The Dale C. Maley Family Web Site

I was looking for different night light designs, so I could build some to donate to a non-profit.  I noticed a cute Rooster night light in the Delphi catalog, so I bought 1 kit for about $15 plus shipping.  In the kit, you get all the pieces of glass already cut, plus the red jewel that hangs below his mouth........plus the night light fixture. Here is a link to the Delphi kit.

The assembly was straightforwards since I have done similar projects before. The instructions say to wrap all pieces of glass in hobby lead, then solder them up. The first one turned out to be very colorful and was very cute when lit in the dark.

I decided to make 10 of the Roosters to donate to the non-profit, then a friend requested 4 more for himself, giving a total of 14 units.

The hard decision was, do I spend 14x$15/kit = $210 to buy 14 kits, or do I take the time to cut the glass myself.  I decided to not buy the kits and cut the glass myself.  I have the glass in my inventory.

One thing I noticed building the trial unit, it was tough to add the 2 bottom vertical lead risers after the wind was soldered on.  I made a fixture to mark and cut the lead to the right length and angle, and then to solder it to the chicken body before the wing is soldered on.

I cut the 2 pieces of lead a little long, place them in the fixture, mark the top angles with a pencil, cut the 2 pieces with the nippers, put them in fixture and solder to body.

I had a roll of pre-tinned 20 gage wire in stock, for the wings and to hold the red jewel.

I did not have the red jewels that hang below the head.  I went to Delphi and they do not sell them [they must buy the kit from another company and resell it].  I found them on Amazon.com.

I used a toothpick as the brush and put a drop of black enamel paint for the rooster's eye.

I did not want to mess around with Pebeo paint, because you have to bake the rooster's body with the black dot in the oven first for 30 minutes.   You can not bake the finished rooster in the oven because it will melt the solder.

It takes forever to grind the inside curve at the top of the rooster's body.  I could try making several cuts and pulling each one out with pliers, but I broke the first piece I tried it on.

The 1st piece of yellow glass was not Hobby Lobby and was thicker and tougher to grind.  When I ran out of that piece, I switched to Hobby Lobby yellow, and it was easier and faster to grind the inside curve.