What is a Make-N-Take (MnT)?
A MnT is a mini-gathering of sorts. Usually, one person takes the lead and teaches others at the MnT how to build a particular item. Each person participating gets the oprotunity of making the item with the guidance of someone who has experience making the item. Sometimes, its just a buch of people aimlessly trying something new. Either way, a bunch of people get together, make a Halloween item or two, and get to take home what they made. A good time is had by all...

What are we making?
It's one of my favorite things in the world - LEDs! We will be making all kinds of LED lights. Everything from micro spotlights to lights that can illuminate entire rooms.

Why do I need LED lights?
Aside from being uber-cool, much more efficient that incandescent lamps and having better color redering than incandescent lamps, recently passed legislation forces the lighting industry to begin phasing out current incandescent lights starting in 2012. What does this mean? In 2012, you may not be able to buy the 100 to 150 watt colored incandescent floodlights and spotlights you may be currently using for your haunt. Now, I'm sure in the next 4 years there will be advances in the incandescent lighting industry (interpret as being an excuse to sell an improvement that costs the manufacturer 2 cents per light to impliment costing the consumer an extra $1 to purchase), concessions and exceptions made for certain specialty lights, but the fact remains that there are certain special-interest groups dead set on removing "energy-wasting" and "inefficient" incandescent bulbs from our choice of lighting.

What does that leave us? Well, believe-it-or-not, there are colored compact flourescent lamps available. I have never used them but my research shows me that they are very expensive and they suck. Now, I'm going to make public the same prediction I made when the first compact fluorescent lamps began hitting the shelves ump-teen years ago - "Compact fluorescent light bulbs will eventually become illegal to manufacture and sell." Why? They contain Mercury and Phosphorous both of which are extremely hazardous. All it will take is a single child getting mercury poisioning from a breaking bulb to turn the media against these (soon to be labeled) "evil" and "poisonous" lights. "But we have fluorescent lights everywhere now," you say? Sure we do, but the majority of them are in enclosed cases 8 feet in the air where little hands are unlikely to reach them. The same cannot be said about your bed-side lamps, night-lights, table lamps, tourchiers, etc. Think of how often light bulbs break. Now release a small cloud of vaporized mercury every time one of those bulbs breaks. Do you remember the fiasco and finger-pointing over lead in childrens' toys? Expect the same once a child actually gets sick from the mercury in a compact fluorecsent light bulb.

Ok, even if you don't buy into my doom-and-gloom end of the compact fluorescent lamp, LEDs offer a number of benefits to the average haunter:

They use less power than their incandescent equivilents and are slowly catching up in efficiency to compact fluorescents.
They are low-voltage devices - You can run them off batteries and low-voltage transformers, eliminating electricution hazards in your haunt.
They give off little to no heat eliminating burn and fire hazards in your haunt
They are solid-state devices containing no glass, eliminating one possibility of broken glass in your haunt
Colors are brilliant with no fading to white over the years and no need for special filters.
No UV radiation (unless it's specifically a UV LED - But that's a different rant altogether) to deteriorate your latex masks or give your haunters or actors skin cancer.
A single LED will last between 10,000 and 100,000 hours of use.
They are fully dimmable and strobe-able (with a simple circuit) unlike the majority of compact fluorescent lamps.
Anyone can take a bunch of inexpensive individual LEDs and turn them into usable lights and lamps. You just need to know how...

What exactly are we going to do at this MnT?
Here's the itinerary for this MnT:

Short discussion and demonstration on what an LED is, how they work, and the various forms they take. LEDs discussed will be T1, T1 3/4, SuperFlux AKA Spider AKA Piranha, and High Output (Luxeon, Cree, Golden Dragon, etc). Also a quick AC/DC primer (no not the band but maybe some "Hell's Bells" in the background during the discussion...), and how to properly operate a soldering iron (ironic since I just fried my thumb on one last night).
How to build a micro-led (single LED in a copper tube) lamp that runs off the voltage of your choice (AA batteries or a 9v for example). Here's something you can do with all that extra 1/4 flexible copper tubing you have from making your hot-glue webbers. I will have the tubes and mounts pre-cut to save time.
How to build a small PVC lamp using 1 to 8 LEDs. These are the LED lamps that use the elbow fittings of 1/2 PVC pipe as the housing. There are literally hundreds of uses and configurations for these lamps. Some of the parts will be pre-made again to save time. I just taught my 9-year-old step-son how to make these. He now uses them as a night-light. This was his first time working with any sort of tools so he proves that anyone can do this.
How to build a larger PVC can lamp 8+ LEDs in a 2" PVC tube. This will demonstrate how to make robust circuits using low-cost perfboard from Radio Shack. The perfboard will be pre-cut to save time.
For those interested I will show-off some high power lamps I've used in my yard haunt and discuss the benefits and drawbacks compared with T1 LEDs. I'm on the fence on whether to build any at this point due to the time involved - the LEDs need epoxied to heat-sinks or the heat-sinks need drilled-and-tapped fairly precisely. I can do some of these steps ahead of time but I need a really good count of who is interested in making these. Expect $2.50 (for red) to $4.75 (for most others) per led and I usually use 3 per lamp. I will have to get an updated price on the drivers - haven't bought any in a while. I do have 5, low-voltage DC drivers that people can use, or I can order the drivers for running these of line voltage (110 VAC) and show how to properly wire them.
For those interested in sticking around even later - I'll demonstrate designing electrical circuits using Eagle CAD and how to create a professional quality etched circuit board.

So, when the soldering-irons cool, everyone will walk away with at least 1 micro-led light, 1 small PVC light, 1 large PVC light, and the knowledge to make each of these lights (and variants there-of) on your own.

What do I need to bring?
If you own your own soldering iron of the pencil variety (no large 150+ watt gun types where you pull a trigger and the tip heats up), please bring it and make sure you have a fresh tip. If the tip is black and you can't seem to get solder to melt on it, I may be able to clean it and retin it. But, if I can't, it will need a new tip so better to have one just-in-case.

Since most of the components required to make LED lamps are special order (unless you feel like buying two while LEDs from Radio Shack for $5 and overpaying by $4.98) I will provide all materials at cost (as always).

Total cost estimate is around $11 per person. This will provide each person with 50 high-quality, high-brightness, white LEDs, 1 - 6"x8" perfboard, a 1/2" PVC elbow or two, and all the other little pieces that we will be using.

SOUNDS GREAT! Where/When are we meeting?
We will meet at my house on April 5th, 2008 at 12:00PM. Google map can be found Here.
If you will be attending, I need you to by March 15th so I can plan accordingly.

12:00 PM? But that's my lunch time!
I will provide pizza and drinks for lunch. Please bring money for ordering food in case we end up building through dinner.

I really don't need any LED Lamps. Can I come anyway?
BITE YOUR TONGUE! You can NEVER have too many LED lamps. If your Haunt is so bright that your guests think it is still daylight, you STILL need more LED lamps... If your zombies start sporting California Surfer tans, you STILL need more LED lamps... If your vampires start smoking the moment they enter your haunt, you STILL need more LED lamps... If the werewolves start changing back into mortal men, well, then maybe you have enough... Ok, Seriously - You bet! The more helping hands the better. Besides, you may have a few tips and tricks for the rest of us.

Hi. My name is Jack and I'm 13...
Hi Jack. If you would like to attend that is fine, but you will need to bring a parent with you.
Anyone under 16 must bring a parent/mentor with them to supervise their use of power tools. Yes, I consider a soldering iron a power tool.

If you need other specific information .
Hope to see you Saturday!