I wanted to put some solar lights on three of my garden fence posts. Most of what I found to purchase was plastic, not very visually appealing, and would not hold up well in the summer sun.

While shopping in a large hardware store, I found some electrical outdoor lights that I really liked. They were on sale for $5.00 dollars each. Plus, they were made of brass and copper, ideal for the weather.

However, they were not solar, but I could not resist the price. So I bought three of them.

I had also purchased three solar lights (that you stick in the ground) from a local discount store. My plan was to insert these into the top of each light, and then attach them to the fence posts.

I modified each outdoor light by first removing the electrical light socket and accompanying wiring. Pretty quick and easy.

I measured the diameter of the solar light using a circle template. However, you could also tie some wire or string around it to determine the circumference, and then measure across it to determine the hole diameter.

I needed a hole in the top of each outdoor light, to drop the solar light into. I drilled a 1/4″ hole in the center of each, and then used my circle template to outline the 1 and 7/8″ hole to cut. I used a nibbler to ‘bite’ off the metal, until I had the correct sized hole. A nibbler is not expensive, and easy to use when cutting thin metals. It is a slow process however.

Once the holes were cut, I simply dropped in the solar lights.

I hung each light on the fence posts. Here is one of the lights at night.

Bring some light into your garden at night!