Want a translucent, colorful, brightly glowing skull, but all you can find at the store is the usual opaque plastic skull? Not to fear! You can harness the power of heat to melt and form a common HDPE (high-density polyethelene) milk jug into a great light-diffusing Milk Jug Glow Skull!

You can then light the Glow Skull from within using a strip of NeoPixels. The HalloWing will provide flickering animation to the pixels, and a couple of 10mm LEDs and holders serve as menacing, blinking eyes! A small speaker is used to play growls and yells.

Parts

Here are the parts you'll need:

Materials & Tools

In addition to the above parts, you'll also need these materials and tools:

• Decorative skull made of thick plastic (too thin and it won't resist the heat, and thus melt)
• One gallon HDPE jug -- milk, juice, and water come in these jugs, just check the bottom for the letters 'HDPE'
• Sponge
• Bowl of water
• Heat gun
• Hobby knife or box cutter

Optional Skull/Sculpting Stand

You can optionally build a skull stand to make working on the heat forming part of the project a bit easier. For this you'll want:

• 12" diameter, 3/4" thick plywood round for the base
• 3/4" O.D. black pipe, 12" long, threaded on both ends
• Black pipe flange for 3/4" pipe, threaded
• Black pipe cap for 3/4" pipe
• Wood screws