Make This Cool LED Lamp by Drilling a Single Hole.
Easily make this cool lamp with a wine bottle and a set of cheap AA battery powered LED string lights.
Go find yourself a nice wine bottle from your collection in the garage, (if you need to drink the wine first, it’s best to wait until the following day before making the lamp lol!) Any shape or colour works really, the more exotic and colourful the better. Soak and scrape off any labels etc.
Gather together your drill and a glass cutting drill bit. Glass bits are cheap to buy at your local DIY store.
There are two ways to do this project…
- Drill a hole big enough to thread the cable from your LED set through. Measure the size of the cable. I used 6mm in this one. or
- Drill a hole big enough to thread the actual LED lamps into your bottle, measure the size of the lamps. These were 8mm or so.
I wanted to shorten the cable to the battery box anyway, so I opted for a small hole to thread the cable though, pulling the LEDs into the bottle from the top.
Drilling glass can be a little tricky, but the secret is to use water (or a light oil) to keep everything cool. You can make a little ‘moat’ around the hole using blue tack or plasticine to hold the water, although this only works until the tip has gone through the other side of the glass.Once the tip has gone through, just keep dipping the drill bit into the water/oil every few seconds or if the heat boils the water/oil away.
Drill the hole about 10mm or so up from the bottom of the bottle, not forgetting to keep dipping the drill bit into water/oil to keep everything cool. If your getting dust, you need more lubricant otherwise the drill bit can overheat and the heat could crack the glass.
Once you have a nice clean hole, give the bottle a good wash inside and out. Then thread a short length of string through the hole and out the neck of the bottle, tape the wires from the LED String light set to the string and pull them into the bottle and out of the hole you just drilled. Shorten the wires if necessary and reconnect the wires into the battery box using a soldering iron or just bare the ends and twist them together and tape up to protect them. Thread the LEDs into the bottle one by one through the top and jiggle them around into an even spread.
If you opted for the larger hole, simply thread the LED lamps into the bottle through the hole until they are all in!
Once the lamps are inside the bottle you can use a hot glue gun to fill in the hole and hold the cable in place. If you find that the LED string sinks down into the bottom of the bottle over time, you can use a bent wire to pull them back up again and even use the hot glue gun again to stick some of the cable inside the top of the bottle (where the cork came from) to stop them slipping back down again as you move the lamp around.
Finally, pop some good batteries into the box, find a dark spot and ta da. Have fun!
Stay well
Ian Anderson
Comments 32
When the bottle is heated by this light it wii be crack also?
Author
No, of course not. And anyway, led lamps emit almost no heat.
this is the funniest comment i have ever read!
then get one..or don’t embark on a project that involves drilling a hole!
Author
(I know, right?!?)
what if you don’t have a drill
Author
Even easier then Maija, simply thread the LED lights into the top of the bottle and either leave the long cable to the battery box out of the top of the bottle and down the back side of the bottle (so it’s out of sight) or hot glue it in place.
Cheers!
This is such a great idea and it’s so beautiful I’m trying to do this with a drill bit but coming towards the end the small hole cracks the bottle and I’m making sure water is over it…help!
Author
Hi Karen,
Sorry to hear you’re having trouble! Is the drill bit a ceramic/glass bit? Just that masonry bits will drill glass, but do tend to break through roughly and can break the glass.
If you do have a glass bit, then I’m not exactly sure whats causing the problem. What speed are you using, I find that drilling too slow causes snagging sometimes. As you get towards the end of the hole, try going faster but lift off the pressure. Then the drill bit is moving too fast to snag and the light pressure means only a tiny bit of material is being removed which also reduces snagging.
Let me know how you get on! Good job there are plenty of wine bottles around to practice on 😉
Stay well
Ian
Thank you Ian. I am going to try again I might be going to fast or too slow and I have a diamond that it might be too pointy not sure…i’m going to try again I have some beautiful wine bottles that I want to put some Christmas lights in with the plug coming out from the bottom as a night light for some friends I’ll take some pictures if I succeed thank you again Ian
Author
Pointy bit should be good. Be sure to practice on some unwanted bottles till you get the hang of it!
Where’s the box of batteries? The hole doesn’t appear big enough for the box.
Author
No Kathyk, you’re right, I keep the box outside the bottle. It’s small and white so hardly noticeable on the side of the white window woodwork.
Stay well
Ian
Really pretty will definitely try as want some innovative decorations for a birthday party over Christmas. Thank you Ian for making the explanation sound so easy that you don’t get off trying just by reading ! Have a great day !
Author
Thanks Christine!
Hi. Awesome idea! Where or how do you put the battery compartment box, without it being seen?
Thx, Anne
Author
Our battery set/thin cable is white so I just simply stand the battery box up on the white window board (I shortened the wire to about a foot/30cm). You don’t notice the little box because you are looking at the lamp :-).
Ian
Perfect, thanks for responding back so quickly:)
Author
You could cover the battery box to look like a present or cover it with something. You could also use battery powered rice lights that are timed for 6 hours on and 18 hours off. I used for my christmas village, a white box used to put jewelry in.
I tried this before with a different technique and disastrous results. This seems so much simpler. I’m going to give it another try! Thanks!
This works really well, but I can tell you when drilling a hole whether it is his drill bit or you buy a circle diamond drill bit…..WATER is important to dip your drill bit in as you are drilling the hole.
Author
Thanks Gary, that’s why I put that bit first in the post to make sure no one tries to do it dry and end up in trouble! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
I absolutely LOVE your ideas!! Thank you for sharing!!
Author
Your absolutely welcome Cindy 🙂
Have fun with your own projects.
Ian
I make lamps out of empty 1/2 gallon whiskey bottles. I never thought of putting lights inside the bottle. That bottle looks nice with them inside. I put colored glass rocks, water beads, marbles, sand, whatever in the ones I make for selling. But of course, I have yet to sell one! But I am going to put some Christmas lights in the next one I make. The one in the picture above looks really good.
Author
Easy one isn’t it Bryan? Especially since the battery type LED sets became cheap.
Thanks for the kind words!
Ian
where did you get the LED lights? Do they over heat? and how much for the lights?
Author
Hi Gary,
They were from amazon… (https://handycrowd.com/leds for actual ones). and no they don’t even get warm, led’s don’t.
There are some cheaper ones too, I don’t think it matters much, an led is an led!
Cheers
Thanks, I will search them out. Do you search: LED craft lights? I am sure I can find them from here. I just want a string of 15 to 20 lights.
Dollar Tree store
go to noveltylights.com and you will find a string of 20 LED lights there. Battery operated, solar of electric
Really nice – looks fantastic !