Color Filter for a Common Flourecent Fixture

This is a common two-bulb, four foot, flourecent fixture with a wrap-around plexi-glass lens. It's dirt cheap, which is probably why it's been installed in homes and rental units across the country. Almost everyone has seen this style of fixture. It's freakin' EVERYWHERE.

}'-{D}

Which is why this Halloween Hack is perfect. Chances are, you can actually DO this one. It would be interesting to know just how many people really have this fixture in their homes.

There are a few different styles. This one has white metal ends. There is also a style that has wooden ends. Whatever the ends, the lens (the plexi-glass cover) is pretty much the same thing. Most all of them are removed in the same manner.

If you never had to crack-open the fixture to replace a bulb, the lens is made in such a way, that it bends around at the ceiling, and hooks onto the back of the fixture.

Do not force the plexi-glass lens!

Older fixtures have gotten brittle over the years, so it may be very easy to crack, split and otherwise break the lens, rendering it useless, or at least, a bit more uglier than it already is.

My unit is just over six years old, and even though I have not touched it, there are a few cracks and slits in the plexi already.

Be gentle & careful. Dropping the lens is grounds for cracks and splits in the plastic, and there's damn little you can do to repair it. Remember, it's called plexi-"GLASS". Treat it as such.

The plexi-glass may be stiff, but flexable enough to SLIGHTLY pull out along the top edge along the ceiling, just enough to clear the channel that it rests in.

Using just your fingers, simply pull the plexi out slightly, working along one side of the fixture. Releasing only one side, will allow the lens to remain "engaged" to the other side. Plus, it won't put such forces on the material that would cause it to crack and splinter if you try to pry open both sides at once.

Once one side is released, it will then, swing down, much like a hinge, and hang along the edge which was not pulled free as discribed. You can then lift the lens with both hands, lift slightly, and allow it to be removed from the channel that it was hanging from.

This color filter, (AKA: "GEL") is used for a common flourecent fixture in my kitchen. I used colored cellophane. The intended use of this colored cellophane, is for wrapping gift baskets, (like Easter Baskets & such.) It comes on a roll, much like christmas wrapping paper.

I bought my selection at a Micheal's Arts & Crafts store. It was pretty cheap. Which is why I picked up a roll of each color. The down side? They didn't have ORANGE in stock. }'-{( } But they had all the rest, red, yellow, green, blue & purple. They also had "clear", but it seemed useless for what I want to do with the product.

Here's another project I did with the colored cellophane... I put a few colors on the divided window panels in the living room. To my surprise, this actually reduced my air conditioning bill a bit.

Here's what you'll need for the project...

Colored cellophane gift basket wrap

Cellophane tape.

I only have clear packaging tape, but smaller CLEAR tape will do.

(Don't use the frosted "invisible" tape. It'll stick out like a sore thumb.)

A tape measure

A sharp Razor Knife or Exacto Knife

Find a large flat work area that is super smooth & clean of dust, grit, crumbs, sawdust, hair, dandruff, etc. When the cellophane is first unrolled, it generates a static electrical charge that will pull the fleas off a werewolf.

This makes it a bit difficult to work with as it wants to stick to everything within a 30 meter radius, including you. It may help to have someone else around to assist in handling the product, smooth it out over the table and hold it taught as it is being cut.

The static charge will eventually disepate as you work with the cellophane. But then, it'll want to curl up. Once it starts to curl, it'll want to return to the shape of the tube it was rolled up upon. I place the material, so if it curls, it'll have to curl under itself.

I also used a bit of tape at each corner to keep it flat. Once it's been cut and been laying flat for a while, it starts to "behave". and it won't act like such a monster.

My walk-in closet off the bathroom, is also my "materials store room". I have a few rolls of the colored cellophane hanging around back here. This stuff is especially sensitive to heat. It'll shrink and buckle. Creating wrinkles and bubbles in the material. Store it in a cool, dry place if at all possible. It may be cheap, but that's no reason to waste it.

I'm looking to create something along the lines of a "Lime-Green" color. Since I've not used this to filter a flourecent fixture before, I don't really know what it'll need, as far as a colored filter. So I chose Green, Blue & Yellow cellophane. I can use them in combination, or a multiple layer of one color. It's definatly a "trial & error" experement.

I carefully removed the lens from the fixture. I used a bit of the wide packing tape, over the cracks that had developed before I rented the apartment, (if just to help prevent more cracking from taking place.)

I discovered that the table is just as long as the lens. Being a "Lone Wolf", I don't need a huge table in the kitchen. (It wouldn't really fit in this small galley in the first place.)

The lens (and the table) is exactly four feet in length.

But it helped a lot in this project. I lined up the edge along the back wall, taped down the corners of the cellophane, and used the table edge as a "straight-line" to guide the razor as I cut the cellophane.

The edge of the table helped make a perfect straightline cut.

Lay out the cellophane and line it up square with your straight line edge. You don't want to cut the cellophane on an angle. This would create a "Light gap" (where white light would shine through,) between the edge of the lens and where the cellophane begins.

I simply started the cut, by laying the blade's flat side along the edge of the table. (with the sharp "business" edge along the corner, and started to draw the blade long the edge, cutting the cellophane.

I can't really show you how this is done, as I haven't grown my third arm yet.

I'm not quite sure if I'll HAVE to use Blue Cellophane for this project, but while I'm at it, I cut a length anyway "just in case".

But I have discovered, that if you hold the tube of cellophane in the center, and create a slight "tension" to stuffen the material flat across the edge, you can run the blade along with the other hand, and create a darned decent cut. Just make sure you tug on it just firmly enough so the material remains under a slight tention all along where the blade is cutting the material.

This will prevent the cellophane from ripping into a sliver, (splitting the slit into two directions,) at the blade and bunching up, and tearing the cellophane, instead of cutting it.

It also helps to prevent a rapid assortment of cuss words from erupting from your pie hole.

}:-{P}

The Yellow Cellophane seems a bit light to me. If you didn't know it was there... Would you say there was Yellow Cellophane covering the metal inlay if this table?

I didn't think so either.

}'-{( }

I think I'll need to double-up on the Yellow layers, in the filter to get that "Lime-Green" color, that I'm trying to achieve.

In order to keep the cut pieces of cellophane from getting in the way, or accidentally getting wrinkled from moving it around, being stepped upon, or inadvertantly consumed, I used a few refrigerator magnets, (and the refrigerator,) to hold them virtically, off to the side.

Pay no attention to the sign...

...It's no longer true.

}8-{X}

It's getting to the point where I have to look at my options. The Cellophane can be placed in either one of two positions.

Option #1:

The cellophane can simply lay flat upon the bottom interior of the fixture. Leaving the side panels open for white light to brighten the room. (as depicted above.../\

Option #2:

The Cellophane can be lead up the wall of the virtical interior surface so that all the light is tinted. (as depicted below...\/

I opted for the latter. Here's why...

Under normal "Party Lighting Conditions" the kitchen is going to be bathed in UV light, (AKA:Blacklight) and a little bit of orange light from under the range hood... If a two- four-foot flourecent lamps are turned on, everyone is going to try to crawl back into the woodwork, as they'll be blinded.

The Lime Green filter is going to help take the shock of the sudden brightness out of the flourecent light. Given: Okay, not a LOT, but it's enough to keep eye pupils from constricting to pin points.

Leaving the sides of the lens uncovered, will just make the fixture brighter than I'd like for the party.

Nuff said.

I temporarilly taped the cellophane to the virtical surfaces at each corner. This anchored the Cellophane enough for me to cut the cellophane with a razor knife along the inside top edge of the lens. Creating my first layer of colored cellophane filter for the lens.

I carfully removed the tape, (as it tends to remove the colored dye used on the material, and might cause the cellophane to rip unexpectedly, and removed it from the lens. I now have a custom made template, on which, I will base the next set of Yellow filters for the lens.

Seeing that I might not be able to use the edge of the table as a cutting guide as I had before, I opted to use a different technique. A straight edge. This particular piece of equipment was part of a professional drafting table. So this little puppy is square & straight enough to design a whole world around.

Good enough to slice up a bit of cellophane, right?

}'-{ ) }

I wanted to protect the surface of the table from the razor knife, so I dragged out this long bit of masonite board I have stashed, just for this sort of occation. The yellow & Green cellophane was laid out and lined up, ready to cut.

At this point, I still haven't grown that third arm. So it was difficult to hold the materials, cut it with the razor and snap a picture at the same time. Instead, I got a nice shot of the orange razor knife.

Ain't it a cutie??

}X-{P}

At this point, I had cut two Yellow filters for the fixture, using the green template. I layed one over the other, lined them up, and slipped a bit of clear tape under the edges so that I can fold the tape up and over, pressing the sticky sides onto the bottom and top layers of cellophane. This "sandwiched" the layers together. Hopefully they won't slip out of alignment as I position the filter inside the lens cover.

Here's the filter in place. And no huge wrinkles! Alright there's a few tiny ones, but nothing's really making me want to take a silver bullet.

The lens & filter assembly has been placed on one of the channels of the fixture on the ceiling. All that's needed is for the lens to be "swung" back up, into position, and pull the edge of the lens away from the fixture to allow it to be snapped back into place.

From where I sit, (quite literally,) the kitchen is now cast in a semi-alien Lime-Green glow.

I wonder how this is going to make the food appear to look like?

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A great Halloween Forum I just joined. Lots of new people to get to know, who love Halloween just as much or MORE than I do! Register, and join the fun!

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Please be sure to visit "How to Halloween" A new up and coming site on building your own Halloween decorations for next to nil!

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The Halloween-L is a great website & forum. You should go there NOW! Ok, after you view my website. But right after that, go there! (If you know what's "Boo" for you!)