Free invisible clips (and more Christmas LED repair)

Another (now pretty routine) LED Christmas light repair.  The pretty blue snowflake LEDs that live around the living room mirror were dead.  I took the string down, pulled the bulbs, tested each (with the LED tester on the front edge of the bench) ’til I found the bad one, replaced the LED and it’s done.  It was the usual 3mm LED and a diffuser that snaps into the socket.  The LED fits up inside a hole in the middle of the diffuser.

The only mildly interesting bit was that the 3mm blue LEDs I had have a sort of collar around the bottom.  I had to hack that off with some flush cutters in order for it to fit up into the diffuser.  Quick and painless.

Much more interesting was being reminded (as I took the string down) of the clips I used to put the lights around the mirror.  I cut some strips of the very nice clear plastic used in all those annoying clamshell packages.  (I can barely stand to throw the stuff away, and have a nice stash for just such occasions.)  Bending a loop of it to fit around the wire and slipping the rest behind the mirror (or into the window frame or where ever) provides a fairly secure, almost invisible mounting clip.  It’s easy to tweak for fatter or skinnier openings, and it’s free!  (Well, assuming that you keep a stash on hand.  You do keep your old clamshell packaging, don’t you?)

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One Response to Free invisible clips (and more Christmas LED repair)

  1. Jim says:

    Good Idea.
    This is a good time to stock up on LEDs. I got a battery powered string at Walgreens for $2.49 and harvested 15 white LEDs and a two AA battery holder with switch.

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