Fishing float lights!

I have been Questing for a fishing float in evevy antique mall and
shops online.They have either never seen or heard of them or don't knw where to find them. Oceanic arts says they have some but aren't seling any. The Tiki Trader say he my be able to find one.but he never is able to send pictures or give me a price estimate. even ebay dosent have them
if anybody knows where to find them PLEASE TELL ME!

Do you mean the glass spheres in netting? I have seen them on Ebay... or do you mean something different?

[ Edited by: DaneTiki 2009-08-30 19:30 ]

On 2002-09-18 13:10, DaneTiki wrote:
Also, this summer I saw some at a dry goods store in Bath, Maine called "Reny's."

I grew up in Maine and go back every other year. Never did I ever expect someone to mention "Reny's" on TC.

Just search for "glass float" and there are always a lot on Ebay. I find them in antique stores and found a big bunch of newish big ones in an antique store outside Indianapolis lately. Reasonable, but we didn't buy. They are out there.

You can find fishing floats at almost every shell shop in Florida. They come in four sizes that I've seen, and you can get them in green, red, purple and blue, plus lighter shades of all of these colors. The netting varies with the store.
When we were at the Hukilau, I noticed the fishing floats in Trader Vics were lighted --and wondered how they did that. Then, Marian and I found a vendor at a big antique market that was selling floats with holes drilled in the top for lights. They were pretty expensive. Somthing like $60, but he told me he drilled the holes with some kind of glass cutting drill bit. Don't know if this helps, but what you're looking for is out there...

Someone needs to tell talkie-tiki about the bad kharma tiki trader generates. We can't let our new members stumble in past footsteps. I'm not sure what the thread was so maybe one of you can direct em?

Trustar

I found some Mini floats at "Micheals Craft Store" for 1.50, but I am in California, I don't know if they have any Micheals around where you are. Here is a Float site I hope it can help - Dawn :D http://www.glass-floats.com/index.html

Ok what I was talking about is the glass fishing floats that were used to hold up nets. Specificly I was talking about the glass fishing floats that have been drilled, inside frosted and have been turned into lights. Sorry I should have been more specific in my first E-mail. I have seen the unlit fishing floats for sale but am really intrested in the ones that have been modified into hanging lamps.
sorry for the confusion
:oops::drink:

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

I've got a couple of big 12" floats, would you say that it's a bad idea for me to try and do the drilling myself? I think that a diamond bit would cost less than having someone do it for me.

If anyone has done it themselves, please let me know the secrets before I ruin two floats. ...and there has to be a way around the sandblasting; some kind of light diffusion trick. Please let me know.

...maybe some kind of translucent spray paint...

There is this gel you can get from "Micheals" called Glass Etch Bath. If you manage to get the whole in one of your floats, you could easily get the sandblasting effect from this product. It's 25.00 for a bottle. I am sure having it sand blasted is the best way to have it done, most high schools have sandblasting equipment, mine did. Maybe if you went to the art teacher, they might be able to help you out?! It could save you a couple of bucks! Hope this helped :) http://www.michaels.com/art/online/DisplayProduct?prrfnbr=405998&cgnbr=CRAFTS-17

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2002-09-19 16:16 ]

That helps so much. I think that product will do fine.

...now if I can just get up the courage to drill the hole.

I have not tried it yet, but my plan is to simply take the ball out of the net and spray the outside with translucent clear spray. Why do the inside? If you are careful, it shouldn't come off. You might need to sand and rough up the surface first.

And it seems to me you can put a small LED light on top and get a good effect rather than drilling and putting the light inside. Perhaps make a sort of diffuser that will spread the light, but I dare say that the translucent cover will make all light diffuse and it will look just fine with a whole lot less cost and maybe effort.