Dot Lights

Kevin Borst from Legacy Youth Conference brings us this glowing word piece.

They bought all the materials in one trip to Home Depot. Supplies:

• two 8’ X 4’ sheets of plywood
• eight 8’ X 2’ X 4’s
• 3” screws
• black paint
• black electrical tape
• 14 strings of Christmas lights (borrowed from friends)

Tools:

• drill with large, medium, and small drill bits
• jig saw
• table saw

First they measured and cut the letters. They split the two large sheets of plywood lengthwise into two 8’ X 2’ sections, then cut those into eight 2’ X 1’ rectangles (one for each letter). They drew the letters free hand and cut them with a jig saw.

Then they began to build the frame. When it was all measured and cut, they drilled holes and screwed it all in place.

Then they painted everything black. Letters first, then frame. They had some trouble putting on the letters because they did not fill the space in the frame. To compensate, they took some scrap plywood (from the original big sheets) and split them into 6” strips. They screwed one along the crossbar on the top of the frame, one along the middle crossbar of the frame, and one along the crossbar on the bottom of the frame so they had a larger flat surface on the whole front of the sign. This adjustment made it possible for each letter to be screwed onto the sign properly.

Next they drilled holes in the letters for Christmas lights to fit into. They drilled holes with a smaller drill bit and then again with the larger one on each letter.

Next they screwed the letters onto the sign.

Then came the lights. Each letter took about one string of lights and it took about an hour to do “INSIDE.” They taped the lights to the framed letters using electrical tape.