My lightbulb died

[Pistolero]

Silly and off topic, but--

I am so sad. In 1976 I bought two lamps which were Revolutionary War figures, a
Minuteman and a Betsy Ross figure, all sorts of 200th anniversary stuff was on the
market. At the same time I bought a new fangled fluorescent bulb - with a light bulb sized central
power supply and a circular 10" diameter ring bulb on three arms. This lamp has been
used since 1976, and in the last 30+ years has been in my computer /library and has
almost always been one of the lights that gets left on when we are travelling, sometimes
two and three weeks. So it has been in service for over 40 years, and many times for
24/7 weeks at a time. Instant on, nice bright light and lasts half a lifetime, nice product.

It started flickering last week and finally just quit. Haven't seen anything like it in
stores for decades. I figured that was the end.

I went on eBay and found a NOS bulb from GE and it is on the way. Hope the power
supply is still OK. I was surprised that the bulb was replaceable separately from the
power suppy and that anyone still had one. So, not so sad any more.

Compare that to the crummy little twisty things which are lucky to last over one year in
ordinary service.

Bill

 

[Rick]

I would live in the dark before I would buy one of those curly Q bulbs, LED's in every light inside & out here. Best thing since cool water was invented.

 

[Pistolero]

I probably would have embraced LEDs a whole lot more if the criminal class in DC hadn't told me that
I was too stupid to choose my own light bulbs and they had to make Edison bulbs illegal. That got my
back up to the point that I filled a closet with them when they were on sale for 29 cents a bulb. Pretty
long time before I will be buying any of those wonderful, government required LEDs for $9 -20 for a bulb
no matter how little electricity they use.

Now, on my own, I purchased 5 meters of LEDs on a sticky backed strip, then nice, tiny extrusions with
diffuser covers and I will be assembling them for straight down task lighting on a counter peninsula with a
cabinet overhead, and in hidden corner under cabinet close to user with 45 angled ones shining 45 down toward
the wall from the front edge. Cost will be low on eBay and the straight down ones are about 7/8" wide by 3/8"
thick, one LED every inch or inch and a half. I put 8 of them in two of banks of 4 stuck onto an aluminum
bracket, shining down just past the spindle on the minimill, really nice.

I just hate it when somebody tells me that I have to buy a certain product. Goes against my nature in a
very fundamental way.

Had to laugh at the light bulbs in an Austin hotel last year. Turned on the desk and bedside table lamps
and could barely see to walk. Bulbs seemed to be about 5 watts. Called the desk (this is a Hilton, for gosh
sakes) and asked if I could get better lighting, no argument, knock on the door in 5 minutes and the guy
has a floor lamp. Plug it in, same 5 watt almost-a-light-bulb. Asked what was going on. He said that
Austin had laws on what kind of lightbulbs hotels had to use, said that they got a lot of complaints. Have lots
of these lamps ready to bring in.

Went to dinner. When we came back from dinner and a bit of sightseeing, the lights, left on while we
were gone, were much brighter, even usable. So, these magical Austin city government approved
light bulbs only take about 2 hours to come up to full brightness. Really nice stuff.

When we checked out the guy apologized and said that they had gotten so many complaints that they
were going to replace all their bulbs ($$$$$) with something better. I laughed and told him to replace
the city council - he laughed and said "I wish".

Still, I love my 40 year old fluorescent ring light.

Bill

 

[JSH]

Bill, I bought several of those rope lights a while back. I put them in a couple of safes and they work pretty good. Put one under the top of my bench so I could see a bit easier towards the back.
You are a bad influence, what kind of mini mill do you have? I am pondering a mill drill. All I really want a mill for here at home is to try and make a few front sight blade blanks.
The weak minds and strong backs are supposed to be here Saturday AM to finally get the lathe placed. Got busy at work and that put me behind in getting the basement cleaned up.
It was all good though as I did some major cleaning and organizing. Down fall is after stuff being in a certain place for umpteen years,finding it after organizing.
Jeff

 

[Pistolero]

Hi, Jeff -
Mine is a Benchmaster. I have at least one tool holder that should have gone with that Sheldon,
fits the toolpost, might be two. Come by some time and you can pick it/them up. You'll like that
thing when you get it under power.

Here is a link. Got amazingly cheap DROs to put on it, "when I get around to it"......

Not mine, but mine is just like this one. Small bench-sized knee mill. Not bad for gun stuff, but no quill
is a disadvantage, not a drill, only a mill.

http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/images/11208-E.jpg

Bill

 

[Rick]

Bill, if you are required to buy a specific bulb it must be your state gubment. Still selling Edison's incandescent bulbs here. I replaced all my bulbs because I wanted to. The price you quoted is just a bit off, saw 60 watt equivalent LED's on sale a short while ago at $11 for a 4 pack, they will probably come down even more. The Austin bulbs must have been the curly Q's cause they do that.

 

[Pistolero]

Sorry, Rick, not so. Feds stopped all production of 75 & 100 watt Edison bulbs about 3-4 years ago, shut them down.
Only "rough duty" bulbs were exempted, now up to about $10 each. They required "energy saving" technologies,
and just shut them down. Plants were closed, factories and jobs moved to China where those poor
slobs living in a totalitarian communist hell hole are apparently smart enough to select whatever bulb they want.
Us "free Americans" aren't as smart, apparently.

The bulb makers are getting partially around it by putting a quartz-halogen lamp inside an Edison type
of outer envelope and selling them at lower wattages. I think 60 watt real Edison and lower are still legal,
but 75 and 100s are gone. Of course a quartz envelope suspended inside another envelope costs a lot
more, you can get a 70 watt, IIRC, quartz halogen for about $5-7, still a rip from the $0.29-.59 of regular
100 watt Edison bulbs.

Austin bulbs looked exactly like regular Edison bulbs on the outside, not curly type, for sure.
Something screwing inside, not a normal bulb. IME the longest warmup for the worst of the
mini fluorescent/curly types is maybe 1-2 minutes, plenty enough hassle, but nothing close
to the Austin "bulbs". I was expecting them to warm up in a few minutes, but when they
were no brighter in 15 minutes, called for help.

Bill

 

[Rick]

Well be that as it may, I'm sitting here basking under the glow of 75 watt's of white light that's using 12 watt's of power.

 

[RicinYakima]

Me too, Rick, me too!

 

[Brad]

I only buy LEDs. Last damn near forever, nice bright white light, and no slow starts like fluorescent. Prices keep coming down too.
We have a ton of can lights in the house and no longer have a ritual of chasing the dead light bulb.

 

[KeithB]

We keep lots of little LED flashlights laying around the shop, have one at each major machine tool. Bright, drop resistant, batteries last a looooong time. Don't know how many little bitty parts I've been able to find in the chip tray with them. Every time I go to the local Ace Hardware I buy one from the bucket at the check out lane.

 

[Pistolero]

Nothing against LEDs, have lots of flashlights, new lathe light is LED, I just hate the
government telling me what I have to buy. I have no doubt that LEDs would have been
successful on their own, and that just galls me all the more with the bureaucrats forcing
us to buy what THEY want.

In any case, my old fluorescent ring starts quickly, hits full brightness in 1 sec or so and
lasted for 40 yrs. I was perfectly happy with that.

Bill

 

[Ian]

I didn't know that about Austin. I avoid Travis County like the plague because it's exactly like taking the worst of San Francisco, DC, and Seattle and putting it all in the same place. "Keep Austin Weird" indeed, the rest of us wish we could put an electric fence around the place, let them have their giant co-op, and cut off their transmissions so they don't infect the rest of the state.

Now I have a mind to go get a room there and pack in a suitcase full of Edison bulbs, maybe hide them under my trenchcoat and hang out by the elevators...."Psst, hey buddy, wanna buy a real lightbulb so you can see to shave in the morning?"

Reminds me of the movie Demolition Man where the gov of the future had outlawed table salt.

 

[JWFilips]

I switched 98% of my household to LED's bulbs ..their claim of 20 years life. Well I have a 3 bulb fixture in my kitchen I have replace all three within a year! Didn't pay a penny I just keep complaining to Westinghouse & they keep sending me free coupons! ( Makes you think they know they lied on the packaging info!)

 

[JWFilips]

BTW: My Lowe's Store sells Edison bulbs again!

 

[Pistolero]

JW - look closely. They are most likely either 60W and lower or a quartz-halogen bulb inside an Edison shaped
outer envelope. These will cost about $2-4 each instead of $0.29-0.59 of the real deal. I was fooled at first,
then saw the price, and started reading the packages. Finally found an unfrosted one and you can see what
is just like an old driving lamp Q-h bulb inside where the filament would normally be.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-Reveal-...-Halogen-Light-Fixture-Light-Bulbs/1000083349

https://www.lowes.com/pd/SYLVANIA-4...A19-Halogen-Light-Fixture-Light-Bulb/50057381

I am pretty sure that the Hilton by now has something different, they were pretty
apologetic and apparently had lots of complaints. This was when I did the F1 drive and
the hotel was selected by the company with the cars, so no choice. Nice place with a
big atrium - other than the light bulbs.

Bill

 

[Brian Palmer]

Still buy Edison bulbs here any place I have looked. Lows, Sams, local hardware. Same as Jim 98% of the house is switched over. WOW cost savings. 1/10 of the power usage of the mini halogen, even more vs the Edison. I still have a couple dark corners in the basement I put the Edisons in for the superior light quality .

 

[Pistolero]

Check again, although if they had a huge warehouse and haven't run out yet, they
are legal to sell, just NOS, nothing current production for 2-3 years or more.

Feds shut down all the factories, nothing above 60W of normal Edison bulbs. They are selling some
quartz-halogen look-a-likes. Check prices. None will be the $0.59 that real 100W Edison bulbs were just
before they were outlawed.

Look at the links I posted above and see if that isn't what you are seeing. Also 100W 'rough duty' regular
Edison bulbs are still legal, but really jumped in prices. That is the worst possible application for them,
burn you and drop it and destroy filament in a trouble light. Far better to have fluorescent or LED
there for impact resistance.

Here read it from the DOE.

https://energy.gov/energysaver/new-lighting-standards-began-2012

They say "no bulbs were banned" which is a lie since you cannot sell Edison bulbs
beyond 60W because they do not meet their standards. Somehow in bureaucrat
lie-speak that isn't banning, but you can't make them any more.

Bill

 

[Rick]

Halogen lights get very hot and are power guzzlers. Several years ago I bought a 3 light under counter halogen fixture, mounted it under the kitchen cabinet. Later I reached into the cabinet to get something and the cabinet was too hot to touch. Lucky I didn't burn the place down.

In the 4 years I've been using LED's I have had to replace 1 in the bathroom 3 light fixture. LED's only get a very mild warm and this one got pretty hot and was working only intermittently.

Brian, light quality of any incandescent is far inferior to LED's. Incandescent bulbs produce yellow light, making them much harder to see by. LED's produce white light that makes color more accurate and much easier to see by. Also a 60 watt LED equivalent bulb actually puts out more light than a 60 watt incandescent and at a fraction of the cost.
.

 

[Pistolero]

Quartz-halogen run at a very high temp, so are more efficient than a normal Edison bulb. They make it work by
the halogen recycling the tungsten back to the filament as it burns off and using a very high melting point quartz envelope.
Something like 30% more efficient than Edison which runs at low enough temps to keep filament from boiling off at an unacceptable
rate. The extra envelope in the new, repeackaged Q-H bulbs helps keep the heat in a bit more. No doubt that a very powerful and small
Q-H is a fire hazard if not kept away from flammables. This is a big disadvantage to quartz-halogen bulbs, no question about it.
But they produce more lumens per watt than an Edison bulb, so meet the DOE regs. New packages are for old lamps and to
keep temps more in control with extra envelope. Not advocating for them, but some applications actually use the waste heat,
like a bulb we used to keep in our pumphouse in Fla in the winter to keep it from freezing.

Actually LEDs produce "notchy" light, since one material only produces a relativley narrow frequency of light. So they put together a number
of different pure elements and the eye is fooled. Indium-Gallium-Nitride is currently the best, but I believe that some put out UV light and
they have a mix of phosphors like a fluorescent so the mix of phosphors can be whatever color temperature you want. I will look into this,
and see if it is just a better mix of LEDs or using phosphors in the LEDs.

All fluorescents are, at the heart, a mercury vapor lamp which only puts out pure ultraviolet light. The inside of the tube is lined with phosphors
which glow (remember the black light (UV) glowing posters and stuff? same thing) so that the phosphors glowing put out the light in a fluorescent. So you
can get different color phosphor mixes, "cool white" - "warm white" - "outdoor", etc. Some LEDs are using the same tech, UV laser diodes and
phosphors to get better light colors than possible with direct LED light. Find a kind of light you like and check the color temperature (equivalent
temperature of a filament to get that color) on pkg and remember it. Then you can buy any other light with the same or close to the same
color temperature and it will suit your eyes the same way.

"fraction of the cost" - true of electricity cost. Not true on bulb cost by a huge margin. Again, I am NOT against LED lights, just against
being told what to do. I like and use all three systems in various places, where they make sense.

Bill