# idea for fence finials



## meestercranky (Aug 15, 2006)

many of us are building the PVC cemetery fence - I know I am right in the middle of it. And Siggy had a great idea - I was wondering if anyone has done this?

She suggested putting little LEDs in the eyes of each skull whistle finial. I've seen project here using LEDs and if you started at the beginning with all the parts, it should be no great engeneering feat to wire the skull whistles with LED eyes and run the wire down each pipe, the out and collect them all in the power unit (with a battery) on the inside botton bar of the fence. Each section is independently powered this way using a simple AA battery.

It's too late in the process for me, but I wish this had come up in August - I would've done it for sure.

Anyone??


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

Those would have to be some teeny tiny LEDs to light just the eyes of those small skull whistles.


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## Beepem (Jul 17, 2006)

i agree, i would make a hole in each eye and just have an LED inside, it would have the same effect

that would be a lot of LEDs too


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## beaton (Sep 17, 2006)

I am using these on the top of my fence and cemetary gate.

http://www.hooverfence.com/ornamental/finials/plastic.htm


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## SpectreTTM (Aug 22, 2005)

beaton said:


> I am using these on the top of my fence and cemetary gate.
> 
> http://www.hooverfence.com/ornamental/finials/plastic.htm


A cheaper source of these Courtesy of ScareFX

http://www.decorativeiron.com/?a11=...S&page=plastic_products_spears__finials__caps

And here is a Link a previous thread

http://www.hauntforum.com/showthread.php?t=2831&highlight=finials


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## NecroBones (Feb 10, 2006)

I'm not sure how small the eye sockets are on the whistle skulls... but LEDs come in a variety of sizes. One of the most common in terms of Radio Shack purchases (and power lights on computers etc) are the 5mm size, but presumably you'd want smaller.

Just need to get the voltage correct for the LEDs. A pair of red LEDs in parallel will probably need to be in series with a small resistor with a pair of batteries in series (AAA will work here) depending on the color. This'll maximze the battery life.

With small red LEDs you can probably get away with a single 1.5V battery and no resistor. These LEDs prefer 1.7V usually, but 1.5V should be above that "starting" voltage**. With other colors, you'll need to check the voltage of the LEDs you buy. Many amber and green ones expect about 2.2V. Frequently blue LEDs expect 2.5-5V. This is why I was saying a second battery might be necessary, and then add a resistor.

**(LEDs require a certain minimum voltage before they start illuminating. Once they have that, the voltage can be backed off to dim them, but they won't come on if started at the low voltage).

Here's a good link for calculating necessary resistances:

http://metku.net/index.html?sect=view&n=1&path=mods/ledcalc/index_eng


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