How to Straighten Icicle Lights
Icicle lights are a beautiful addition to a winter outdoor light display, but when they come out of the packaging, they are notorious for being kinked along the light strands, due to being folded up in the box. The severe bends in the light strands definitely detract from the beauty of this type of lighting. Here are two ideas that can help get the kinks out. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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1
Heat the individual light strands for a few seconds with a hair dryer on low heat in order to warm the wires. Test every few seconds with your hands to ensure that the wires are not getting any warmer than can be comfortably touched. Too much heat can cause melting of plastics.
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2
Pull and hold the warm wires straight until they cool off. Continue along the strand until you have straightened all the lights. If these two steps are still not enough, go on to Step 3.
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3
Tie a short length of fishing line to the end of each icicle.
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4
Tie a fishing weight to one of the fishing lines on the end of the icicle. Hold the icicle up in the air to determine if one fishing weight is sufficient to hold the icicle wire straight. If not, add more to determine the proper number of fishing weights.
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5
Tie the number of fishing weights from Step 4 to each fishing line on the ends of all the icicles.
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6
Trim any excess fishing line with scissors.
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Comments
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Assuming that the problem is that the wires in icicle lights are not pliable enough for the amount of plastic surrounding them, a good solution is to add thin aluminum wire around them. Get a roll of thin aluminum wire that bends easily in your fingers. All you need to do is sew a strand of the wire between the lights. However, it's actually easier to cut a strand of wire two or three inches longer than a strand of lights and then wrap the wire around the lights. Start at the bottom of a strand of lights, and wrap the aluminum wire up and around it with two or three turns between each light. The more turns, the easier it is to mold, but as I said, you don't actually need any turns.
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bbell2000
Dec 19, 2010
Since you're probably going to have to straighten them every year, there's an easier way to do 3 & 4: Loop one end of a hair pin -- not a bobby pin, but the kind you use to pin up a bun -- through the fishing weight. Turn the other end into a hook and hook it between the wires of the light at the end of the strand. After Christmas, store the weights with the lights and you're all set for next year.
