For emergency lighting, I think I prefer pointing flashlights at the ceiling instead of having a frosted glass lantern at eye level. Flashlights in the ceiling offer zero glare when sitting around a table eating dinner, while a lantern on the table is probably pretty glarey. (The lantern I ordered arrives tomorrow, so I’ll check it out in person.)
I have two Maglite Pro Minis that I’d love to point at the ceiling but they are unstable when balancing upright. Super bright.
I have some small mason jars that should be just about perfect size to hold them, and I figured fill the jars with modeling clay and make a depression to fit the flashlights into et voila, instant no-glare lanterns.
I’m not a crafty guy, so my question is: Should I get modeling clay that
“never dries”, or the air-hardening kind? I have no frame of reference to assess which would be better.
The flashlights are sturdy and metal, if that matters.
I would use never-hardens. I think that in a big lump (a jarful), the hardening type would crack as it dries, which would be unattractive. I used air-hardening childrens’ clay on one of my dioramas, and cracking proved to be a major aesthetic problem.
Of course, the never-hardens is going to collect dust on its slightly-tacky surface, and will look bad after a while.
So why use clay? Why not pretty aquarium gravel, or those rounded glass Mancala stones?
It won’t be a permanent fixture. Unless there is an extended power outage, the two maglites are our emergency flashlights for the cars. But then if we lose power, I’d bring them inside and plop them down in the mason jar setups.
I don’t love shoving heavy metal flashlights into a pile of glass marbles held in a glass jar. Just feels like a shatter risk to me. I’d much rather a soft (or even firm) clay bed to plop the lights down into and not worry about it.
As for drying out, the mason jar lids close pretty tight, so whatever lifetime they have before hardening can be maximized.
EDIT: Aquarium gravel is a good idea. I might try that to see if it makes room when shoving the flashlight in better / less “violently” than glass marbles, which is what we’ve been using and why I’m looking at alternatives.
There is a pretty large craft store warehouse type deal very close to me, but I’m kind of looking to minimize the amount of time I’m wandering around in public looking for store. Amazon preferred, and everything on Amazon is essentially the same price. ($5 to $8) For example, I went ahead and ordered 2 pounds of non-drying modeling clay listed as $5.94, while the mancala stones are all around $7.50. Essentially the same price.
I just don’t love the sensation of shoving a heavy metal rod into a jar of rigid material that gets pushed out to the sides (putting pressure on the sides of the jar). It could be wholly irrational, like those people with a fear of holes, but it bugs me, like the whole thing is going to explode in a shower of glass fragments.
I do not hate this idea. Potential spill hazard, but in terms of shoving the flashlight in and having it just stay in place? Sand might be the optimal material.
EDIT: Though, hmmm, not sure I want to get sand in my maglites. I don’t know how well sealed they are.
I think I’m not envisioning clay properly. In my imagination, most of what you list here seem like they would be messier than clay when I’m shoving flashlights in and pulling them out. I see sand, gravel and jelly beans as potentially gunking up the flashlights and also spilling onto the table as I take the flashlights in and out of the holders.
Marbles function great, but I’ve been using marbles and they’re what’s giving me the heebie jeebies about shattering the glass jar every time I pushed the flashlight into the jar. (Maybe a half dozen times during the 5-day power outage a couple weeks ago.)
*Discourse sucks. When I put a reply in my quote, I want the reply in my quote.
Don’t the bell ends where the light is come off so that you can slip them over the butt end of a maglight mini, forming a base and thus turning it into a candle? I remember that being a function of them way back(it’s been a while since I’ve owned a maglite of any size)
DorkVader has it in one. Maglites (some models) do have what is called the ‘candle’ mode, as described. Saves having to do mason jars, cans, sand, gravel, clay marbles, etc.
Whether all models do that is a question but www.maglite.com details out which ones do. OP can figure out if his/hers does and if not, order a model that does and leave that candle mode model in the dining room.
Problem solved, no muss, no fuss. Thank you DorkVader
I appreciate your confidence but I’m not as optimistic as you on this particular solution. The lantern came today, and as I feared, it is WAY too glarey for us. By orders of magnitude. The only way it could work would be if it’s behind everyone and not in anyone’s normal field of vision, but that prevents centering the light on the table while we eat. So the lantern is either going back Monday or will be repurposed for something other use. (Only $23, not sure it’s worth the hassle to return.)
The reason we prefer pointing flashlights at the ceiling is because it diffuses the light. (Not positive that’s the right word.) At no point is any lightsource sending photons directly to our eyeballs, but instead bouncing them off the ceiling first. Thus no glare.
I’ll check if the Mini Pros have a candle mode, but even if they do, that would be a light source sending photons directly at our eyeballs, yes? If so, that’s the entire problem the mason jars are attempting to solve. (EDIT: Maglite Mini Pros appear to not have that feature.)
What goes in the mason jars to hold the flashlights up is just a trivial detail. The core concept is “bounce flashlight beams off ceiling to light the room.” Everything is in service to that.
As for finding the right model and buying more, I’m trying to make the maglites we already have contribute to the cause. None of us like those maglites anymore; when you hold them in your hand they don’t reliably stay on. I’m hoping they stay on reliably when not touched or moved, just resting in a mason jar.
That was my point, sorry I wasn’t more clear. If the flash has a candle mode, there is no need to find something to put in the jar to keep it upright. Less neat looking but perhaps make a lantern with some old soup/canned whatever cans by punching holes, maybe even in patterns and using that?
This is a good point. I haven’t actually tried marbles in a mason jar as of yet. We have a much larger Maglite (uses 2 D-cells) that we were putting in a very large glass vase thing filled halfway with large glass marbles. That thing is what feels like it’s gonna shatter.
I’m a dude, so of course when the power is out for days, the yard is my urinal, saving toilet flushes for #2 and women. But we have wildlife around here. Nothing major, but I feel a lot better bringing the 2-D maglite with me for protection. It’s like a baton or billy club; a legit bludgeoning instrument. So after the sun went down I would find myself taking our giant flashlight with me and then having to shove it back into the marbles when I got back. And the main table light would be gone while I was outside. All around less than ideal.
The main goal is to try and come up with an alternate center table lighting scheme to replace the giant maglite. I’d like to try and minimize our D-cell use so I’m not really looking to add a second giant maglite. But even if I were, I’d still want that giant vase / marble contraption replaced by something better.
So I’m thinking the little car maglites (2 AAs) can be repurposed to become actually useful. They’re plenty bright. I do have little mason jars to hold them, just need them to stand upright. And ideally not make a mess on the table when putting flashlights in and out of them.
You’re right that mason jars are stronger glass. They are thicker than the large glass vase we were using. So maybe marbles will indeed turn out to be the best solution. The clay comes tomorrow so we’ll find out then.
Hopefully this exhaustive explanation provides much-needed context for why some of the offered solutions may not be as ideal for us as they appear on paper.
Our Maglite mini pros do indeed have candle mode, confirmed right now sitting next to me. It’s pretty bright, but super glarey at eye level. As bad or worse than the lantern.
Candle mode works by unscrewing the “flash” part off the flashlight, placing it on a table, then turning the flashlight over and standing the flashlight upright on top of it. Meaning you end up with a 360-degree light source (naked and blinding) right at eye level. That’s the glare we’re trying to avoid.
But what it means is that even though these lights do have candle mode, they do not securely stand up on their own in normal flashlight mode. If we block the horizontal light from hitting our eyes with a shade or cylinder of some kind, the net result would be a lot of wasted light. Much brighter to use the flashlight in normal flashlight mode pointed at the ceiling.