Electroluminescent Wire

[Eryq]

Hello,

I sell EL wire, and I would like to come up with some ideas for pictures for my website that will help me market the wire to people for Halloween. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd sure love to hear about them!



Thanks!

Eric

[Chat Noir]

wow, I love the look! Can't wait to buy some!

[BlkAsH]

Hello,

I sell EL wire, and I would like to come up with some ideas for pictures for my website that will help me market the wire to people for Halloween. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd sure love to hear about them!

What exactly is EL wire and do you have a website where someone can purchase this stuff perhaps?

Thx.
- BlkAsH

[FiSoWeird]

Wow, those things look amazing!

[tantraman]

skulls would be cool.

[Eryq]

What exactly is EL wire and do you have a website where someone can purchase this stuff perhaps?

Thx.
- BlkAsH

Well it looks like I forgot to come back to this thread... so I know it is two years later, but... EL wire is short for "electroluminescent wire." It is flexible electric wires that light up. You can get white, purple, blue, aqua blue, lime green, green, yellow, orange, red, or pink. Yes, my website is http://www.neonstring.com

Also, since most people are not familiar with the stuff, or at least have not messed with it at all, I should point out that I am available to answer all kinds of questions about it.
I can be reached via email at orders@neonstring.com, or by phone at 832-868-7894 from noon until 7:00pm Central on weekdays. Weekends too, it just depends on when I am awake.



Thanks Tantraman, I do like the idea of skulls!

-Eryq

[Bea Evil]

OH ..... MY ..... well, you will certainly be hearing from ME! That's so cooool!
(oh yes, there will be skulls...)

[Eryq]

OH ..... MY ..... well, you will certainly be hearing from ME! That's so cooool!
(oh yes, there will be skulls...)

hah! Thanks Vampire! I know a pretty good way to affix the stuff.. I am going to do an instructable when I get a chance.. hopefully soon. I have been meaning to do a white NeonString on black acrylic skull design, but I think I am going to do a cross instead.

In Houston there is a store called Regal Plastics, that sells sheets of various kinds of plastic. If you get "acrylic," there is a glue that works very nice for gluing the el wire to it. It is a little white can of "IPS Weld-On 3." It is thinner than water. And they also sell the "Plasticator" which is a bottle with a syringe on it, for applying the super runny glue. They have a regular syringe too, but I don't recommend it, because after one use, the glue eats the rubber stopper and renders it useless, even if you wash it right away. So basically, it's like this:

Choose the color of your acrylic. If you use clear, you can print a skull or whatever from the Internet, print it, and tape it onto the back of the clear acrylic. You can use the printout as your guide for gluing. When done, remove the printout that you taped, and spray paint the back of the plastic black, or white, or whatever. If you find some scrap acrylic that is not clear, then you can print out your shape, cut it out, glue it down, and scratch around it with a pointy object, so that you can use the scratches as your guide while gluing.
You drill a hole, run the EL wire through from behind. Hold about an inch or so of it in place, put a tiny little bit of the glue on. It is so runny, it flows down to where the EL wire and acrylic meet. Hold the wire in place for like 30-60 seconds, and then move on to the next inch or so. I know it sounds tedious, but.. well it IS tedious. It's how I did the jack o lantern on my previous post, and the snowflake, lucky clover, and "Games" sign on my website.

That is just one possible method of course. I also thought about doing a giant skull on a black sheet, like 10 feet tall or something. It could be sewn on, and I could just roll the whole thing up when Halloween is over, etc. But, like the Instructables and half a million other things, I don't seem to find the time!

There is also a step by step, illustrated guide on the website for people who want to solder it up themselves.

Whew this is a long post. This is what happens when I get going on stuff that lights up.

Vampire, if you do a skull, I can has pictures??

-Eryq

[Hallow's Queen]

do u have to plug this stuff in?,,,it looks pretty cool,, i may be interested in buying some

[Eryq]

do u have to plug this stuff in?,,,it looks pretty cool,, i may be interested in buying some

Hi! Well you have to have a "driver." You can use a driver that uses batteries, or if you prefer, you can use one that plugs into the wall, or one that you can plug into a cigarette lighter. For costumes, you would want one that is battery-powered, for a decoration, you might prefer to plug it into the wall. For something to light up your car, boat, or motorcycle, you may want the cigarette lighter plug option.

So the first thing you decide is how many feet of wire you need to light up.
Next, you look at the drivers for that length of wire, and see which ones use batteries or whatever method you want to use to power them.

On the website, there are a number of pre-made options, so you just buy it and add batteries, or plug it in. Or, you can contact us and say "hey, I want 10 feet of lime green wire and the 9 volt driver" and we can put that together. Or, if you want to solder it yourself, you can just order the parts.

But yes, the driver is a must. The wire has to have alternating current that switches back and forth very rapidly (high frequency), and that's what the driver does.

-Eric
832-868-7894
NeonString.com