AS I said in my introduction it’s great to be here!
As you can see from the title I have a little father-son project and I am needing some help. This all came into action last night when he finished school. Nathen “my son” had come home from school with some homework where he has to build a flashlight. He had brought the small circuit home from school and that only needs assembling and a battery attaching, this is no problem. The main part of the homework is to build a case, a switch, and optional colored lens. This is to be completed with parents/guardians (me) to be finished Marth 16th, feels like IM back in school again aha ha.
Anyway, I’m not too sure where to start or what materials it would be safe to use? in terms of small electrical fires? Being as this is a little project for me and my son to complete together, I want the torch to look awesome when we are finished so any hints’ tips and, tricks of the trade would be greatly appreciated! Also, any cool ideas that will make it stand out and look different from everyone else in the class, would be a bonus!
Really looking forward to speaking with you guys and getting the project on the go ASAP!
Hi Lighitup , your son must have some hell of a teacher ! Excellent idea !!! This are the kind of mentors our kids need !
O.k . ,lets go to the main point . You mentioned that you have a part of the project , the small circuit , but , what this mean ? How big it is ? Round or rectangular shape ? What led , battery is fitting to this circuit ? Give us more info , in order to be able to help you ...
Anyway , I 'll chose a cylindrical shape , because you can use all kind of pipes , in all dimensions , plastic , copper , SS , and accessories to work with...Paper seems to be to soft and unsafe...
Waiting for your feed back , and be sure that a lot of people , with or without kids will be pleased to help you out...Having this hobby it means that inside , we all are kids, still......,hope....
I wish homework was this fun when I was in school!
With regards to materials, anything that’s easy to work with and non-conductive should be fine. It’s not like you’re running it off the mains and I assume the parts supplied are fairly child friendly (ie they don’t get hot enough to burn paper).
Possibilities are fairly endless, you could use glow in the dark paint or mold the body out of low temp moldable plastic (often called instamorph or polymorph or something).
Get a big piece of paper out and spend 10 or so minutes with your son to just doodle ideas down and build the best. Most important part is to have fun.
The circuit board is 4cm and circular with a 9v battery attachment. As far as I can see the parts are child safe, well I would hope so anyway. The piping is a pretty good idea but I also like the moldable plastic idea because this will give us a little extra time together having fun.
I will do a little research on the moldable plastic and the piping then get back to you guys!! thanks
Hahaha mod it into a real impressive light (like use the scholparts for side beacon on a real blaster like the L6 )
Nah don’t want complaints from the parents of blinded kids
Blinding the kids don’t sound all that bad hahaha We are going to watch a few video today and place a plan together on how we want the end product to look and how we are going to achieve it, then come the weekend we will make a start collecting our materials.
Not being a modder yet, I would focus on a simple flashlight design, but build it in a way that your son could add accessories - like different color diffusers. Or even add 2 colors together, like yellow and blue to make green.
Great project and great way to spend time with your son.
You don’t say what kind of tools you have access to or how handy you are, or how old your son is.
For simple, look at PVC pipe. Couple of end caps and a drill (to drill a hole for the bulb/LED and for the switch) and a little glue will let you make something that looks like a traditional-ish flashlight. Then you can paint it or even better try plasti dip rubber coating.
For less traditional, find a hollow plastic animal or dinosaur, put the bulb/LED in the mouth, cut open the belly and insert the battery and circuit. Place the switch on the back or belly depending on the toy.
If you have access to more tools your options open up.
Right, So far we have a list of items we need to be buying a soldering gun to PVC piping. It was actually pretty surprising on how much stuff we have lying around the house that we can use for the project. After we have done a little shopping I will take a picture of everything and list off the items before we start the build.
Looking forward to getting stuck in
ADD ON - Speaking of soldering Irons I have found these Soldering stations here https://www.cheap.forsale/soldering-station are they really necessary? or is there smaller more reasonable options? If safety comes into it then i will go for the station.
A cheap soldering station is a good thing if you think you’ll use it every now and then. Something under $40 is more than enough. The real advantage of it is adjusting the heat, not safety. A good 40 to 60 watts makes soldering easier and faster than a simple 25 watt pencil solder iron. The pencil irons usually start off good, but get weaker over time making them kind of disposable.
Still, if you can get a 40 watt pencil iron for say $10, then that might be just fine for this project.
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