GF Bell

[Bolwin 4]

Has anyone been successful in lighting the bells? If so c7 bulb? 

[Big J Illinois 467]

We have the same ones with the purple and blue ornements,from Menards. Hopefully someone comes up with an idea for lighting them up

[RichardG 72]

I do believe a few molders successfully lite them with a C7 bulb.

 

The bell is the only one that is worth lighting. The other 2 won’t.

 

 

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[Big J Illinois 467]

I will probably leave them and display them as they are. Would hate to drill holes in them

[WLND-DAVID 101]

I remember this being covered in another thread (maybe a couple years ago) and apparently the purple and blue ornaments were too dark of a color to allow light to pass through.   For the Bell, what I did was cut out the 'clapper' and just a bit more so my hand could fit inside.  I used the existing 'vent' hole in the top to mount a socket (similar to the one pictured) that was left from something I salvaged it from.  Then drilled a small hole just large enough for the cord to fit through, near the top..  Since the socket I had was a standard bulb size, I put a RED colored CFL in. 

[Jordan Mills 17]

I was able to light mine with a C7 cord and a 40 or 60 watt LED equivalent candelabra bulb.  A regular C7 is not bright enough for these bells because the plastic is pretty thick.  I will post pictures later so you all can see how mine turned out. 

[Knight 12]

I lit mine with a simple C7, it's bright enough to me. I bought a couple last year, used a boring bit and made a perfect hole for the bulb.

Oh and I knew others thought the same thing I did when I first saw these at retail, "I'm lighting those up!"

A friend of mine did a shading of the "NOEL" from the Empire candle, made a stencil of it and painted it on two bells in white. Looks great. Pics to follow.

[Big J Illinois 467]

Hey Knight, great idea, but if water will get in, where does is it go? What wattage c7?

[Bolwin 4]

42 minutes ago, Big J Illinois said:

Hey Knight, great idea, but if water will get in, where does is it go? What wattage c7?

You could always drill a small hole at the lowest point if you were worried about water getting in. 

[Big J Illinois 467]

Which wattage bulb? Also, the purple and blue one....can those be lit as well?

[Knight 12]

1 hour ago, Big J Illinois said:

Which wattage bulb? Also, the purple and blue one....can those be lit as well?

I drilled a small hole for any necessary drainage. I used just an ordinary 4 watt night light bulb.

The other Bell has the hole drilled at the lowest point, I'll rectify this one after the season. The one or two times in did rain in mid November, I checked and due to the proximity of it being under the gutter, it didn't really take on any water.

Next year I'm going to add a bit of sand to reduce the sway in high winds. Here in Chicago we had a day with 50mph gusts and they shifted a bit on the gutter. The added weight will keep them steady and end shifting. I'm going to use a small amount of silicone to seal the tiny gap from the hole I drilled for the light kit to end any water getting in. 

Before that I plan on switching to LED soft white bulbs so I won't have to worry about bulb changes for awhile.

[Knight 12]

And yes, if I add sand I'll be plugging the drainage holes.

[Oldstuff 14]

I lit mine up by making custom C7 light cords for each one. I'll find pics later to post. 

First I actually cut off the entire bottom of the bell so they could stack during the off season so they take up less space.

I then drilled a small hole in the top to feed SPT cord through. Then I placed 3 C7 socked inside the bell. Two solid white lights, and one twinkle white light. This way the bells always look lit, but still have a twinkle effect. Each bell has it's own plug. I then ran a length of SPT cord along the gutter and placed a female outlet at each spot I wanted to hang a bell. To hang the bells I used Carabiner hooks that fit inside the existing hole, then hung them from gutter hooks. I loved the way the looked. Though I am intrigued by the idea of stenciling NOEL on them.