'Real' icicles

Beefer

Apprentice elf
Joined
Feb 19, 2012
Messages
55
Hi all,

I have been unable to find icicles that look real, so I'm thinking about making some myself.

I've been in contact with a resin supplier, and I will make some moulds to enable me to run pixels down the middle of the finished icicle.

I know there's a pixicle project online which has been extremely helpful, but it's still just a bit of PVC pipe.

Has anyone seen any 'real' looking icicles that could do this, or should I persue this concept?


thanks!
 

nato595

Let's do this!
Joined
Feb 20, 2013
Messages
126
Location
Reno, Nevada
I haven't seen any real looking ones other than boxed, ready-to-sell retail versions. In the way of DIY versions where you can control them, I'd say go for it!
 

Goldie

New elf
Joined
May 22, 2010
Messages
33
Location
Melbourne
I'd be really interested if you go ahead, most of my so called icicles are starting to rust out, I did have an idea of cutting up the 50/50 strips into 3 6 & 9 lengths, turned out to be a little expensive as I need around around 18 meters, lots of joins needed and I'm not very good at soldering at the best of times plus the 9 drop might been too long.
 

Beefer

Apprentice elf
Joined
Feb 19, 2012
Messages
55
kevr said:
These are the best looking ones I've seen, very keen to see how this progresses.

homedepot

Kev :)


LOL, that's exactly why I want to make them a little more 'real'! I'll do up a prototype and we'll see how they look....
 

cenote

Suburbs of Philadelphia
Joined
May 16, 2010
Messages
246
Location
Pottstown, PA USA
Beefer said:
Has anyone seen any 'real' looking icicles that could do this, or should I persue this concept?
thanks!

Yes I have. Dano and I found the stuff to make our own, but the price proved to be more than what we wanted to spend. We found a two part resin that would cost us about $15 for each icicle 14-18" long. That was the cheapest at the time (about three yrs ago) and that was with out the cost of the pixels. We never contacted and manufactuing plants.
 

AAH

I love blinky lights :)
Community project designer
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Messages
4,188
Location
Eaglehawk
I've always wondered about using PET coke bottles or similar for moulding stuff out of. I saw somewhere recently something about using PET bottles for use in 3D printers. I've never had the application for it yet so I've never tried making anything with the huge quantities of PET that goes through this household.
 

Beefer

Apprentice elf
Joined
Feb 19, 2012
Messages
55
cenote said:
Beefer said:
Has anyone seen any 'real' looking icicles that could do this, or should I persue this concept?
thanks!

Yes I have. Dano and I found the stuff to make our own, but the price proved to be more than what we wanted to spend. We found a two part resin that would cost us about $15 for each icicle 14-18" long. That was the cheapest at the time (about three yrs ago) and that was with out the cost of the pixels. We never contacted and manufactuing plants.


Yah, it's not looking cheap :)

The Lithgow option is more of a light 'curtain' than individual dripping icicles - so it's not what I'm looking for..
 

ex-grinch

New elf
Joined
Jan 27, 2012
Messages
2
Beefer said:
Hi all,

I have been unable to find icicles that look real, so I'm thinking about making some myself.

I've been in contact with a resin supplier, and I will make some moulds to enable me to run pixels down the middle of the finished icicle.

I know there's a pixicle project online which has been extremely helpful, but it's still just a bit of PVC pipe.

Has anyone seen any 'real' looking icicles that could do this, or should I persue this concept?


thanks!

Hi Beefer.
Have you made any progress on these yet?
I've been wanting to do the same thing, and I was wondering how you made your molds if you have already.
.
 

z_special

Full time elf
Joined
Feb 2, 2012
Messages
113
Location
Edmonton Alberta
I bought my icicles from Costco which are 60 a strand I think it is...they look great for now I am using a LOR card to with the 120 Output to turn on/off but the plan is to wire them to my P12 inthe near future.
 

Robert

Apprentice elf
Joined
Dec 5, 2012
Messages
92
Location
Wisconsin
I bought a bunch of these last year,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0045JQLZU/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/190-0758860-0558756

I was happy with the look and performance. I think I'm going to revamp them for next year. Maybe turn them into RGB, not sure yet though?
 

DanoNJ

Full time elf
Joined
May 12, 2010
Messages
170
Location
Monroe Twp., NJ
cenote said:
Beefer said:
Has anyone seen any 'real' looking icicles that could do this, or should I persue this concept?
thanks!

Yes I have. Dano and I found the stuff to make our own, but the price proved to be more than what we wanted to spend. We found a two part resin that would cost us about $15 for each icicle 14-18" long. That was the cheapest at the time (about three yrs ago) and that was with out the cost of the pixels. We never contacted and manufactuing plants.

Smooth On was the product. Clear! Of course you first need a to make a mold. FAST tubes would be great to make thse out of.
 

ex-grinch

New elf
Joined
Jan 27, 2012
Messages
2
I'm not sure how off base I am here, but I was thinking of making molds out of real icicles that I liked. Nature makes the best looking ones anyway.

I was thinking of finding nice big icicles here in Northern Wisconsin, and then taking clay and molding it around the icicle. Then turn it upside down in the sink and let it melt over night.

Maybe make a small hole in the bottom of the clay as a bleed hole and then fill it with plaster. Now I have a real mold that I can use to make two silicone halves of a mold for pouring resin into to make my icicles.

Maybe put an RGB in towards the top part of the icicle resin or something If you have a bigger icicle, put another bleed hole in the silicone mold bottom, and run wire pulled tight with a ribbon of lights so it stays centered when pouring resin. I would also put some sort of eye hook in the resin at the same time so I could hang it.

If you made an icicle that was 1.5 inches across at the top and 18 inches long, or 3.81cm across and 45.72cm long, you would have 10.7 cubic inches or 173 cubic cm of volume in there on average. Since a gallon is 231 cubic inches or 3,785 cubic cm, we can get roughly 20 or so icicles from a gallon.

I used a quick cone calculator to figure out the rough volume.
http://www.online-calculators.co.uk/volumetric/conevolume.php

A gallon is under $100 for clear quality resin and hardener so that's about $5 an icicle, plus lights, plaster, and silicone molds of course, but those can be reused over and over so the cost is small.
http://www.tapplastics.com/product/mold_making_materials/casting_products/tap_clear_lite_casting_resin/75

I just like have several different shapes and sizes and not all the same.
 
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