PCA Forums

FINALLY! We have a lot of fixtures in our home that use candelabra bulbs. The damn things tend to burn out easy, and it's the last things in our house that still use incandescents because - up until now - no one made a realistic looking candelabra bulbs.

I bought one of these to test out today to see if my wife liked it. It looks EXACTLY like an incandescent bulb when lit. It's a brilliant design.

They even make them in vintage Edison style, with a dim yellow glow.

http://www.lowes.com/pd/Kichler-Lightin ... 1000115801

if they last at $6.00 each is not bad really.

I need to research those "filaments" to see if I can build some LED replacement bulbs to use in a USS H2 style searchlight signal. The real bulbs used in them are getting hard to find and expensive due to them being a rail road item and the fact they are quickly being phased out of use. The problem is that these signals use precision optics so the filament in the bulb needs to be positioned exactly for it to work properly. Sure I can use a not precision bulb but then it just wont look right. The next problem will be to find a filament with the right color balance so that when it goes through the color roundels it produces the right colors.

I have 5 complete working units but only need 3 to build the signal that I want. This spring I hope to get the project done and have a fully functioning interlocking signal in my back yard.

Pugsley, you may want to try http://www.bulbdirect.com/

I was able to find Mercury Vapor Bulbs for an older Fluorescent Microscope at work several years ago. They carry a lot a specialty bulbs.

They still have the bulb we needed for our microscope: https://secure.bulbdirect.com/en/osram- ... bo103w2-os

It's a very expensive bulb and can only be used for a few hundred hours before the gap where the arc takes place becomes too wide. When this happens, you can no longer focus the light to get a tight beam.