Sun jars in production

A lot of people have asked me about the Sun Jars, what they are made of and how I make them, and where did I get the idea. Well in a nut-shell:

  1. I got the idea from this site: http://www.suck.uk.com/products/sunjar/ which I stumbled across from some design blog somewhere. Solar powered jars that came in cool colors! But $40 a piece? I can’t afford that, but I bet I could make that! The basic seed had been planted in my brains.
  2. I used this funny-named internet search tool called “Google” to see how to make something like that. There are lots of resources, from very easy to quite difficult. I chose the easy route: disassemble a pre-made solar yard light and stick it in a jar.
  3. I went to the store and bought an 8 pack of lights, a 12 pack of jars, some glass-frosting spray paint, and made my first sun jars.

Below you will see some new sun jars in the middle stage of production. The jars have been frosted with spray-paint. The solar panels and related wires and battery packs have been extracted from their original yard lamp structures. The battery packs have been glued to the bottom side of the jar lids and are drying. Next steps are to glue the solar panel to the top of the lid, add a colored refractor to the light assembly, pop the battery in, put the whole thing together, and then test.

What kind of solar lights work best? I don’t know- I’ve used 3 different brands and they all seem to be about the same.

What kind of glue? I use Liquid Nails but I’m sure any type of permanent adhesive would work fine.

How weather-proof are they? I have had some of these lamps outside and unprotected for over 3 months and they are working fine. I am going to leave them out this winter and see how it goes. There is a strong chance that ice and snow freezing and thawing on them might cause damage. We’ll see!