Welcome to the Tiki Central 2.0 Beta. Read the announcement
Celebrating classic and modern Polynesian Pop

Tiki Central / General Tiki / Fishing float lights!

Post #8745 by Tiki Jeff on Thu, Sep 19, 2002 12:25 PM

You are viewing a single post. Click here to view the post in context.

Hi everyone, I'm new here, and I love it! Anybody who loves Tiki stuff is a friend of mine....

I, too, CAN NOT BELIEVE how rare lighted glass ball floats are! In the Book of Tiki they are on every page, but in the year 2002 they are practically extinct. I've
scoured Ebay every day for 8 months and have not found any. No online business sells them either. I have decided that they only way to ever own one is to have
one made by a professional. First, you buy 12" diameter glass ball floats that vary in price between $35 (great find at a beach shop) to $80 (Bosko). Then you
must get a glass working company to CAREFULLY drill a hole with a diamond headed drill bit. (No matter how careful they are, chances are about 1 in 3 that the
ball will break). Then, assuming the ball didn't break or crack, they must sandblast the interior. (Don't even think about skipping the sandblasting, because if you
do, the ball will not be opaque and you will easily be able to see the lighted bulb inside... yuch!) But it will be hard to find a sandblaster because most sandblasting
tools can not fit into the small hole in the ball. Or even if they can fit, they can't sandblast the entire inside of the ball). Oceanic Arts told me that frosting
doesn't look near as good as sandblasting. So it is a lot of work. I tried to have 5 made here in Phoenix... 2 of them broke, but the other 3 look unbelievable.
They look MUCH better than I would have ever imagined. When they are lit, they almost look hypnotizing! A soft, mysterious glow coming from the depths of the
sphere... no picture does it justice.

Making these does get very expensive... I spent $200 on my 5 glass ball floats and then had to spend $120 each on drilling holes and sandblasting. They had to
use 2 different sandblasting techniques and it was a lot more work than they thought it would be, although they did not charge me for the 2 that broke. So I
spent $560, plus a lot of driving around and phone calls, just to get 3 lighted glass ball floats. But it was worth it. Good luck if you try!

Tiki Jeff