER - DIP THE LED/GLUE OCCASIONALLY - TO KEEP THE GLUE FROM SAGGING TOO MUCH. Also, use layers and be patient! Create the shape you want - it took me about three LEDs to get the look I wanted. Then take YELLOW glue sticks and add a small layer at the bottom and lower sides of the flame. Look at a candle flame and try to re-create it - the majority of the flame should be white! I also use a heat gun to smooth the outside. You now have the flickering 'flame'.

Unscrew the submersible LED. Pull out the top circuit board with the LED. Using a soldering iron, unsolder the white led. Cut off the protective semi-circle plastic that covers the LED. Take your new 'flame' and feed it thru the plastic cover and solder (add extra solder) it to where the original white LED was (+ is the long lead from the 'flame').

Now figure out how to secure the 'flame' to the candle tube. The small tubes require you to cut the tube to accommodate the slightly wider submersible led housing - the larger tubes need your imagination to hold it in place. I think mine will be a touch of superglue or hot glue. I plan on trying to either hang them from a tree, or maybe a 'mobile' type arrangement. The fish line should be painted/magic markered black from the top of the flame to where it is hung (at least 5' ???). I'm also thinking of lighting the candle itself with a submersible light from the bottom - I'll have to try that to see how it looks.

If you do this, let me know how it worked. I should be done with mine in the next few days and will try to post a pic.


----------



## hedg12 (Jul 6, 2008)

Sounds cool - can't wait to see the pictures!


----------



## BTH (Jul 2, 2006)

RH, I did this a couple of years ago. I made a fcg rig to fly them. Here's a daytime video with a nice breeze to mess it up. On the big night........ It was amazing!! Oh, try a peice of foam stuffed inside to hold your flame at the right height.


----------



## RowlandHarris (Sep 11, 2009)

BTH - very nice! and great idea on the foam...
A couple questions:
- What did you use for a flame? I don't see any flames in the vid...
- At night, could you see the candle sticks? Did you light them from the inside? or the outside? Maybe a black light?
I don't have a tree like yours - they're all very tall pines, so we'll probably put a rope between trees and do a mobile setup.


----------



## R. Lamb (Oct 11, 2011)

I did a mock up of an FCG driven floating candle system earlier this year and used the LED pillar candles from Costco. I just removed the little black Wick from the tops and ran a piece of coat hanger with a string attached through the hole. They looked great and they have the added bonus of having timer built in so they turn themselves on every night and burn for 5 hours before shutting off. You just need to cover the bottom of the candle so that you don't see the battery compartment (easy). It looked great, I just don't have a place for it this year.


----------



## BTH (Jul 2, 2006)

RH, I used the small tealight candles and set them just below the inside rim of the pillar. They lit the top inside edge and looked great. They basically look like the flame has melted its way down into the candle. I didn't like the looks of seeing the fake flame. Mine are fairly fragile because I used two wires from opposite sides of the candle to hang them. Heres a vid of the candles lit and a couple of pics.

Halloween2009 :: Candles Movie video by indianaholmes - Photobucket


----------



## Lilly (Jun 13, 2006)

cool ..love that idea


----------



## CAH (Sep 8, 2009)

Hi BTH - Looked at your you tube and your floating candles lokks awesome. how do you have the candles attached to the FCG mechanism? Are they all on pulleys or do they just go over branches? Thanks!


----------



## BTH (Jul 2, 2006)

CAH, I did not use pulleys. I used small eyehooks screwed into the bottom of branches. The eyehook will sooner or later fill with tree sap so you have to keep an eye out for that. Try to keep the eyehooks to a minimum. The more hooks that your lines run through, the more resistance you will have. The line that I used was 80 pound fishing line. I also used vaseline for a lubricant at each eyehook. Good luck with your project.


----------



## RowlandHarris (Sep 11, 2009)

*Pics and Movie...*

It appears I can't upload pics from my computer - it's asking for a URL. Any help in putting up pics?


----------



## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

You can attach a picture as a thumbnail to a post, but you are limited to a total of 10 across all posts/threads where you do that. Either use a photo hosting service (like Photobucket of Flickr) or you can set up an album on your profile page and place photos there.

There is an FAQ about posting pictures here - see the menu bar at the top of the page.


----------



## CAH (Sep 8, 2009)

Thanks BTH for the info! I am definitely going to try this!


----------



## RowlandHarris (Sep 11, 2009)

Lets try some Floating Candle pics:

Here's the 10mm flickering white LED with fish line tied and glued; then the hot glue piled on:


----------



## racerpak (Jul 17, 2012)

Very cool! Thanks for the post and pictures!


----------

