Well, its Halloween again. That means its time for Hayley and I to make some sort of project. This time, we decided to make a light up Jack O lantern.
We found a design we liked, then scaled it up and made a paper template. We decided to use some reclaimed cedar fence pickets to make our pumpkin. We cleaned them up on the planer, then cut them down to size on the table saw. Now we can glue up the front and back panels. After they’re dried, I used our large paper template to cut out the outer shape on the band saw, and the jigsaw to cut out the face. Now for the longest portion of this build
I wanted to build up the thickness of the pumpkin so I began cutting some blocks of wood to glue around the inside edge. It would have been much easier to use something larger like a 2″x4″, but this is what I had on hand. I glued in all the blocks using a combination of CA Glue for holding power, and wood glue for long term strength. A big thanks to Starbond for supplying the CA Glue. They make excellent glues and I think you should try them out yourself. Here’s an affiliate link to get some. With the blocks all glued in place, I used a flush trim bit to even them out after trimming away the excess on the band saw. Now we can begin the finishing process.
We began the finishing by applying some white house paint to the inside. This would not only protect the wood inside, but the white would reflect the lights really well later on. After it was painted, we then applied some Spar Urethane to the outside to seal it all up. Once dried, I laid out the LED Lights on the inside, and hot glued them into place. After reattaching the back with some screws, we added a piece of Jack Chain to use for hanging up our Jack O Lantern. That’s a wrap on this project.
Hayley and I had so much fun working on this project together. I enjoy every second that we get to spend working on something like this. Check out the build video below. Happy Halloween!
— Affiliate Links to Products Used —
Starbond CA Glues – https://www.starbond.com/?rfsn=3108628.a0db06
Orange LED Lights (not the same but similar) – https://amzn.to/33U5Ok2
Stanley Hot Glue Gun – https://amzn.to/2BGZRuz
Glue Sticks – https://amzn.to/2Weir6J
Satin, Water Based Spar Urethane – https://amzn.to/2PjAvLx
Jack Chain – https://amzn.to/341aHrp
